Comeback effort falls short as Sun Devils suffer heartbreaking road loss
In 2024, second-year head coach Kenny Dillingham shocked the country by assembling a team that featured many new faces and a significant number of returning players who had been part of the worst campaigns in Sun Devil program history. Between years one and two, Dillingham brought in over 30 players primarily from the transfer portal, including a new starting quarterback in sophomore Sam Leavitt.
After finishing 3-9 in his first year at the helm, Dillingham’s additions flipped the program around, leading to an 11-3 campaign, a Big 12 Championship title, and the program’s first-ever College Football Playoff berth.
On Saturday in Starkville, however, the Sun Devils learned quickly how their very success can be reversed into struggles, and how circular in nature the world of college football can be, as No. 10 Arizona State (1-1) fell 24-20 to Mississippi State (2-0)
Mississippi State named Jeff Lebby as its head coach in 2024. In year one at the helm, Lebby’s team had endured a horrendous season, finishing 2-10 and going 0-8 in the SEC.
Coming into the 2025 campaign, Lebby was able to overhaul the roster, just like Dillingham did the year prior, by adding 31 transfers —the most in the SEC —to its roster and overhauling its squad headed into Lebby’s second season as head coach.
“You gotta give them a lot of credit,” Dillingham said following the loss. “They’re a much-improved football team.”
With less than one minute to play, ASU, which scored 20 unanswered points, took the lead for the first time against Mississippi State on Saturday. Graduate quarterback Blake Shapen hadn’t seen any second-half success with the Bulldogs’ offense, as it had been held scoreless through 28 minutes of play.
When ASU defensive coordinator Brian Ward threw a cover-0 blitz his way on 3rd-and-9, Shapen’s eyes lit up, he took advantage of ASU senior safety Xavion Alford who tripped en route to disrupting the signal caller, finding senior wide receiver Brennan Thompson on a post route over the middle with no one to catch him, and Mississippi State scored a game-winning 58-yard touchdown with just 30 seconds to play.
The matchup was set up to be a lopsided affair after the Bulldogs’ hurry-up offense led to a 17-0 lead with just over 13 minutes remaining in the first half. Shapen and Mississippi State simply had their way with the visitors to start the game, scoring a touchdown just 70 seconds after kickoff. Lebby’s offense utilized a high-tempo Run-pass-option (RPO) system, which allowed his experienced quarterback to run the show from the pocket and pick the defense apart early. Shapen finished the day 19-33 with 279 yards and three touchdowns, all of which were explosive plays, each going for at least 47 yards.
“We had our defense on the field too long in the first half,” Dillingham remarked. “But the big plays were kind of the nature of the game … they’re a good football team, they’re explosive, and they made an explosive play. “(Mississippi State’s explosive touchdowns) were all a little different. (Shapen) made a play and you gotta give the kid credit, Thompson made some plays out there, you gotta give him credit, you gotta give coach Lebby credit.”
After spending a week blasting cowbells over their speakers in hopes of simulating the rowdy atmosphere of their opponent’s fan base, they had no foothold in the opening quarter.
“Awesome environment,” Dillinhgam described. “The fans were great, the stadium is great, everything about it was awesome. It’s what college football is supposed to be about. Unfortunately, we wound up on the other side of it.”
Offensively, Leavitt started the game just 1-7 for four yards in the first quarter of action, and the offense punted all four times in the opening period. ASU went all of 2024 not punting on its opening drive in any contest, and either scoring a touchdown or a field goal.
Leavitt’s day wouldn’t get much better; he finished 10-22 on the night for 82 yards and two interceptions, including one on the final drive of the game, trailing by four with 30 seconds to play. He added a touchdown pass to Tyson to start the fourth quarter on a fourth-and-goal on the one-yard line, which tied the game up for ASU at 17 apiece.
“Second down, we’re killing us in the first half,” Dillingham commented. “We weren’t converting second downs, getting us into third and long. You can’t play quarterback if you’re not in rhythm; it’s really hard to say ‘save us’ on third down.”
With their offense in turmoil, the Sun Devil defense began to answer the call and buy their offense time. Senior defensive lineman Clayton Smith had two sacks and another tackle for loss to amplify an aggressive second quarter for Ward’s defense, forcing consecutive punts from the Bulldogs to end the half. The second half was more of the same; ASU’s defense kept them in the ball game, and Mississippi State was held scoreless for over 42 minutes straight.
“I thought our guys responded great,” Dillingham noted. “We were one play away from this press conference being an unbelievable comeback. That’s football, though, and that’s what I say all the time.”
ASU looked down and out at halftime, trailing 17-3 with no red zone entries to that point. But despite having what many are considering one of the most talented quarterback and wide receiver tandems in the country through Leavitt and Tyson, it was the run game that gave ASU life in a hostile environment that eventually saw ASU take the lead 20-17 with just 1:38 left to play.
“We were ready to go,” Dillingham said about the halftime energy. “Our guys weren’t nervous; they were very calm. We talk about facing adversity and responding to failure in all camps. What happens in the moments that you fail and you’re not supposed to fail, and I thought our guys responded to that well.”
After starting running back, junior Kyson Brown, left the game in the first quarter with a leg injury, it was the tandem of juniors, Raleek Brown and Kanye Udoh, who dominated. The pair rushed 41 times for 215 yards, and Udoh scored the first ASU touchdown of the game, opening his account for the Maroon and Gold. Leavitt had just seven pass attempts in the second half because of how dominant the run game was in the second half of action.
Throughout fall camp, Dillingham and the coaching staff have raved about the potential for “explosive plays” on either side of the ball. As previously noted, however, it was Lebby’s team that dominated on that front, executing that element to get over the finish line.
Despite getting into the red zone just one time throughout the game, the Bulldogs scored three touchdowns without being within typical “striking distance,” and two turnovers from Leavitt saw the exact opposite of what Dillingham intended for home run plays coming to fruition.
“We had to take away their explosive plays in the second half; we did that up until the end there,” Dillingham said.
The Sun Devils and Bulldogs familiarized themselves in 2024, when ASU hosted the matchup in week two, but it was Dillingham’s sides that came through in a competitive 30-23 victory. That game showed many similarities to what unfolded Saturday night in Starkville as well.
Leavitt, in his second game as a starter, completed 10-20 passes for just 69 yards, and it was the run game of All-American and now New York Giant, Cam Skattebo, that saw ASU pull away. Skattebo ran 33 times for 262 yards, averaging 7.9 yards per carry.
Lebby’s team that added over 12,000 colligate snaps played in the transfer portal looks highly improved from its lackluster 2024 season. After two weeks of the new year, the Bulldogs have already equaled last season’s win total, and the difference certainly resembles a Sun Devil program from 2024, which shocked the world in its own right.
“The reality is we’re not in conference play,” Dillingham stated. “Hopefully, we learn from this and get better and better and better. The goal is to be playing your best football toward the end of the season, not at the beginning of the season.
“The reality is most teams don’t go 12-0, so let’s respond, let’s band together, and let’s go play a better football game.”
