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Arizona State is a conference champion.
With a 45-19 win over No. 16 Iowa State in the Big 12 Championship Game, Arizona State won its first outright conference title since 1996. In the Sun Devils’ first year as a member of the Big 12, they went from being picked in the preseason to finish last to standing alone atop the league.
The Sun Devils will undoubtedly make the College Football Playoff with the win. The only question that remains is whether ASU will earn a first-round bye as a top-4 seed or play in the opening round.
After thoroughly dismantling Iowa State to move to 11-2, the Sun Devils made a pretty convincing argument they’re deserving of one of those top 4 seeds.
Here are 3 takeaways from the game.
Skattebo did what?!?!
As you’re reading this, Cam Skattebo is running through another half-hearted arm tackle from Iowa State.
Arizona State’s do-everything tailback was a superstar on Saturday. He ran 16 times for 170 yards and 2 scores. He caught 2 receptions for 38 yards and another touchdown. With the performance, he bumped his season total north of 2,000 yards of total offense and had folks on social media talking about sending Skattebo to New York City as a Heisman finalist.
It’s hard to argue with them. Arizona State was the preseason media pick to finish dead last in the Big 12. With 12:03 to play in the fourth quarter of the Big 12 Championship Game, Arizona State had such a huge lead it was able to put its backups in.
Now, quarterback Sam Leavitt was a revelation this season. Don’t take anything away from him. He completed 12 of his 17 passes for 219 yards and 4 total scores, and he had a handful of key scrambles in the title game. But Skattebo was the engine all season and he was the spark on Saturday.
Cam Skattebo is ridiculous
— PFF College (@PFF_College) December 7, 2024
Arizona State was outstanding on what’s called “possession-and-10.” Typically, the first play of a drive can tell us whether that drive will produce points. It’s rather intuitive. Get a huge gain? Your chances to score go up. Get stuffed? You might not get a first down.
Skattebo ripped a 28-yard run on the first play from scrimmage for Arizona State. It scored 3 on its opening drive. He ripped a 47-yard run on the first play of ASU’s third drive. ASU ended that drive with Skattebo walking into the endzone. Skattebo ripped a 53-yard run on the first play of ASU’s fifth drive and scored from 2 yards out to put ASU up 24-10.
Here was Arizona State’s first-half possession-and-10 performance:
- 28-yard run
- 5-yard pass
- 47-yard run
- 43-yard pass
- 53-yard run
That’s an average of 35.2 yards gained on the opening play of each drive. ASU averaged 9.4 yards per play on all of its first-down snaps throughout the game. (Prior to the starters being pulled, ASU was averaging 10.6 yards on first down.) Skattebo did that. Because Skattebo was a wrecking ball who refused to be tackled, ASU was able to dictate the flow and keep Leavitt in advantageous spots.
Third quarter, best quarter
Iowa State went into the half trailing 24-10. With the way Skattebo was running, that felt like a pretty steep mountain, but not an insurmountable one.
It became one pretty quickly.
Iowa State fumbled on the fifth play of its opening third-quarter possession. Arizona State drained 5:28 off the clock, went 43 yards in 11 plays, and went up 31-10. Then the Cyclones false-started on the first play of their second drive and followed that up with an interception thrown to Keith Abney II. ASU scored 3 plays later to go up 38-10. On the fifth play of ISU’s next drive, tailback Abu Sama fumbled again. ASU scored 3 plays later to go up 45-10.
Eleven ISU plays. Three turnovers. Twenty-one ASU points.
And the game was over at that point. ASU had 3 possessions in the third quarter. All 3 of them began inside the Iowa State 45-yard-line.
Simmons gets tossed
Arizona State defensive back Shamari Simmons will miss the first half of Arizona State’s next game after he was ejected for targeting on the first play of the fourth quarter on Saturday. Simmons came free on a blitz and cracked Iowa State quarterback Rocco Becht for a fourth-down sack.
Though Simmons did not lead with the crown of his helmet, the tackle was deemed to be illegal upon replay review and Simmons was tossed.
Here’s the play:
Arizona State DB Shamari Simmons was ejected for targeting after this massive hit on Iowa State QB Rocco Becht to begin the fourth quarter.
Simmons will have to miss the first half of ASU’s first College Football Playoff game.
Becht has returned to the game. pic.twitter.com/yRGE7q1TVB
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) December 7, 2024
“He’s a defenseless player, so you can’t hit him in the head/neck area,” ESPN rules expert Matt Austin said on the broadcast.
Simmons is ASU’s fourth-leading tackler this season. He entered Saturday’s contest third among all ASU defenders in snaps played. He is a crucial piece of the defense, and losing him for a half in a Playoff game is a brutal blow.
I have a hard time getting behind the notion a quarterback actively engaged in the play is “defenseless” and therefore can’t be hit in certain ways. Becht is looking away from Simmons right up until Simmons arrives to deliver the hit. If Becht doesn’t turn his head, Simmons’ helmet connects with Becht’s shoulder. Instead, in a fraction of a second, Simmons’ legal hit becomes an illegal hit and harms Arizona State in its next game.
It was a brutal hit. It was a nasty hit. But it wasn’t a malicious hit.
Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.
