Will Utah provide Arizona State football’s toughest test yet?

The calendar barely flipped to October and the Arizona State football team has won more games than it did last year.

How much the Sun Devils (4-1, 1-1) have improved is something we’ll know after the next game as coach Kenny Dillingham’s squad is preparing to face Utah (4-1, 1-1), a team that frequently challenged for Pac-12 honors and is now contending in the Big 12.

Utah is coming off a week off and was a 23-10 loser to Arizona two weeks ago.

This will loom as a huge test, particularly on a short week with the kickoff set for Friday.

No. 16 Utah (4-1, 1-1) at Arizona State (4-1, 1-1)

Time/site: 7:30 p.m. Friday, Mountain America Stadium

TV: ESPN (Anish Shroff, Andre Ware, Paul Carcaterra). Radio: ESPN 620 (KTAR).

Last time they met: Utah won 55-3 last year at Rice-Eccles Stadium in one of the poorer games ASU played all season. The Sun Devils were down to their No. 4 quarterback, Jacob Conover, due to injuries.

Series history: ASU leads 22-12 but Utah has won the last four meetings. The last win for ASU in the series was 38-20 in 2018 in Tempe. ASU holds a 15-5 advantage in games in Tempe.

Coaching matchup

Utah (Kyle Whittingham, 20th year, 166-80): Whittingham, 64, is the second-longest tenured coach, trailing only Kirk Ferentz of Iowa (25 years). He has been head coach in six of the school’s nine 10-win seasons and became the school’s all-time winningest coach in 2022. He was named head coach in 2004 after Urban Meyer left for Florida. His teams are 11-5 in bowl games. Whittingham is a native of Provo and a graduate of BYU. He had been on staff at Utah since 1994.

ASU (Kenny Dillingham, second year, 7-10): Dillingham, 34, is in his second year. He came to ASU after serving as offensive coordinator at Oregon. The product of Chaparral High School and an alum of ASU has also worked on the offensive staff at Auburn, Florida…


Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/utah-arizona-state-footballs-toughest-233712360.html

Author : AZCentral | The Arizona Republic

Publish date : 2024-10-09 23:37:12

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