ASU Football: Sun Devils begin season 1-0 despite shaky finish

With a brand new season finally upon Tempe, Arizona, it felt like a continuation of the 2016 season as the ASU football team held on for a 37-31 victory over New Mexico State.

Excitement was in the air as Arizona State welcomed in the New Mexico State Aggies, the first time the Sun Devils have hosted the Aggies since 1999. With a brand new scoreboard and two brand new coordinators, ASU was ready to forget the past two seasons and write a new chapter of the Todd Graham era.

Arizona State started the game looking like a new team. On New Mexico State’s first possession, defensive back Joey Bryant intercepted Aggies’ quarterback Tyler Rogers to give the Sun Devils’ offense great field position.

Starting quarterback Manny Wilkins led the ASU offense quickly down the field, and a direct snap to Kalen Ballage in the “sparky” formation, a term coined last season, put Arizona State up 7-0. After a quick three-and-out by New Mexico State, Wilkins connected with Jalen Harvey down the middle of the field on a 53-yard touchdown pass to put the Sun Devils up 14-0.

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From there, the old ASU team took over. The secondary failed to get off the field on third downs, and the offense was unable to move the ball down the field. Long drives by the Aggies at the beginning and end of the second quarter saw Arizona State’s lead dwindle down to 14-13.

Out of the half, the Sun Devils seemed to re-find their new-look team. Solid throws by Wilkins, capped off by a 60-yard touchdown throw to John Humphrey, and a consistent run attack by Ballage, saw ASU run away with the score as they would lead 30-13 at the end of the third quarter.

“We made a lot of big plays, there’s a lot of new moving parts to our offense, our defense… I’m excited to see what’s gonna come next,” Ballage said.

Tack on a pick-six by defensive back Kobe Williams to begin the fourth quarter, and that gives Arizona State their 37 points they would end with. Williams interception wasn’t the only nice play from the corner back position. On the night, Arizona State’s cornerbacks did a nice job of keeping their assignments in front of them.

“That might be the least amount of blown coverages I’ve seen… I thought they were very solid,” Graham said.

With a 37-13 point lead, Graham decided to pull the starters and put in the second unit. After the game, Graham talked about deciding to pull the starters.

“Probably pulled our ones out a little quick, but if we would have got somebody hurt with a three score lead that would be pretty stupid too,” Graham said.

New Mexico State would end up scoring three touchdowns once the second unit was on the field. The final score would see Arizona State hold on to beat New Mexico State 37-31.

Wilkins looked like a 100% version of himself, he ended the night with 300 passing yards and two touchdowns.

After the game, Wilkins discussed his takeaways from the game.

“We’re 1-0, that’s obviously the goal, to go out there and get a win,” Wilkins said, “Gotta a lot of things to clean up, we did a lot of good things… that was a good opponent we faced and we are 1-0.”

Next: ASU Football: New Mexico State rapid reaction

With this win the Sun Devils earned their 19th straight home-opener victory, their last loss was the 1999 game against the Aggies.

Next up, Arizona State will host the San Diego State Aztecs on Saturday, September 9.

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