ASU scouting report: Southern Utah provides opposition for debut of Kenny Dillingham

The Kenny Dillingham era at Arizona State beings on Thursday when Southern Utah provides the opposition for the season opener.

It will be Dillingham's debut as head coach at any university and he does so at his alma mater. The Chaparral High School and ASU graduate is playing down the debut, preferring to put the focus on his players.

“This is not about me," he said. "We had a mock game the other day and they were like “get up in front, run out — you have got to run out first, you are the head coach” and I’m like, no no, I do not play. You guys play. You guys run out, and I’ll just run out randomly so I can get ready to coach. And you guys go get ready to play a football game. This is not about me. It is about the players. It is always about the players. Everything I will ever do is about the players.”

Southern Utah at Arizona State

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

TV: Pac-12 Network. Radio: ESPN 620 AM / 98.7 FM. SiriusXM 84

Last time they played: ASU defeated Southern Utah 41-14 at home in the 2021 season opener. Few players who factored in that game are still around. ASU led 13-7 after the first quarter but scored the next three touchdowns and never looked back. That was the first meeting between the schools.

Coaching matchup

ASU: Kenny Dillingham. At 33, Dillingham is the youngest head coach at a Power Five school. He served as offensive coordinator at Oregon last season.

Southern Utah: DeLane Fitzgerald led SUU to a 5-6 record with a 2-3 mark in Western Athletic Conference play in his first season as coach. The five victories were the most wins in a single season for Southern Utah since 2017.

Storyline

After a woeful 3-9 mark in 2022, ASU brought in Dillingham to energize the program and he seems to have done so, although Sunday's news of the school's one-year self-imposed bowl ban seems to have taken some air out of the balloon. The game also will mark the debut of true freshman quarterback Jaden Rashada. He is one of 50 or so players new to the roster, 35 of them transfer portal additions as ASU had one of the largest transfer portal classes in all college football.

Arizona State will win if . . .

1. Rashada can shake the expected nerves and perform: Rashada was the No. 3 quarterback in the spring but improved dramatically in the last two weeks of those drills, then continued that upward trend in summer camp when given more reps after Drew Pyne sustained a hamstring injury. He has an NFL-caliber arm and great athletic ability so the physical tools are there. Now we need to see how he handles the mental part of being the starter at quarterback for a Power Five program.

2. The offensive line does its job: This unit is probably the biggest question mark on offense with just one returning starter. The Sun Devils also suffered an early blow when transfer Ben Coleman was ruled out for a majority of the season due to injury. ASU landed a bunch of reinforcements with starting experience, and they have Joey Ramos back after he missed last season with an ankle injury.

3. The Sun Devils can run the ball: Success on the ground usually translates to victory. It's an area the program has excelled at in the past and if it can do so again it would take some of the pressure off Rashada. Being able to run the ball would also up some passing lanes, so it would make for the best of both worlds. The Sun Devils will be relying on a couple of transfers in Cameron Skattebo (Sacramento State) and DeCarlos Brooks (Cal), who were proven commodities at their previous schools.

Southern Utah will win if . . .

1. ASU can't regroup mentally: Players and coaches are saying all the right things after the devastating no-bowl news came Sunday. Dillingham expected his team to struggle in practice that day and it did, but bounced back with one of its best practices on Monday.

2. Penalties and turnovers factor in: These two intangibles have to factor in for an FCS team to upset a Power Five program. The Sun Devils traditionally have fared well when it comes to not turning the ball over, but going with a true freshman at quarterback can be risky. ASU's penalty problems the last two years have been much talked about. We'll see if that changes in the Dillingham regime.

3. The Thunderbirds can throw the ball: SUU's returning quarterback, Justin Miller, averaged 260.7 passing yards last year. Perhaps the most versatile weapon in the offense is wide receiver Isaiah Wooden, who had 832 receiving yards, 253 rushing yards and 314 kick return yards in 2022. ASU will counter with a defensive backs group that is the most seasoned unit on the squad.

Personnel notes

LB Will Shaffer and WR Elijhah Badger of ASU will miss the first half of the game because they drew personal fouls and were ejected in the second half of the regular-season finale against Arizona last season. . . . OL Ben Coleman (leg) and DB Montana Warren (shoulder) are out with injuries for ASU.

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They said it

“It’s super impressive. It’s a testament to the human he is, the person he is and the work ethic he put in. The resilience he has. All those things, the intelligence. That’s a guy who’s he’s learned every day. It sounds so cliche. Just get better every day, that’s not realistic. Nobody is going to say that, ‘Oh I got better today’, no one is actually going to get better every day. There’s going to be a day where you fail and you don't think you grow, but the next day you got twice as good because you learned from it. It may not be the product was better, but the growth was better. Those are two different things. I think he turned every day that he failed, into growth and every day that he succeeded into growth. And he stacked those days. —ASU coach Kenny Dillingham on Jaden Rashada earning the starting job

"I think everybody is excited. We're going into the season with a chip on our shoulder because no one is expecting anything from us. That's the mentality that everybody has so if we go out and we're eager to go out there and prove people wrong." —Senior defensive end Michael Matus

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By the numbers

11 — Players from Arizona on the Southern Utah roster.

30 — Division I transfers on Arizona State's roster.

76 — Tackles Southern Utah sophomore LB Kohner Culimore had last season. Culimore, a product of Gilbert Highland High School, led the team in that department.

1,382 — Yards ASU's Cameron Skattebo ran for on 196 carries last season at Sacramento State. He was the Big Sky Offensive Player of the Year and will likely be the featured back for the Sun Devils this season.

Who will win and why

ASU 42, Southern Utah 14: This is a good game for the Sun Devils to break in their freshman quarterback, not to mention the boatload of other newcomers. Despite the number of players competing in the venue for the first time, it would still be disappointing if ASU did not win convincingly over Southern Utah, an FCS program.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: How does Arizona State football match up against Southern Utah?