For an Arizona State defense tasked with three pop quizzes to begin the year, facing Heisman candidate Sawyer Robertson will feel more like a midterm exam when the Sun Devils meet Baylor Saturday in the first Big 12 game of the season for both teams.
The Sun Devils are coming off an encouraging game on defense against Texas State in which they limited Bobcat quarterback Brad Jackson to 184 yards passing with one touchdown and two takeaways to boot.
The unit looked like its 2024 self, especially after a road loss to Mississippi State where quarterback Blake Shapen threw for 279 yards and three touchdowns, including a score on a badly blown coverage in the game’s final seconds which cost ASU the win.
Nonetheless, Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham feels confident in his defense after handling Texas State at home in a 34-15 victory last Saturday.
“We got a lot of savvy guys out there,” Dillingham said Monday. “We’ve got a lot of guys with high play recognition, high IQ and I think that just translates to usually getting better throughout the season. They’ve learned from those snaps and they get better every single game.”
ASU progressed and played sound defense amid the absence of one of its best players in All-Big 12 safety Xavion Alford, who played at 70% health against Mississippi State, Dillingham said.
Adrian “Boogie” Wilson was a seamless stand-in for Alford on short notice. With his seven total tackles including two booming hits, Texas State felt his presence immediately.
“I don’t think you can ever replace Xavion, but Boogie went in there and he did an awesome job,” Dillingham said. “He found out he was going to start Saturday morning and then went in there. There’s a reason we brought him in. We have a lot of faith in Boogie.”
With a banged-up secondary, the defensive line has conveniently picked up the slack from last season where they posted the second-worst quarterback pressure rate in the Power Four at 25%.
Now, through three games, the defensive front has recorded 11 sacks, ranking fourth in Division I football.
“I’ve been really pleased with our D-line in the four-man rush game, getting after the quarterback,” Dillingham said. “The straight rushes and the mighty rushes are what they’re supposed to look like.”
Dillingham also credited Baylor for its sharpness on defense, led by coach Dave Aranda and defensive coordinator Matt Powledge. Dillingham worked with Powledge at Oregon in 2022.
The bigger threat against ASU might be Robertson, Baylor’s 6-foot-4 quarterback, who is living up to his preseason hype with 1,070 passing yards (two yards shy of first in the nation) and 11 passing touchdowns (tied for second in the country).
Robertson amassed 859 yards on a 62.2% completion rate with seven touchdowns and no interceptions in his first two games this season against, a loss to Auburn and a double-overtime road win at No. 17 Southern Methodist, a team that reached the College Football Playoff in 2024.
But he is coming off an outlier against unranked Samford at home, where Robertson threw for just 211 yards and three touchdowns. He was intercepted twice, finishing with a quarterback rating of 41.2. That performance dropped him to +4000 odds, tied for 20th on FanDuel’s list of favorites to win the Heisman. It was his lowest single-game rating since against Long Island University in his 2023 sophomore season where he played in half the games.
“(Robertson) is out there with (Michael) Trigg right now getting extra work,” Aranda said during a Monday press conference after practice, referencing the Baylor tight end who was getting extra reps with his quarterback. “As a coach, you feel like you need to say something. You really don’t need to say much to him. He gets it, and he’s on it.”
The Sun Devils shut down FCS and mid-major level quarterbacks, but struggled against a Power Four signal caller. Dillingham hopes his relationship with Robertson will give his squad an edge this week.
“I actually recruited (Robertson) out of high school. He’s a heck of a player,” Dillingham said. “I went and saw him throw live out of practice back in high school (in Lubbock, Texas). (He’s) a better athlete than people give him credit for. It’s going to be a challenge for us.”
Still, while ASU looks for a tactical advantage to build off its victory over Texas State, Aranda is confident that his field general will bounce back and steer the 2-1 Bears to a victory in their Big 12 opener.
“I think he’s very in tune in terms of this (being) a week to improve,” Aranda said. “This is an opportunity not to be missed, and he’s leading us into that. I would bet on Sawyer.”
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