Rain fell throughout the night in Arizona State’s game against Utah, but it really started to pour when the Utes’ offense took the field.
An evening thunderstorm with heavy precipitation briefly delayed ASU’s game against Utah Saturday but cleared out just in time for an 8:30 p.m. kickoff.
When the turf finally dried up at Rice-Eccles Stadium, quarterback Devon Dampier and the Utes offense showered the Sun Devils defense with touchdowns in their 42-10 win.
Dampier electrified the frigid fans braving temperatures in the mid-40s. His 10 carries produced a team-leading 120 rushing yards and three touchdowns.
“Those aren’t scrambles. Those are direct carries,” ASU coach Kenny Dillingham said. “If you look at their running backs, they ran the ball well. But, it wasn’t nearly as drastic as the quarterback.”
Dillingham said Utah coach Kyle Whittingham believes this is the best offensive line he’s ever had. With the line’s role in producing 276 rushing yards with six rushing touchdowns, Dillingham is just as impressed.
The Utes’ dominance up front allowed their quarterback to run all over ASU.
“(The offensive line) gave me great space to make plays,” Dampier said. “I felt my best for sure.”
Q2 11:27 | #Utah Dampier does it again. This time, he rushes 24 yards for the score.
14-3 #Utah @sportscronkite pic.twitter.com/B2oIw35Ha8
— Nate Mills (@natemillssports) October 12, 2025
Elaborate schematics and game-planning aside, Utah won in a very simple way. Two weeks ago, Dillingham said before ASU’s game against TCU that whoever moves the other team backward wins games.
That came into fruition Saturday night.
“They just ran the ball right at us,” Dillingham said. “They (said), ‘We’re going to move you in the other direction.’ And they moved us in the other direction.”
Offensively, the Sun Devils struggled to find the end zone. Quarterback Jeff Sims, starting for injured Sam Leavitt, completed 18 of 38 passes for 124 yards.
ASU’s loss gave the team something to chew on. For a team that prides itself on physicality, Utah completely outmatched the Sun Devils on that front.
“I was surprised,” Dillingham said. “We haven’t been a team that missed a lot of tackles … that’s definitely been something that we’ve been good at. The last year and a half here, that’s been a strength.
“They absolutely whooped our butt. … It’s the first time we’ve really been whooped like that in a long time.”
It’s been almost two years since the Sun Devils lost by 30 or more points. On November 25, 2023, the Arizona Wildcats won 59-26 in the final game of the regular season.
Coincidentally, Utah dominated ASU the last time they met at Rice-Eccles Stadium and it was also 2023. The Utes buried the Sun Devils 55-3.
That was Dillingham’s first year as a college head coach. Now, he’s taken a team to the College Football Playoff and won a Big 12 Conference title.
The standard is different. The goal is to have one similar to Utah. But, a game like this requires the coaching staff to reflect.
Dillingham gave examples of plays where Whittingham and his staff “outplayed” him. Jesus Gomez’s blocked 29-yard field goal attempt at the end of an eight minute and 22 second drive in the second quarter stood out in Dillingham’s mind.
He called the deflection by Utah safety Jackson Bennee a “turning point” because the field goal would have separated the teams by one possession and halted the Utes’ momentum.
“Just a beating. … They just outcoached us, outplayed us, absolutely whooped our butt,” Dillingham said. “How do you get it out of your system? You better do it quick.”
Time is of the essence for players to figure out a way to move on mentally. No. 7 Texas Tech, who is 6-0 for the first time in over a decade and beat Utah 34-10 in Salt Lake City, comes to Tempe Saturday.
The coaching staff, though, may require a more deliberate effort to salvage the season and revise their program.
“I got to look at myself to see what have I done different, which is allowing that to happen,” Dillingham said.
For a team that garnered so much hype and expectations before the season, the loss served as a wake up call for ASU to reconsider where it stands in the Big 12, let alone the conference.
Dillingham wants to get to the bottom of it right away. He grasped at straws for reasons why they didn’t play up to par in a thought process that started right as the final whistle blew.
“I think part of it was the triple option stuff … maybe we had too many calls going into the game potentially and guys weren’t playing as fast or as comfortable as they have,” Dillingham said. “I don’t know, I’m kind of just throwing thoughts out there.”
The bottom line is that teams rarely win football games when they are less physical than their opponents.
The Sun Devils weren’t even close to matching the Utes Saturday night, Dillingham said.
After struggling in all the ways ASU did, it must prepare for No. 7 Texas Tech, who bested Utah in its own style.
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