The logjam close to the highest of the Massive 12 Convention is in for a shake-up when Arizona State travels to No. 16 Kansas State on Saturday evening for his or her first matchup as convention foes.
Arizona State owns a 5-1 report all-time in opposition to the Wildcats. Ok-State received the final assembly within the 2002 Vacation Bowl. The groups final met within the common season in 1989.
Arizona State (7-2, 4-2 Massive 12) received consecutive video games to hitch a four-team cluster in third place within the convention. Kansas State (7-2, 4-2) is coming off a bye following a painful loss to Houston two weeks in the past.
“We’re 2-2 on the street, so you’ll hope that we may play nicely on the street,” Arizona State head coach Kenny Dillingham stated Monday. “That is a very good setting and a very good crew, coming off a bye, sadly.”
An enormous query for the Solar Devils is the well being of working again Cam Skattebo, who missed ASU’s final sport, a win over UCF, with a shoulder harm. Skattebo has rushed for 1,001 yards in eight video games performed.
“Skatt is questionable for the sport,” Dillingham stated. “I feel he’ll attempt to follow, no less than jog by way of some issues and run round a little bit bit. In order that’s a constructive. He was attempting to get me to place him within the sport (in opposition to UCF) in the course of the third quarter.
“I used to be like, ‘No, you are not going to get suited up.’ We’ll see what it appears to be like like for this week.”
Ok-State returned to follow Monday after the bye week.
“We had an excellent open week final week,” Wildcats head coach Chris Klieman stated. “We gave our older guys who’ve performed a number of snaps a little bit of a break from a restoration standpoint. We’ve got plenty of guys who’re nonetheless nursing accidents, however I consider everybody might be out there Saturday.”
As a substitute of trying again at what went flawed in opposition to Houston, Klieman stated the main target is on what’s nonetheless forward.
“I feel it is the every day enchancment,” he added. “It is the large image. What do now we have to get higher schematically, each offensively and defensively? It generally will get forgotten that we’re a 7-2 soccer crew that has a number of issues in entrance of us to play for. We will not management what different groups are going to do. I feel everybody is aware of that so much can nonetheless occur.”
The groups are nearly similar when it comes to scoring offense, with the Solar Devils outscoring the Wildcats by .3 factors per sport. They each additionally rely closely on the run. The Wildcats are third within the convention with 208.3 yards per sport on the bottom, whereas Arizona State is fourth at 198.0 yards per sport.
Defensively, Ok-State sits atop the speeding yards allowed listing with simply 99.4 yards per sport. ASU is third at 118.8 yards per sport.
“Anyone can beat anyone on this league,” Klieman stated. “We’re enjoying a very good Arizona State crew that is a scorching crew. So we have to play our greatest soccer.”
–Subject Stage Media