ATLANTA — As they prepare for Arizona State’s biggest game in nearly three decades, the guys who made it happen aren’t the least bit surprised to be rated a two-touchdown underdog in the College Football Playoff.
That’s a familiar position for the Sun Devils.
FILE – Arizona State quarterback Sam Leavitt (10) throws a pass in the first half of the Big 12 Conference championship NCAA college football game against Iowa State, in Arlington, Texas, Saturday Dec. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/LM Otero, File)
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“We’ve been the underdog all year,” offensive lineman Leif Fautanu said. “That’s kind of what’s been fueling us.”
Of the eight teams still vying for a national championship, there’s no bigger surprise than Arizona State (11-2), which will meet big, bad Texas (12-2) in the Peach Bowl quarterfinal game on New Year’s Day.
A year ago, the Sun Devils went 3-9 in Kenny Dillingham’s injury-plagued debut as head coach. They weren’t expected to be any better this season, picked by the media to finish dead last after moving from the crumbling Pac-12 to the expanded, 16-team Big 12 Conference.
Now, look where they are.
“We just feel like the whole team has been an underdog their whole life,” defensive back Shamari Simmons said. “Once you put a whole lot of underdogs on one team, everybody just wants to prove everybody wrong.”
It took a while for most everyone to notice what was rising in the desert.
Arizona State quarterback Sam Leavitt (10) and running back Cam Skattebo (4) celebrate a touchdown in the second half of the Big 12 Conference championship NCAA college football game against Iowa State, in Arlington, Texas, Saturday Dec. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/LM Otero)
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The Sun Devils didn’t crack the CFP Top 25 until a victory at Kansas State in mid-November. They further bolstered their credentials with a win over BYU, which had looked like the team to beat in the Big 12 much of the season. Finally, after finishing in a four-way tie atop the conference standings, they advanced to the Big 12 championship game against Iowa State thanks to a convoluted tiebreaker.
Taking full advantage of its only shot to make the playoff, Arizona State romped to a 45-19 victory with its most impressive showing of the season.
“We are talented,” receiver Xavier Guillory said defiantly. “We’re here for a reason.”
A long run of mediocrity
Arizona State largely has been a forgotten outpost in college football since the Clinton administration.
The Sun Devils haven’t made a major bowl appearance since the 1996 season, when they won the Pac-10 title with a perfect regular season and headed to the Rose Bowl with a shot at their first national title. Those hopes were dashed when Ohio State rallied for a 20-17 victory in the closing seconds.
Since then, Arizona State rarely has been part of the national conversation. The school cycled through one coach after another, managed only 13 winning seasons over a 27-year span, and recently endured a scathing investigation into NCAA violations during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Now, the Sun Devils have a chance to really shock the world with three more wins.
“It would be awesome for all of college football,” Guillory said, barely able to contain his enthusiasm. “We’re ready for the opportunity. We’re not content. That’s one thing about this crew. We’re not like, ‘Hey, we just we won the Big 12 championship, let’s just coast, whatever happens here, cool.’”
Arriving in Tempe for his first head coaching job at the age of 32, Dillingham quickly recognized just how massive the rebuilding project would be.
The Sun Devils managed only two wins over FBS schools and totally fell apart down the stretch, getting blown out by a whopping average of 41 points in their final three losses as a member of the Pac-12.
But the mindset began to change as the returning players started preparing for a new season.
“Those summer practices and summer conditioning sessions were straight player led and players getting on each other,” Guillory recalled. “When players would want to cheat reps or cut the line short, they were getting called out for that.”
Dillingham urged his leaders to take greater ownership of the program, to quit spreading such a negative vibe. Most notably, he called out running back Cam Skattebo.
“I needed to fix my attitude and the way I go about things and the leadership that I have,” Skattebo conceded. “I realized what it took to be successful in my whole life and really stepped back and understood that positive thinking and positive thoughts and talking to people in a positive way is the way to go about life.”
No one exemplifies Arizona State’s improbable turnaround more than their bowling ball of a running back.
The 5-foot-10, 225-pound Skattebo began his college career at FCS school Sacramento State, where he played for two seasons before gaining enough notice to transfer to Arizona State ahead of the 2023 season.
He showed flashes of his potential a year ago, but this season Skattebo turned in one of the greatest campaigns in school history. Despite missing one game with a shoulder injury, he has rushed for 1,568 yards and 19 touchdowns, to go along with 37 catches for 506 yards and three TDs — pushing him into the rare territory of totaling more than 2,000 yards from scrimmage.
Skattebo has said over and over again that he considers himself the best running back in college football, and it’s hard to argue with his bravado. He considers it a slight that he finished fifth in the Heisman Trophy balloting, barely missing out on an invitation to the award ceremony in New York.
“I’m in one of the four biggest conferences in the country, and I’m doing it at the highest level. That’s simple,” he said. “I believe that I’m the best because I always think I’m the best. … If you have that mindset, you never know where you can end up.”
Arizona State had its greatest success under longtime coach Frank Kush, who guided the Sun Devils to a pair of perfect seasons and the No. 2 spot in the final Associated Press rankings in 1975 — the best finish in school history.
“He’s all over our walls,” Dillingham said. “He’s a big piece of the history of this program, and he’s a big piece of the present of the program.”
While Kush was notorious for his barbaric coaching methods, which helped lead to his downfall, Dillingham chooses to focus on his positive impact.
“The toughness that he instilled in his football teams,” Dillingham said. “Those guys are better people because of how Frank Kush coached and how challenging it was to play for him and how much his guys loved him.”
Dillingham is hoping to make the same impact on his players.
“I would hope in 10, 15, 20 years from now, our guys have a very similar feeling about myself and my staff, that we impacted the guys far beyond the game of football,” he said.
For now, the Sun Devils are focused on their biggest surprise yet.
A national championship.
“We want the whole thing,” Guillory said. “We want to go all the way to the mountaintop. We didn’t come this far just to come this far.”
