ASU football, sitting at 3-3 at the halfway point, looks to keep pace with the Pac-12 South leaders as they host a slumping Stanford Cardinal.
What turned out to be a strong start to their seasons, it’s be anything but in recent weeks for Arizona State and Stanford.
For the Sun Devils, they were 2-0 coming off an upset win over No. 15 Michigan State and entered the AP Poll at No. 23.
Since then, the Sun Devils are 1-3 with the lone win coming against Oregon State. The three losses to San Diego State, Washington and Colorado have all been by seven points.
For Stanford, it’s been a much more drastic fall. After their stunning comeback win in Eugene against Oregon, the Cardinal were No. 7 in the AP Poll in a position to contend for the College Football Playoff.
Since then, they’ve suffered back-to-back blowout losses to Notre Dame and more stunningly to Utah as the Utes put up 40 points on The Farm.
Both are now unranked looking to right the ship and turn their season around as both enter Thursday’s matchup coming off a bye week.
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Arizona State lost a tough game at No. 21 Colorado a couple of week ago 28-21 as the Sun Devils left Boulder banged up.
Wide receiver N’Keal Harry and quarterback Manny Wilkins took hits in that game. Harry took a blindside hit on a punt return and didn’t return while Wilkins toughed it out and finished the game.
Both are expected to play Thursday night.
Buffaloes wide receiver Laviska Shenault Jr. was unstoppable as he scored all four touchdowns for Colorado (two receiving, two rushing) finishing with 140 total yards.
Running back Eno Benjamin and wide receiver Frank Darby had big games for the Sun Devils with Benjamin rushing for 120 yards and two touchdowns and Darby totaling 131 receiving yards and one touchdown on three catches.
ASU just couldn’t get anything going in the second half after scoring a touchdown early in the third quarter. The Sun Devils were held scoreless for the final 28:35 of the game.
Flipping it to Thursday’s opponent, Stanford is coming one of the worst home losses in the David Shaw era losing 40-21 versus Utah.
While Stanford outgained Utah by two yards (403-401), the Cardinal turned the ball over four times resulting in 17 points for the Utes.
In the absence of running Bryce Love, the Cardinal rushed for 42 yards while quarterback K.J. Costello threw for 381 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions.
Love’s status is in the air but reports indicate that he’s going to at least give it a go Thursday.
Both teams are looking for a win to stay in their respective divisional races.
The Pac-12 South is a logjam after USC’s win over Colorado as everyone in the division has either one or two conference losses.
With USC up next week for the Sun Devils, they could still control their own destiny especially if Washington can defeat Colorado on Saturday.
For Stanford, who still has Washington and Washington State on the schedule, they could control their own destiny as well considering they own the tiebreaker over Oregon.
A lot is on the line for both teams.
Broadcast Info:
Kickoff: 6 p.m. PT
TV: ESPN
Stream: ESPN.com or ESPN app
Broadcast Team: Dave Flemming, Brock Huard and Laura Rutledge
This will be Arizona State’s third appearance on ESPN sporting a 1-1 record with a victory over Michigan State and a defeat versus Washington.