It's once again game day for Arizona State Sun Devils football and that means it's once again time to preview ASU's tilt, this time against the Texas State Bobcats. Both the Sun Devils and Bobcats are off to 2-0 starts to the season, with the former surpassing every expectation given to them in the preseason. The game serves as a good test to see where these programs are at and whether they can sustain their early-season success. It's also the Sun Devils first road game of the season, and if Kenny Dillingham plans to take down the Bobcats and get ASU off to its first 3-0 start since 2019, then they'll have to execute a balanced attack on offense and maintain their edge (literally and figuratively) on defense. The Sun Devils ran wild on Mississippi State last Saturday thanks to Cameron Skattebo's historic day on the ground and he'll likely continue to be at the forefront of an offense that will likely lean on their running game more often than not. However, they need to keep Sam Leavitt more involved than he was a week ago. Defensively, the Sun Devils face a Bobcats offense that already has almost 1,000 total yards and can score at will. Meanwhile, Brian Ward has this defense playing as well as any in the country... truly an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object. Can Arizona State Sun Devils football get the win over the Texas State Bobcats? Host Richie Bradshaw previews the game for both sides of the football and key players to watch plus bold predictions and a final score on this edition of the Locked On Sun Devils podcast.
For your next listen, check out the Locked On College Football podcast! From NIL deals to never ending conference realignment rumors, Spencer McLaughlin gets you ready for an exciting season on the gridiron! Click HERE to listen now. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Your Team. Every Day.
Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!
Factor Meals
Head to FACTORMEALS.com/lockedoncollege50 and use code lockedoncollege50 to get 50% off your first box PLUS 20% off your next month while your subscription is active!
Gametime
Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.
5-Hour ENERGY
Go to 5hourENERGY.com and use promo code LOCKEDONCFB to receive 20% off your order. This offer is only valid until September 30th on one order and cannot be used with other promotions. The code is not good on subscription orders. Go to 5hourENERGY.com today!
LinkedIn
These days every new potential hire can feel like a high stakes wager for your small business. That’s why LinkedIn Jobs helps find the right people for your team, faster and for free. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/LOCKEDONCOLLEGE. Terms and conditions apply.
Ibotta
Right now, Ibotta is offering out listeners $5 just for trying Ibotta by using the code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE when you register in the App Store or Google Play.
Ultimate GM
Ultimate College Football HC is a brand-new mobile game that is completely free, has no ads and 100% playable offline. Use the promo code LOCKEDONCFB, all caps, inside the game store to receive a free boost to your program. Begin your coaching legacy today!
eBay Motors
From brakes to exhaust kits and beyond, eBay Motors has over 122 million parts to keep your ride-or-die alive. With all the parts you need at the prices you want, it’s easy to bring home that big win. Keep your ride-or-die alive at EbayMotors.com. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers.
FanDuel
Now through September 22nd, ALL FanDuel customers can bet FIVE DOLLARS and get a THREE WEEK free trial of NFL Sunday Ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV. Visit FANDUEL.COM to get started.
FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)
Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms…
🎧 https://link.chtbl.com/LOSunDevils?sid=YouTube
Locked On College Conferences, HBCU, Basketball & More
🎧 https://linktr.ee/LockedOnCollege
It's the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. If you are looking to refinance or get a loan right now, let me tell you about Intercap Lending. Intercap Lending is one of the largest independent lenders in the country. They are hyper responsive. They embrace change and their borrower experience is absolutely fabulous. At Lockdown, we have our own personal loan officer, Intercap Lending. His name is Steve Carter, and if you call him and tell him you're locked on, you get the corporate discount. But more than that, what's so great about Steve Carter is the reviews at Lockdown that we continually get about Steve. Mike Curtis emailed me to say, "I just wanted to thank you for your network. We just refied with Steve Carter. It was so incredibly easy. I can attest to it. I got my loan done with Steve Carter." Who else? Richard Gordon emailed me and said. Thank you so much for promoting Intercap Lending. We used them earlier this year. Steve was amazing. And Steve is amazing. Call him at 385-885-3885-8585-3885-28. Tell him to lock down and send you Intercap Lending, NMLS, number 19-0-465. For more information, visit intercaplending.com. And the Sun Devils start the 2024 season 3, you know, well, I don't know why not. You are locked on Sun Devils, your daily podcast on the Arizona State Sun Devils, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team, every day. Welcome back to the Lockdown Sun Devils Podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team, every day. My name is Richie Bradshaw and I will be your guide for everything Arizona State Sun Devils, a special shout out to my every dayers who are here every day. And thanks to all of you for tuning in and making us your first listen of the day. Don't forget to hit like, hit subscribe and turn on notifications wherever you're getting your shows. Stay in touch by following me on Twitter at Richie Brad's 36. The podcast at LO_Sun Devils. Do me a song if you have not hit subscribe on YouTube yet. Do me that solid. Hit that subscribe button and help us get to 8,000 subscribers before the end of the month. We are at 943. We can get there real quick. Help us get there and then we'll find a way to celebrate together as a channel. Today's episode is brought to you by Fandal. Now through September 22, all Fandal customers can bet $5 and get 3 free weeks of NFL Sunday ticket for trial from YouTube and YouTube TV visit Fandal.com to get started. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back into the LO_Sun Devils podcast and on today's show it is a game day preview on Thursday. That's because ASU is in San Marcos tonight to take on Texas State, a team that ASU should not take lightly. They are, when last I checked, a one and a half point favorite. This is not a game that ASU can sleep walk through Texas, Texas State. Texas State is a very, very good football program. They're off to a 2 and 0 start. They have been dynamite on offense. They have almost a thousand total yards between passing and rushing. They are dominating and stifling on the defensive side of the football. They look pretty good. They are a heavyweight in the Sun Belt division. This is a team that's going bowling this year. This is a team that could easily be 8 to 9 wins depending on how the rest of their season shakes out. Hopefully, ASU will not be one of those wins, but nonetheless, this is a really good opportunity for Arizona State to come out the gate 3 and 0 with three very quality wins. It's not like you were beating up on some no-name FCS school. You came out, you beat down a Wyoming team who won nine games last year. You took down an SEC team last week in Mississippi State, and now you have a chance to close out non-conference and play 3 and 0 with a win over a very, very good Texas State team. In order to get to that point though, you need a game plan for offense and defense. There are specific players that we're going to be watching for on both sides of the football, and then of course, we got to wrap up the show with bold predictions and a score prediction. When it comes to the offensive game plan, I think it's really very, very simple. Obviously, you want to run the football, but the caveat is you need to make sure that Sam Levitt stays in a rhythm. Those are word for word, not quotes, but that's basically the way that Kenny Dillingham sees it, is he wants to keep Sam Levitt in a rhythm. This week against Mississippi State, he took him out of that. Because they were doing so well running the football, they didn't let Sam get any kind of consistency passing the ball through the air. He has 20 pass attempts on the game, and half of them came in the second half when ASU was struggling to throw the football because they went like 15 game minutes just running the football. They were doing a great job controlling the clock, but when Mississippi State decided to stack the line of scrimmage and force ASU to throw the football, they couldn't do it, because ASU just wasn't ready to do it. They were so out of rhythm with it. It's not like a football video game where you can go from running the football to passing the football like that, like it's not that easy. You have to get everything schemed up. You have to get players on the right mindset and the right systems and schemes and rotations and all that good stuff. So you need to make sure at the end of the day that Sam let it is staying in a rhythm. The best way you can do that, I talked about it on yesterday's episode, so if you haven't checked it out, make sure you check it out where I go into more detail there. But I think the best script that you can give him. Run the heck out of the football, be able to use your legs, and do that with some read option, do it with some RPOs, do it with some bootlegs. Find a way to get Sam out of the pocket. Find a way for him to get that comfortableness that he has when he is rolling around and using his legs as the dual threat quarterback that he is. Second thing I want to see on the offense, beyond running the football, ride the hot hand. So, Cameron's got a boo, 33 carries 262 yards last week. That is your hot hand right now. But if he gets off to a slow start, if he gets 5 carries for 18 yards, but then the Carlos Brooks has 5 carries for 37 yards, I would like you to give the Carlos Brooks the ball. It's nothing against Gannaboo, it's nothing against anybody. It could be Jason Brown is the most effective running back. Gannaboo can continue to be the most effective running back. But that's the way I want you to go through with this game plan. I don't care who it is. In fact, I think it's better if it's a different guy on a week to week basis. Not that Gannaboo is incapable of doing that because the way that he played last week makes me think there's a chance for him at the next level. Cross that bridge when we get to it. In the meantime, mix things up. Keep Gannaboo fresh for the whole season, for all 12, 13 games. However many ASU is going to be able to compete in this year. Keep Gannaboo fresh. You can do that by going up against a really good run defense and beating the hell out of him with a flurry of different guys who do different things for you. The Carlos Brooks downhill runner, put him out there, let him break the wheel of the defense. Kyson Brown, kind of a jack of all trades. He can run downhill. He can catch the football. Perfect. Sounds good. Let's throw him out there. Alton McCaskill, another kind of jack of all trades for you. We only got to see him in week one. He wasn't overly effective, but he was also running with the twos. Find a way to get him mixed in. Jason Brown, he's a freshman for the team. He's very talented, very exciting. I don't know how much we're going to see him this year. I don't know about Malik Brown. I don't think he's going to be suiting up for this game. I'm hoping if he is, then yeah, you get him the football in this game. He's a weapon, but as far as the other five go, just ride the hot hand. Whoever is dominating, whoever's off to a good start, keep it going. So if it's Kyson Skannaboo, three carries for 30 yards. Cool. Let's give him the ball seven, eight, nine more times. If Skannaboo is off to a slower start and Decarlos Brooks is ripping off big runs, cool. Let's give Decarlos Brooks three, four, five more carries. Just find what's working in this game against a good run defense and use it defensively for ASU. The biggest game plan here is maintaining gap integrity when it comes to the interior of the defensive line. This is another thing I brought up yesterday on the show. So again, check that one out if you have not yet already because I go into it in a lot more detail there. But the interior of the defensive line, CJ if I Jeff Clark, if as long as he's playing and healthy, Zach Swanson, check your bridge on the guy. Those four are going to be so beyond critical for this game because Texas State absolutely dominated UTSA last week in the running game when they romped them. That was one of the biggest areas of strength for the Bobcats last week and they can do it whenever they want because they have a quarterback who can air it out too. They have a very balanced attack but the run game is what intimidates me quite a bit. The good news is with ASU, this run defense is impossible to move the ball on. They have allowed less than a hundred yards on the air through two games against two run heavy teams, against two teams that like to run the football quite a bit and two teams that can run the football pretty effectively when they are in a rhythm. They couldn't do it and ASU meanwhile is generating pressure. They have six sacks on the year already. The defensive front, the defensive line in particular has been one of the biggest strengths of this team. Now you're going up against another program that's going to want to run the football so you need to make sure that everybody is playing their assignment correctly but this especially goes for the defensive tackles in my opinion. The stronger up front CJ flight and the rest of the crew can play will allow the safeties, will allow the linebackers to keep that jersey clean, knife they're waiting into the backfield, get behind the line of scrimmage and contain the run before it can get outside. That's a huge aspect here. The last part of the defense you need to focus on you have got to contain the big play. Last week against Mississippi State they did a great job in the first half and then the second half there was a lot of chunk plays. That can't happen against Texas State an offense that has proven can be super duper explosive when they get going. For ASU and their defense you need to make sure that everything stays in front of you. You cannot let guys get behind you in the secondary. You have to make sure that you're making the wrap up secure tackles on guys in the open field and you need to make sure that that run game is borderline an on factor so that you can focus everywhere else. I do think that you can get to that point just because that's how great this run defense is. That is how great this run defense is. I feel on a week to week basis you can go up based off of what we've seen in two weeks that you can go up against just about any team and league and I feel confident that you can do a very very good job against a good run game. So from there it's just about containing the big play. Last week ASU gave up a one play ADR drive. That is absolutely unacceptable. That cannot happen no matter what. I don't care if ASU is up 50. You do not let the ADR touchdowns happen. You do not allow a 20 yard reception or a 20 yard play on each drive. You need to make sure everything is in front of you. It's going to be a flawless performance of course not but you still need to make sure that the big plays don't happen and the chunk plays are as few and far in between as you can possibly get them to be spaced out. That's how you went on offense. That's how you went on defense. Next up on the show we're going to talk about some key players to watch spoiler alert. We're not talking about Sam Levitt. We will not be talking about Sam Levitt more than likely for the rest of the year. I've got four guys we're going to talk about in just a moment. This is the locked on some of those podcasts. Part of the locked on podcast network your team every day. Fuel up with factors, no prep, no mess meals, meet your wellness goals thanks to a menu of chef crafted meals with options like calorie smart, protein plus, and even keto. Factors fresh, never frozen meals are dietitian approved and ready to eat in just two minutes no matter how busy you are you'll always have time to enjoy nutritious, great tasting meals. Make today the day that you kickstart a healthy new routine. What are you waiting for with 35 different meals and more than 60 add-ons to choose from each week you'll always have new flavors to explore. You can crush your wellness goals this upcoming this upcoming season with dietitian approved meals and ingredients you can trust. Take your day delicious from breakfast to dessert, stay fueled with easy nutritious options. Treat yourself to restaurant quality meals that feature premium ingredients like filet mignon, shrimp, and blackened salmon. Keep kitchen time to a minimum. Factor meals are ready in two minutes, no shopping, no prepping, no cooking, or cleanup. Enjoy effortless support for your lifestyle, choose up to six menu preferences to help manage your calories, maximize protein intake, avoid meat, or to simply eat well balance. Head to factor meals dot com slash locked on college 50 and use the promo code locked on college 50 to get 50 percent off of your first box plus 20 percent off your next month. That's code locked on college 50 at factor meals dot com slash locked on college 50 to get 50 percent off your first box plus 20 percent off your next box while your subscription is active. I also want to talk to you about our friends over at FanDuel. You've heard us talk about FanDuel many, many times America's number one sports book. Here's something a little different for you. Now through September 22, all FanDuel customers can pet $5 and get a three week free trial of NFL Sunday ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV. Then, with a YouTube TV baseline, you'll be able to watch every regular season Sunday afternoon out of market game. All you need is a Google account and a current form of payment you can cancel at any time. And if that's not enough, be sure to check out FanDuel's profit boost in the app and use it for FanDuel's double your winnings for all of Sunday's pre-game money line bets. Profit boost will be live starting tomorrow slash today, Thursday 9/12. Be your account page now to learn more about the boost just visit FanDuel dot com and download America's number one sports book. Wherever you're getting your shows, hit like, subscribe and turn on notifications so you get that update whenever we post new content. Special shout out to my every dayers who are here every day. Thanks for making us your first listen of the day. Subscribe on YouTube if you have not yet already. Let's talk about some players to watch. Like I already said, and I thought about saying this last week, I may have and I just didn't remember. We are not going to include Sam Levitt and the players to watch because he is the quarterback. Of course, we are going to be watching Sam Levitt. That goes without saying. Of four players I want to talk about every week, I don't want to spend a section talking about the same guy. So we'll say the same thing we said last week. We'll say the same thing we're going to be talking about moving forward. Sam Levitt, the red shirt freshman, is making his X number start for the Sun Devils this season. He has been playing so far so good, I suppose. There's been highs, there's been lows. Let's see how he plays this week against a good defense. There you go. Expect that to be pretty much on repeat for the whole year. Unless there's something like substantial that we need to note, Sam Levitt is an honorable mention every week. That being said, two players on offense, two players on defense to take a look at. This one also just as obvious as Sam Levitt here, it's Cameron's Gadibil. How can you not be paying attention to Cameron's Gadibil this upcoming week after a historic performance in Sun Devils program history, again, 33 carries, 262 yards. His longest run was only 39 yards. So he is churning out chunk after chunk after chunk play. It wasn't like 170 yards touchdown that really inflated the numbers. But it was consistently 8 yard gains, 12 yard gains, 9 yard gains. Just consistently moving the ball. First down goes to second and short. First down goes to first down. Third and short goes to a 15 yard pickup like the ability that Cameron's Gadibil showed off last week to just convert downs and distance and make things shorter and more opportune for you on offense. Huge. Does he, does he stack that going into his third game of the year? We know the talent is there. We also know that ASU has a really deep backfield. We saw in week one against Wyoming, Gadibil only had 11 carries. That's all you needed to give him. And that's not a bad thing because ASU still ran for 200 yards against Wyoming. They don't need to be all in on a single running back. It's one of the biggest strengths of this team is having the ability to take a look at the match ups and say, "You know what? Skadaboo looks really good this week. We're going to give him 60% of the carries." And then the next week you go, "You know what? The Carlos Brooks looks really good here. We might want to sprinkle in really brown. We're going to give them a little more carries than we're going to give Cameron's Gadibil." What does that game plan look like this week? Is Skadaboo going to be receiving 80% of the touches again? Or is he going to be closer to what it was in week one where ASU ran a ball 49 times? Skadaboo got 11 carries. That's really intriguing. And I also said earlier what I want to see is you ride the hot hand. So if Skadaboo comes out and has 20 yards on 3 carries, then yeah, I want you to run the football with Cameron's Gadibil on a pretty consistent basis. Whoever is churning out the most success for you to start this game, that's who I want to see. So if it's a collective approach, so be it. If Cameron's Gadiboo comes out and dominates his first 3 carries, cool. Let's give it to Skadaboo. If Skadaboo comes out a little slower and someone else does, cool. Let's give it to him. Bottom line though, Skadaboo coming off a historic week is absolutely one of the people that's going to be capturing the most attention for me. Second guy on offense is Jordan Tyson. And Tyson is coming off a game where he had a single catch for, I think it was nine yards, something like that. He was not involved in this passing game. And it is one of this because Arizona State didn't necessarily need Jordan Tyson to be a weapon in last week's game. They were able to do a lot more, two catches for seven yards last week, just checked it. They were able to do so much on the ground that you didn't need to rely on the air. Of course we saw that that almost bit them and you know what, towards the end of the game when Mississippi State started mounting their comeback. The reason why I have Tyson here is because Tyson is leading the team in targets. He has, I believe, ten targets on the year. They are looking for a number one receiver. And the opportunity is wide open. They can be Jordan Tyson. They can be ex-gilory. I'm trying to talk about wide receiver right now. McLean. McLean. There it is. It can be Troy Omari. It can be Milcan Stovall, Jake Smith. I don't know. There's a lot of different options. But Jordan Tyson, as of now, is the most targeted guy. Is that going to continue to be the case moving forward? If that is, if he is going to continue to be the most targeted guy, when is it going to click? We know how much talent there is here and that he can end up being one of the most explosive players on the offense. With the God-given speed, the God-given abilities athletically, I mean, this is just a specimen at receiver. When is it going to click? I'm going to be paying attention this week knowing that he has been the most targeted guy so far. And I want to see if, A, that continues to be the case and B, what he does with them. Defensively, two guys that need to pay attention to, number one, Kishan Elliott. Elliott is a friggin' monster. I don't know if you have noticed or not, but number 44 on the defense might be the best player on defense. He flies around the field. He already has an interception on the air. He has a sack on the air. He is stuffing the box score. He is also just a flat-out, really good football player with tons of great instincts and leadership qualities to him. He's a stud. Well, he's going to continue to be one of the leaders on this defense, right? He needs to continue to play at a high level for a group that is going to be facing a lot of good offenses the rest of the year. You have put on a stellar audition to continue being the leader of this defense. I'm looking forward to seeing what you can do against a high-powered offense. Track record through two games shows me you're going to have a good game, but ASU is going to need Kishan Elliott to play at one of the highest levels that he's played in his career in this game. As ASU prepares to wind down non-conference play, go into big 12 play and try to finish non-conference play 3-0. They're going to be throwing everything that they can at the Sun Devils defense. Kishan Elliott will be in charge of trying to slow that down. Last guy on defense, Shamari Simmons. Simmons moving to the nickel has been a revelation for this defense. An already instinctive player when he was playing free safety is now playing at the line of scrimmage with the speed to go sideline to sideline, close in on opposing running backs and just make a play. Even if he's not the one making a tackle, guess what? He's forcing that guy so far outside that someone else like Ghost Rouser is able to come in and finish the play. Shamari's doing a phenomenal job setting the edge as a nickel corner. He's also just got really good coverage skills and he's a really good player period. Well, here's another opportunity to continue stacking good performances for yourself. Texas State is going to want to run the football, as long as ASU up front is able to dominate the trenches, they're going to continue to try and bounce it outside. Will Shamari be able to continue the high efficiency that he has had playing from that nickel spot? He's also going to be tested in coverage too. This is a Texas state team that can beat you both ways. So it's not like you take away the run and suddenly the vibe can't do anything. No, no, no, no, no, that's not the case. You take away the run, now they're going to throw it and they can throw it. Quarterback already has 500 passing errors this year. They can move the ball through the air. So Simmons is going to be tested in coverage this week as well. It's not just going to be about the way he plays near the line of scrimmage where he's killed it this year. It's also and probably more importantly going to be how he plays in coverage, whether that is staying in the nickel, whether that is playing back at free safety, I would imagine they're going to put him all over the place. I'm also curious what the rotation looks like because I would imagine that Cole Martin is going to start getting a lot more reps as well. What does Simmons role look like this week and how does he flourish in that? That's the guy I'm looking out for. Two guys on offense, two guys on defense and I'm paying attention to. We're going to go into the final part of the show now. We're going to make some bold predictions, two for offense, two for defense and a final score prediction. Did I take the Sun Devils to win this game? We'll find out here in just one moment. This is the locked on Sun Devils podcast part of the locked on podcast network, your team every day. Want to talk to you about our friends over at LinkedIn now. When you're hiring for your small business, you want to find quality professionals that are right for the role. That's why you need to check out LinkedIn jobs. LinkedIn jobs has the tools to help find the right professionals for your team faster and for free. LinkedIn isn't just another job board. LinkedIn helps hire those professionals you can't find anywhere else, even the people who aren't actively searching for a new job, but may be open to the perfect role. In a given month, over 70% of LinkedIn users do not visit other job leading sites. So if you're not looking on LinkedIn, you're looking in the wrong place. On LinkedIn, 86% of small businesses will get a qualified candidate within 24 hours of posting hired professionals like a professional on LinkedIn. LinkedIn also knows that small businesses are wearing so many hats and may not have the time or resources to hire. That's why they're constantly finding ways to make the process easier. They even launched a feature that helps write job descriptions and makes that process easier and quicker than it was before. Two and a half million small businesses use LinkedIn for hiring. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/lockedoncollege. That's LinkedIn.com/lockedoncollege to post your job for free terms and conditions apply. You know, we love talking stats here at Lockdown. Here's one that's super simple to remember. Discover automatically doubles the cashback you've earned on your credit card at the end of your first year with cashback match. That means with discover, you could turn $150 cashback to $300. That's right. You could put it towards some memorabilia you've had your eye on or treat yourself to a premium sports network. You earn and discover doubles. See terms at discover.com/creditcard. One more time wherever you're getting your shows, hit like, subscribe and turn on notifications so you get that update whenever we post new content. A shout out to my every dayers who are here every day and thanks to all of you for tuning in and making us your first listen of the day. Let's wrap it up with the best part of the show. Ladies and gentlemen, bold predictions and a final score. Two bold predictions offense, two bold predictions defense. Let's get it started. First one on offense, ASU is going to continue running the ball well. I'm going to say 150 yards. I want to go 200, I'm going to hesitate a little because Texas State has shown that they can stop the run. I don't know if they can stop ASU, but it's not like you're going up against a nobody defense. Texas State will have some resistance, but ASU is still going to run for 150 yards in this game and they're going to get two touchdowns on the ground. Spoiler alert, I don't think those two touchdowns are both coming from running backs because second bold prediction, Sam Levitt is getting in the end zone twice, once through the air, once on the ground. They are going to get the passing attack back into play this week. Now, will it be what it was in week one? Were you through four over 250 yards and two touchdowns? Probably not. You just want to find some kind of balance in between like really, really good and really, really bad. You just need it to be average. Good enough. Sam Levitt throws for anywhere between 150 yards and 180 yards on a week to week basis. It doesn't turn the ball over, hopefully gets in the end zone a couple of times. That's a win. You take it every day of the week, twice on Saturdays, twice on Thursdays, twice on Sundays. That's what you need from this. And with ASU going to be attempting to get Sam Levitt back into said rhythm, with them having the focus on on rebalancing the offense and making sure that Levitt does not get left behind, he's going to flourish. He's going to be good even against a really good defense because Sam Levitt takes care of the football and Sam Levitt is explosive. Two touchdowns in this game. One through the air, one on the ground. ASU was running for 150 yards and two scores in total on the ground defensively. This run defense ain't going to stop, baby. I don't care if it's Texas State, I don't care if it's anybody. This run defense ain't going to quit. ASU was going to hold Texas State under 100 rushing yards. Now they're going to get closer than Mississippi State did, they're going to get closer than Wyoming did, they are not getting 100. I promise they are not getting 100. In fact, even if they got close to it, they are going to get sacks and that's going to generate negative yardage. They are, they are going to kill it once again against the run. This run defense is legit. We knew going into the year that this run defense was going to be stout because of the depth of defensive tackle, because of the depth of linebacker and to the surprise of no one, the sudden explosiveness that you have off the edge. Everything is culminating together plus you have safeties who are able to come up and play near the land scrimmage. Everything is working right now. You can't run up the middle. You can't bounce it outside. Two teams have gone up against ASU. Two teams that historically can run the football found no success. Texas State, I'm sorry, you are not running on ASU. You are running for under 100 yards in this game. Second bull prediction for the defense final bull prediction period. Key Sean Elliott going to have a day leads the team in tackles, leads the team in tackles for loss and leads the team in sacks. Now granted, that can be one sack and tied for the team lead. That still counts, baby. I don't care. ASU has had their safeties lead them in tackles each of the first three weeks of the year between Zavion, Alfred, Ghost, Rouser and Shimari Simmons, not this week. This week is going to be the key Sean Elliott show, baby. 44 is getting double digit tackles in this game. He's going to get after the quarterback. He's going to make plays behind the line of scrimmage. It used to seeing number 44 flying around the field in this game with everything culminating to the other now with an offense that I think is still going to run the football and is going to get Sam Levin balled with a defense that is going to once again, suffocate the run and have a potential big 12 player of the week at linebacker in key Sean Elliott. I got ASU winning this game. I do have it on the lower end of scoring, but I got ASU 24 to 20 covering that spread, getting a huge win in San Marcos, winning the party school ball, as I have been told, and starting the year off 3-0, matching the win total that ASU has had each of the last two years. Talk about a hell of a way to start the year. What do you guys think? What are your bold predictions? What's the final score going to be? Am I crazy? Who's the better party school? Let me know in the comments or you can hit me up on Twitter. You can find me at Richie Bratz 36, the podcast at L.O. Underscore Sun Devils. Wherever you're getting your shows, hit like, hit subscribe, turn on notifications so you get that update whenever we post new content. A special shout out to my every dayers who are here every day. And thanks to all of you for making us your first listen of the day. Again, if you haven't hit subscribe on YouTube, give me that solid, hit that subscribe button, and help us get to 1,000 subscribers. I appreciate you guys for tuning in for a game day edition of the show on a Thursday. Which means we will be back tomorrow, Friday, hopefully to celebrate a victory instead of a victory Monday/victory Sunday. We will hopefully have a victory Friday bottom line whether or not we get that win. We're going to break down the good, the bad, takeaways from this game, and if we get the win, we'll hand out some game balls. I'll see you guys tomorrow, until then, you keep it locked right here on the locked-on Sun Devils. A Prime Members, you can listen to this locked-on podcast ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today! (jazz music)
