ASU Football: Huntley, Wilkins key in afternoon showdown in Tempe

The quarterback matchup between Utah’s Tyler Huntley and ASU football‘s Manny Wilkins may be the deciding factor in this weekend’s outcome.

Manny Wilkins entered Wednesday’s weekly press conference with an air of confidence. A feeling that ASU football needed to regain after losing three of their last four matchups.

For Wilkins and the Sun Devils, re-obtaining that swagger required a change in mentality.

“Guys were just more locked in (before the USC game),” Wilkins said. “I just was level headed and I was just so focused. N’Keal had that in his eyes too, Eno had that in his eyes.”

The extra ounce of focus from the Sun Devils stars paid off. ASU defeated a wounded USC team 38-35, handing the Trojans their first loss at home in the Clay Helton era.

“We have been on the wrong side of a lot of these games,” coach Herm Edwards said after the win.

With all four defeats resulting in seven point losses, the accomplishment of the close victory gives the Sun Devils much needed momentum for this weekend against the red-hot Utah Utes.

Now at No.16 in the country, Utah has won four straight games under head coach Kyle Whittingham. The Utes have scored 40 points or more in each of their last four games while on the flip side opponents are only averaging 16.8 points per game against Utah.

Quarterback Tyler Huntley has been sensational in his last four starts. The junior has completed no less than 61.9 percent of his passes in that span and has thrown seven touchdowns to just two interceptions in those four outings.

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“(Tyler Huntley) is big, he can throw it, he can run over you,” defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales said. “It’s like being in the wildcat formation almost every time.”

All 11 of Huntley’s passing touchdowns have come in victory for the Utes. If the junior signal caller is rolling, so does Utah.

But, when Huntley has struggled, the Utes have as well. In Utah’s two defeats this year, Huntley has one interception on zero touchdown throws.

In the loss against Washington, Huntley completed only 52.6 percent of his passes, the lowest mark for the junior this season. The Utes’ second defeat to Washington State featured just 12 completions for 118 yards from Huntley.

Two of Utah’s three lowest point totals came in those defeats.

With a stingy defense ranked in the top 15 in points allowed per game and a running game averaging 208.3 yards per game, the thread that has brought all of these positive factors together for Utah has been Huntley.

Huntley should be the key to stopping Utah from escaping Sun Devil Stadium with a victory. But, Huntley’s counterpart, Manny Wilkins will have to step it up another level from last weeks encouraging performance against the Trojans for ASU to have a chance against the Utes.

With opponents only averaging 83 yards per game against the Utes, Eno Benjamin and the running attack may be not as much of a factor this week as it’s been in past weeks.

Factor in Utah’s ability to maintain possession through the running game and the result of the Sun Devil’s performance is then squared on the shoulders of Manny Wilkins ability to make big plays in the passing game.

With N’Keal Harry on the outside, there is not doubt that Wilkins has the pieces around him to make those game-changing throws.

The question is whether the ASU signal caller has recovered from a mid-season malaise that saw Wilkins throw for only 104 yards at Washington, turn over the ball twice against Stanford and complete just 12 passes at Colorado.

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But last week’s confidence boosting win at the Coliseum should give Sun Devil fans some hope in Wilkins for this week. Besides, with four regular season games left in his college career, what does the redshirt senior have to lose?

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