Three thoughts from Arizona State football’s loss to Arizona

TEMPE, Ariz. — Arizona State football wrapped up its season with the annual Territorial Cup game against Arizona this past Saturday. The Wildcats walked away with a 59-23 win at Mountain America Stadium.

Now that the Arizona State community has had some time to process the embarrassment from Saturday, let’s take a look at some thoughts on the game.

Arizona State vs Arizona: Three thoughts

Arizona State needs to run more in regular run formations

While ASU did end the game with 224 rushing yards they did so in some nontraditional ways. Most of the rushing yards came in the second half when the game was already out of hand.

To begin the game, Dillingham elected to have tight end Jalin Conyers take snaps at quarterback and run the ball. The Sun Devils used Conyers and runningback Cam Skattebo under center for the entirety of their opening drive. This was due to planned starter Jaden Rashada being held out for a series as punishment for being late to a team meeting. Backup Trenton Bourguet was a gameday scratch due to flu-like symptoms.

Most of the early plays were with Skattebo in the backfield and they worked well on the first drive. However, as the course of the game went on the success rate of Conyers and Skat doing under center went down.

In my opinion, Dillingham needed to realize that the plays were not working and start running a more traditional offense. In the second half, the more traditional halfback dives, counters, and sweeps began to work and ASU began to score.

It was too little too late at that point but ASU needs to take note of the running play calling.

The defense struggled yet again

For most of the season, ASU had a top-50 defense in the nation. The last two weeks along, granted it was two very good teams, the defense gave up a total of 1022 yards and 108 points.

The last two weeks were the worst two defensive performances of the season by far.

While the defense has been great all season the last two weeks have shown that some work needs to be done in the portal and on the recruiting trail.

Brian Ward has done a phenomenal job overall in his first season as ASU defensive coordinator and it will only be up from here.

While the last two weeks of the season did not go well on defense, there are many good things to take throughout the season.

Jedd Fisch has done a fantastic job for Arizona

When Fisch took over U of A, it was one of the worst Power Five teams in America and one of the least desired jobs to have. What Fisch has done in just a few short seasons is nothing short of remarkable on all levels.

The defense has improved on so many levels from blitz packages to great man and zone cover. The offense is scoring points each week at a rapid rate, something the Wildcats struggled to do when Fisch took over the program.

Fisch said when he got the job, he was going to recruit the state of Arizona and has done so at a very high level.

At this point, early mind it, Fisch is looking at bringing in a top-50 program as he enters the Big 12 next season.

Now I’m sure a question on all of Sun Devil nation’s mind right now… can Dillingham rebuild ASU like Fisch did Arizona?

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