TEMPE – Students fled to the exits at Mountain America Stadium after Arizona State kicker Jesus Gomez missed his second field goal of the night.
It was the third quarter, and Houston had pitched a shutout against ASU, which had already missed a kick and punted in four of its other five drives. As gold shirts bled from the Inferno, which had delivered a fifth consecutive sold-out student section, their absence revealed the shine of the metal bleachers, and the Sun Devils watched their 10-game home win streak wither away.
Coach Kenny Dillingham understood.
“It’s great to set an expectation to win every home game,” he said after the Sun Devils rallied but fell 24-16 Saturday. “That’s how it should be. You’re not going to, but that should be the expectation, and that’s the expectation I have, too. It was upsetting that we didn’t get it done for the fans tonight.”
Twelve penalties for 76 yards plagued ASU, and students coped by hucking full water bottles onto the field.
Houston quarterback Conner Weigman ran right into the fire and delivered the dagger in the waning minutes of the third quarter to make it 23-0.
More students decided to leave and, at this point, the back of the end zone looked like it did in 2023 when Fresno State shut out ASU in the beginning of the Sun Devils’ 3-9 season.
That was the last time it was shut out through three quarters.
Quarterback Sam Leavitt found tight end Cameron Harpole near the left end line pylon for the first ASU touchdown of the night and Harpole’s first with the Sun Devils to begin the fourth quarter.
But it felt more like a consolation prize as ASU failed to score on a two-point conversion en route to the loss.
Playing for a wounded Leavitt, Jeff Sims made it interesting toward the end by firing a 27-yard touchdown pass to tight end Chamon Metayer to make it a one-possession score.
Leavitt left the game with two different undisclosed injuries on two separate occasions. The first required a trip to the locker room in the middle of the first quarter, and the second sidelined him in the fourth quarter for the remainder of the game.
Dillingham described the first instance as a “scare” that required imaging and the second as a “re-tweak.”
When asked if the late-game scratch was related to the lower leg injury Leavitt tended to during the game against Utah, Dillingham declined to comment.
From start to finish, the offense lacked the juice it normally has when wide receiver Jordyn Tyson takes the field. Tyson sat out against Houston with a hamstring injury.
“You’re losing the number one pick in his position in college football,” Dillingham said. “That’s obviously pretty critical for your football team when you’re losing.”
The Sun Devils attempted to recreate him in the aggregate as Leavitt and Sims threw to nine different targets on a combined 55% completion rate for 328 yards.
Houston swaddled the Big 12’s second-leading rusher, Raleek Brown, for just 64 yards on 11 carries. As a team, ASU rushed for under 100 yards for the second game in a row, with 98.
The last time that happened was in 2023 in ASU’s losses to UCLA and Utah in consecutive weeks.
“They’re a big twist team, so I think the (tackles for loss) early were getting us behind the chains,” Dillingham said. “We had some TFLs (against us) in the run game with their twist games, so we couldn’t stay a good enough rhythm.”
Dillingham is referring to a defense tactic also known as a “stunt,” where two defensive players exchange gap assignments to confuse the offensive line and create an open rush lane.
It worked well against the Sun Devils, causing five tackles for loss.
Wide receiver Malik McClain stood out with a team-leading seven receptions for 159 yards.
“With (Tyson) going down, we had to change some things around,” McClain said. “I just had to play my 1/11, play my part. It feels good to make some plays for the team. … It’s a team sport and I want to contribute any way I can.”
The loss complicates ASU’s chances at a Big 12 Championship game appearance and did not reflect the magic of last year’s 11-3 season, when the Sun Devils started their streak of 10-straight home victories.
It’s all about perspective. In a night reminiscent of darker times in ASU football history, Dillingham maintained a forward outlook.
“We have the same record in conference that we had last year at this exact time,” Dillingham said. “It’s funny. Last year’s like, ‘there is no hope,’ right? This year, ‘there is hope.’ You can get lost in this whole thing.”
Although the record is the same, the team’s means of earning it is not. Few statistics are on par with where ASU was eight games into the season last year.
The offense has scored 51 fewer points, ran the ball 284 fewer yards, and committed 15 more penalties for 98 more yards.
The Sun Devils will evaluate Tyson and Leavitt’s health on Monday and take “a long look in the mirror” as they prepare for another difficult road test in Ames, Iowa, against Iowa State in a rematch of the 2024 Big 12 Championship game.
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