Arizona State heads to No. 20 Kansas State for matchup of Big 12 teams still in title contention
MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — Arizona State and Kansas State could be playing what amounts to an elimination game in the race for one of the two spots in the Big 12 championship game when they meet for the first time as conference rivals on Saturday night.
One was expected to be in this position. The other was not.
At least, few people outside of Arizona expected the Sun Devils (7-2, 4-2) to have the same record as the No. 20 Wildcats (7-2, 4-2, No. 16 CFP) with three games left in the regular season. The newcomer to the Big 12 was picked dead last in the enlarged 16-team conference in the preseason poll, while the Wildcats were expected to finish second only to Utah.
Yet here they are through nine games: Arizona State and Kansas State are tied with Iowa State and West Virginia in league play, trailing only unbeaten BYU and Colorado — whom the Wildcats already have beaten on the road this season.
“I definitely think our guys understand we have an opportunity,” Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham said. “We’re back in an underdog role. We are back being counted out. We’re playing a team with a head coach who’s won four national championships (at the FCS level) and was picked to finish (second) in our league on the road.”
Indeed, oddsmakers put Kansas State as a heavy favorite — 8 1/2 points, according to BetMGM. And a side-by-side comparison of schedules leans in favor of the Wildcats, who have much more prominent wins to their credit.
But as Bill Parcells once said, “You are what your record says you are.”
That means Arizona State and Kansas State are sitting in essentially the same spot.
“We are a 7-2 football team that has a lot of things in front of us to play for,” said Wildcats coach Chris Klieman, who had last week off to nurse the wounds sustained in a second-half meltdown at Houston. “A lot of things can still happen. But for us, we’ve got to play and practice and prepare mentally and physically each day to give ourselves a chance to be successful.”
Both teams will need some help down the stretch, but the Sun Devils can do themselves a lot of favors by beating Kansas State and then upending BYU next week before finishing the regular season against rival Arizona.
Kansas State can likewise help its cause by beating the Sun Devils and Cincinnati before a critical finale against Iowa State.
“Anybody can beat anybody in this league,” Klieman said. “We’re playing a really good Arizona State team, that’s a hot team, that’s finding ways to win. So we’ve got to play our best football.”
Injury update
Arizona State running back Cam Skattebo missed last week’s game against UCF with an undisclosed injury, but Dillingham said he would try to practice this week. Skattebo has 1,001 yards rushing and 11 scores along with 27 catches for 404 yards and two more TDs in only eight games this season, and had been pushing into the fringes of Heisman Trophy consideration.
Youth vs youth
Rarely will two less experienced quarterbacks face off in a game so meaningful. Sun Devils freshman Sam Leavitt has thrown for 1,631 yards with 14 touchdown passes and only four interceptions, and six of those TD passes have come the past two weeks in wins over Oklahoma State and UCF. Kansas State sophomore Avery Johnson will be trying to bounce back from a tough loss to the Cougars in which he threw for 238 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions.
Honors galore
Not only was Leavitt voted Big 12 newcomer of the week for his performance against UCF, where he led a go-ahead drive in the fourth quarter, but fellow freshman Martell Hughes was voted special teams player of the week. The linebacker blocked a punt in the second quarter that Montana Warren recovered for a touchdown in the 35-31 victory.
Turnover trouble
Kansas State has only turned the ball over 10 times this season, which is tied for 34th among Football Bowl Subdivision schools. Half of those — three against BYU and two against Houston — have come in their two defeats.
We hardly know ya
Arizona State and Kansas State have not played since the Wildcats won the 2002 Holiday Bowl. Prior to that, the Sun Devils had won all five matchups beginning in November 1964 and with the most recent regular-season game on Sept. 9, 1989.
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