4. Arizona State Sun Devils
11-2 (7-2 Big 12 regular season)
What’s next: First-round bye; vs. winner of No. 12 Clemson-No. 5 Texas at Peach Bowl, Jan. 1.
Head coach: Kenny Dillingham (Second season, 14-11 overall)
About Dillingham: A graduate of Arizona State and native Phoenician, Dillingham returned to Tempe in 2023 after five impressive seasons as an offensive coordinator, with stops at Memphis and Florida State alongside fellow former Sun Devils assistant Mike Norvell.
Resume
Highlighting a late-season push with six straight wins are Arizona State’s signature victories over fellow Top 25 teams Kansas State and BYU. The 24-14 and 28-23 wins followed a pattern of close calls through the Sun Devils’ season, with nine of their 12 regular-season games decided by 10 points or fewer — including the two losses at Texas Tech (30-22) and Cincinnati (24-14). They busted out of the trend of close calls with a dominant 45-19 shellacking of Iowa State in the Big 12 championship.
Postseason history
Arizona State’s last appearance in one of the postseason events that became part of the Bowl Championship Series and four-team Playoff era’s New Year’s Six predates either system. The 1996 Sun Devils came a possession away from a national championship with their Rose Bowl Game loss to Ohio State. This season’s Playoff is the closest Arizona State has come to returning to that high watermark since the 2013 team lost to Stanford in the Pac-12 championship game.
The road to Atlanta
Rest is the first order of business for Arizona State after a surprisingly lopsided win in the Big 12 title game. No. 5 Texas hosts Clemson on Dec. 21 and the winner meets the Sun Devils on Jan. 1 in Atlanta at the Peach Bowl.
Names to know
RB Cameron Skattebo
He shares a conference with the top Heisman Trophy contender (Colorado’s Travis Hunter) and a position with the other (Boise State’s Ashton Jeanty), or else Skattebo might be in the conversation himself.
His 172.8 all-purpose yards per game in the regular season were second-most in the nation. He is only 74 yards shy of tying the conference single-season rushing record after putting up 170 yards in the Big 12 title game, and his three TDs against Iowa State put him atop the single-season TD record list.
QB Sam Leavitt
Quietly among the most productive dual-threat quarterbacks in the nation, Leavitt heads into the postseason having completed 192 of 304 pass attempts for 2,663 yards and rushing for 383 yards. Leavitt has 24 passing touchdowns against only five interceptions and five rushing touchdowns, second on the team only to Skattebo’s 19.
“Sam’s competitive so if you tell him he’s tied for the first-best player in the country in something he’s going to get pissed off about,” Dillingham said to reporters this week. “Which is good.”
WR Xavier Guillory
Teammate Jordyn Tyson was having a Biletnikoff Award-caliber season for Arizona State, but the 6-foot-1 sophomore receiver sustained an unspecified arm injury in the regular-season finale vs. Arizona that required season-ending surgery. With Tyson’s 1,101 yards, 10 touchdowns worth of production out, Guillory looked the part of the primary pass-catching option against the Cyclones.
The fifth-year senior, who had 17 receptions and three touchdowns in the regular season, hauled in a bonkers TD catch against Iowa State that made the score 38-10.
NB Shamari Simmons
Simmons’ teammate in the Arizona State secondary, Xavion Alford, garnered First Team All-Big 12 honors. Alford’s presence at free safety has helped Simmons be aggressive at nickel back, manifesting in Simmons racking up seven tackles for loss and forcing three fumbles.
DT C.J. Fite
The Arizona State run defense has been excellent throughout the season, limiting opponents to 117.5 yards per game and 3.8 yards per carry in the regular season. Fite’s physicality on the interior sets the tone for the Sun Devils against the rush. The big man also provided one of the highlight moments of the season with his scoop-and-score touchdown in Week 2 against Mississippi State, going airborne to reach the pylon.
–Field Level Media