Head Coach: Kenny Dillingham is entering his 3rd season as the head coach of the Sun Devils with a 14-12 record. This of course includes the remarkable turnaround last year was, the Sun Devils improved from 3-9 to 11-3 with a Big 12 Championship and College Football Playoff birth. Dillingham immediately established his self as one of the rising stars in coaching, now it’s fascinating to see how he builds on this success.
Program Outlook: Arizona State is a program I always thought had a lot of potential. It’s located in a recruiting hotbed in the Phoenix area, but if that isn’t enough it’s also reasonably close to both California and Texas. The program just needed the right coach to unlock it. It felt like Kenny Dillingham was the coach that could do it, but to break through this soon? The entire Big 12 is on notice, in a conference that currently does not have an alpha program, it’s very possible that Arizona State becomes that program in the conference.
How does the 2025 Roster look?: Arizona State ranks 4th in the country returning 72.5% of their production per Punt and Rally’s returning production rankings. Key players starts with QB Sam Leavitt, he wasn’t always the most dynamic passer but early in the season his mobility gave defense fits and he was extremely gritty. He grew as the season went on, playing his best football late. Now he’s on every QB award watchlist including the Heisman, how does he handle the expectations? The good news? He doesn’t have to do it alone, WR Jordyn Tyson is a dynamic playmaker who returns healthy after having to miss some key games down the stretch and Leavitt is expected to have a strong experienced offensive line back in front of him. Key players for the Sun Devils defense starts in the secondary, this was a unit that did such a great job generating interceptions last year. They also have a great player in the middle in LB Keyshaun Elliott. Now to the elephant in the room, RB Cam Skattebo was the heart and soul of this team last year and he’s off to the NFL. He’s irreplaceable but Arizona State definitely tried their best in star Army RB Kanye Udoh. They also aimed to give Leavitt more options by bringing in some more weapons from the portal like WR Jalen Moss from Fresno State to attract attention away from Tyson . They brought in some players from the portal to help beef up the rotation for their defense too.
Screenshot from FBSchedules.com
2025 Schedule Thoughts: The Sun Devils schedule will bring some challenges. They play a similar group of non-conference opponents this year with Northern Arizona as their FCS opponent being the only change, I am glad they play them consistently, NAU made the FCS playoffs last year and looks to continue to improve. Arizona State must travel to play Mississippi State this year, that will be more challenging because Mississippi State has to be better than last year by default and Starkville is a challenging place to play. Finally they wrap up the non-conference schedule hosting a Texas State team that pushed them to the limit last year. How Arizona State handles the Big 12 schedule will define them. It includes road games at Baylor, Utah, Iowa State and Colorado which will all be tough environments. There’s some challenging home games too. If Arizona State doesn’t return to the playoff, the schedule is a likely culprit.
Final Thoughts: Arizona State has arrived, so what’s next? The Sun Devils enter 2025 with a new role, they are the ones with the target on their back, the team everyone wants to beat. It will be fascinating to see how they handle that. There’s always a concern with regression when a team improves so quickly so that’s something to monitor, they could drop back to 8 wins or so. At the same time, we know what this program wants to do, they aim to return to the Playoff and win some games this time around.
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