TEMPE, Ariz. – Arizona State football started slow on Saturday night, but ultimately the Sun Devils delivered a well-rounded, home win, 34-15, against Texas State.
ASU got the scoring started with a 47-yard field goal in the first quarter. Redshirt senior kicker Jesus Gomez quietly had a very good night, connecting on both of his field goals and all four extra points.
However, Texas State responded with a field goal of its own to even the score early on.
The Sun Devils then scored two touchdowns in a five-minute span to begin the second quarter, quickly developing a nice lead.
The first touchdown of the night was a 30-yard connection between redshirt sophomore quarterback Sam Leavitt and redshirt junior receiver Jordyn Tyson. Leavitt escaped defenders and tossed the ball while in mid-air to Tyson, who turned up field and hurdled a defender before diving into the end zone.
“He was the primary read, so I was going through, ‘He’s open. Oh crap, how are you going to get it to him? Oh … you got it to him. Amazing. Did he really just do that? Is he actually in bounds? Wow,’” Dillingham said. “That’s probably what was going through my head.”
ASU’s defense then forced a takeaway when junior cornerback Keith Abney II poked the ball loose from Texas State’s receiver Beau Sparks, and senior cornerback Myles Rowser scooped it up. The Sun Devils offense capitalized on the turnover with a 1-yard rushing touchdown by Leavitt.
“Game changing. Takeaways win games. We talk about it all the time,” Dillingham said. “For it to show up, all the time that we punch the ball out at practice and punch the ball out at practice. They convert a third down. We punch the ball and create a takeaway. Absolutely game changing.”
ASU took a 20-3 lead into halftime thanks to Gomez’s second field goal of the night.
Coming out of halftime, the Sun Devils offense got right back to work. ASU drove 79 yards on 13 plays, capped by redshirt senior tight end Chamon Metayer’s first touchdown catch of the season.
With the Sun Devils up 27-3, the Bobcats responded again, driving 59 yards in 15 plays to answer ASU’s touchdown. Texas State went for a 2-point try but failed to keep the score at 27-9.
However, redshirt junior running back Raleek Brown changed that in the blink of an eye. Brown took the ball 75 yards for a touchdown on ASU’s next offensive snap to put the Sun Devils up 34-9.
That ultimately put the game out of reach. The Bobcats answered with a touchdown with just over five minutes left in the game, but it was too little too late at that point. ASU responded from its first loss of the season last week against Mississippi State with a dominant 34-15 victory at home against Texas State on Saturday night.
Here are three takeaways from the Sun Devils impressive performance.
Raleek Brown’s a rising star
Brown transferred to ASU in 2024 as a redshirt sophomore from USC. The running back’s speed jumped off the screen, but he battled hamstring injuries throughout the 2024 season and didn’t play much.
However, he worked on his recovery and got stronger throughout the offseason and has taken over as ASU’s lead back in 2025.
“He made the kind of jump that I feel like (Jordyn Tyson) made last year. He was working back, and nobody really knew about him. Everybody forgets about you when you transfer somewhere and don’t play for a year,” Dillingham said. “He put the work in and that work is showing up. I think Raleek’s really stepped in and been that guy for us this year. He’s kind of the diamond that people forgot about.
“He’s a really, really good football player, he’s worked his butt off. He’s focused, he’s dialed, he’s competitive, he’s good at pass protection. He’s earned the right to have a game like that.”
Brown finished the night with 12 carries for 144 yards and a touchdown and added one reception for 11 yards.
The junior running back had just five carries and three receptions for 51 total yards in ASU’s opener. However, last week with the injury to fellow junior running back Kyson Brown, Raleek got to handle the bulk of the load alongside junior transfer running back Kanye Udoh.
Raleek Brown surpassed 100 yards on the ground last week on 10 carries and added 10 receiving yards on three catches. Then, the speedster matched that with another spectacular performance on Saturday night, including a 75-yard house call that virtually shut the door on the Bobcats.
“It felt good to have a long run. I’ve been working for like two years, or a year and a half, been working a lot,” Brown said. “Just thank all our coaches and everybody believing in me that I can play running back and just keep going, keeping God first, and just keep pushing and just keep working and just trust the process.”
Brown was originally a receiver at USC before transitioning to play running back. Now, he’s a leader in the Sun Devils’ backfield, and a budding star in maroon and gold.
Defense wins championships
ASU’s defense played lights out on Saturday night and displayed what its capable of when the energy and focus is there.
Texas State came into Saturday night averaging 530 total yards per game. The Sun Devils held the Bobcats to 303 total yards. ASU forced two fumbles, had five sacks, and 10 tackles for loss. Texas State averaged just 3.9 yards per play.
The Bobcats may not be a Power 5 school, but their offense has plenty of fireworks, and the Sun Devils shut it down on Saturday night. Senior linebacker Jordan Crook led the way for ASU with a career-high 12 tackles, 3.5 TFLs and a sack.
Crook had 3.5 TFLs all last year, and he matched that against Texas State.
“When you play in practice with that much passion, it’s going to show up on game day. I mean, it’s not rocket science. He practices like it’s gameday every day,” Dillingham said. “He works like it’s gameday every day, and then he plays well on gameday. He’s the definition of what I want people in this program to be, is people that are just passionate every single day.
“He’ll sweat talking because he’ll talk passionately. That’s not a joke, that’s a fact, and that’s how passionate Crook is about everything, and that’s what makes him special.”
ASU had different guys making an impact all night long. Another standout player on the defense was redshirt sophomore safety Adrian “Boogie” Wilson.
Wilson made the first start of his ASU career in place of injured junior safety Xavion Alford, and made his presence felt. The young safety collected seven tackles, including six solo tackles and laid big hits all night, establishing the Sun Devils’ physicality.
“Boogie brings good energy. Boogie is always smiling. Like, I told him pregame, ‘Good luck, let’s go get it.’ He goes, ‘I’m going to try my hardest,’” Dillingham said. “That’s Boogie, you have a lot of confidence in him because he’s confident in himself and he brings great, positive energy.”
ASU’s defensive performance on Saturday night was exactly what fans needed to see before the Sun Devils begin Big 12 play. If this defense plays as well as it did against Texas State, ASU will be in good shape this season.
Game preparation paid off
This may seem obvious, of course game preparation should pay off – that’s the point of it. However, after Leavitt’s poor performance a week ago, the Sun Devils’ quarterback and his offensive coordinator, Marcus Arroyo, really dove into their game preparation this week to get the young quarterback back on track.
“I forgot what it took to really dive into a game plan on a different level, you know, express my emotions and opinions on plays,” Leavitt said. “We really dialed that in, you know, starting on Monday. I think that was the biggest separator. So, just going to get back to that every single week.”
Leavitt added that he went over game film and plays with Arroyo and they worked with each other until both coordinator ad quarterback were seeing the same things and agreeing on everything.
It may seem like a small detail, but rather than Leavitt sitting back and listening, he voiced his opinions and made sure he was understanding everything his coordinator was relaying to him and Arroyo worked with his quarterback until they both saw the same pictures.
Dillingham also mentioned the team dialed back the playbook a bit, to focus more on execution.
“We did simplify the plan. We probably cut our play sheet down about 25, 30 percent, if not a little more,” Dillingham said. “And we really made sure that all our guys were all dialed on and on the same page, and I think it showed up.”
The result was Leavitt having a bounce back performance from last week. His completion percentage was back at 60 percent, and he totaled more than 250 yards and three touchdowns.
ASU scored on six of its 10 drives on Saturday night. The first drive stalled in Texas State territory with a turnover on downs, and the second empty possession came right before the half when the Sun Devils played it conservative. The other two empty possessions were ASU’s final two drives of the game when it was essentially over.
The Sun Devils’ offense looked to be in much more of a rhythm on Saturday night, and that’s largely due to the difference in preparation earlier in the week.
What’s Next?
After Saturday night’s 34-15 win over Texas State, ASU will shift its focus to conference play now. The Sun Devils will travel to Waco, Texas, to take on Baylor on Saturday to open up Big 12 play.
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