Football Ventures to Arizona State for Road Clash in Tempe

WACO, Texas -- Baylor hits the road for its first true road test of the year, traveling to face Arizona State at 9:30 p.m. CT in Tempe on Saturday at Mountain America Stadium. The game will be televised live on ESPN and broadcast live on the Baylor Sports Media Network.

The game will be broadcast by Roy Philpott (play-by-play), Brock Osweiler (analyst) and Sherree Burruss (sideline) on ESPN. John Morris (play-by-play), Geff Gandy (analyst) and Bryson Jackson (sideline) have the call for the Baylor Sports Media Network.

Baylor (3-1, 1-0 Big 12 Conference) extended its winning streak to three games with a 23-13 dispatching of Colorado on Saturday at McLane, concluding a three-game homestand. The Bears have now held all four opponents under 20 points, the longest such streak since 2005.

BU's win over Colorado featured a dominating performance from its defense and special teams, with the offense emerging in the fourth quarter to solidify the win.

SCOUTING THE SUN DEVILS
• Arizona State is off to a 2-1 start to the season, with wins over Morgan State (70-7) and at Kansas in London, suffering a 48-20 loss at No. 9 Texas A&M. The Sun Devils most recently earned a 24-17 win vs. Kansas in the Union Jack Classic, building a 24-7 lead into the fourth quarter before holding off a late rally from the Jayhawks to secure the win.
• QB Cutter Boley, a sophomore transfer from Kentucky, leads the offense with nine TDs and two interceptions, throwing for 245.3 yards per game. Omarion Miller has 20 catches for 149 yards and Reed Harris has chipped in 19 grabs for 374 yards and five TDs. On the ground, Kyson Brown has 43 carries for 227 yards and a TD. Defensively, Owen Long has 25 tackles and an interception, while Martell Hughes has 21 stops and 3.5 TFLs.
• As a team, ASU is averaging 38 points per game, allowing 24. ASU is averaging 426 yards per game, including 260.3 passing and 165.7 rushing, while opponents are averaging just 285.7 per game, with 161.3 passing and 124.3 rushing. Excluding the rout of Morgan State, ASU is averaging 22 points per game, 298.5 yards of total offense, including 174.5 yards passing and 124 rushing, with opponents collecting 334.5 yards per game with 199 passing. Boley is 32-for-57 with three TDs and two interceptions, averaging 174.5 yards per game vs. FBS foes.
• ASU is led by fourth-year head coach Kenny Dillingham, who is off to a 24-18 record through his first stint as a head coach. Dillingham came to ASU after a season as the OC at Oregon, two seasons as the OC at Florida State, which followed the 2018 season as the OC at Memphis and 2019 as the OC at Auburn. He opened his coaching career at Chaparral High School from 2007-13, before moving on to a two-year stint at his alma matter, Arizona State in 2014-15. He opened a three-year career at Memphis as a GA before taking over as the QB/TE coach in 2017 and as the OC/QB coach in 2018. He grew in the profession under Mike Norvell, Gus Malzahn and Dan Lanning.
• NFL legend Hines Ward is the associate head coach and WR coach. Brian Ward is the DC, and is in his fourth season after serving as the DC at Washington State, Nevada, Syracuse, Bowling Green and Western Illinois. He served as the interim HC at Bowling Green in 2015, and as the head coach at NAIA McPherson [Kan.] was named 2009 National Coach of the Year while leading his team to the playoffs for the first time in program history. Marcus Arroyo is the OC and is in his third season after serving the 2020-22 seasons as the head coach at UNLV, where he went 7-23. He spent the 2017-19 seasons at Oregon, including serving as the stand-alone OC in 2018-19. He coached RBs at Oklahoma State in 2015-16, QBs for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2014 and was the OC at Southern Miss in 2013. He also had coaching stints at Cal, Wyoming, San Jose State and Prairie View A&M.
• Graham Rossini has been the AD at ASU, his alma matter, since the spring of 2024. He has been at ASU since 2021, when he was Senior Associate AD and later Executive Senior Associate AD/CBO. He previously spent 13 years with the Arizona Diamondbacks as VP of Special Projects & Fan Experience, and spent five years as ASU's Director of Baseball Operations. Lisa Young serves as Deputy AD and came from campus as the VP of Enterprise Development, joining ASU in 2018 as the Executive Director for Starbucks Iniatives.

SERIES HISTORY
• Arizona State has won both of the previous meetings in the series with the Bears, including last year in Waco, and the only previous clash, in 1990 in Tempe, a 34-13 ASU win.
• BU fell in its conference opener in 2025, 27-24, as the defending champion Arizona State drilled a 43-yard FG as time expired.
• The Bears rallied to tie the game with a 64-yard drive with 1:52 left in the fourth quarter, with Sawyer Robertson finding Michael Trigg for a 33-yard TD to not the game at 24-24. ASU then drove 49-yards on 11 plays over the final 1:52, boosted by a 15-yard penalty that pushed the Devils into field goal range.
• Robertson threw for 250 yards and three TDs, finding Trigg for a pair of scores, and Kole Wilson for a third.
• Bryson Washington rushed 17 times for 111 yards, his third straight 100+ yard game and the ninth of his career.
• ASU won the meeting in 1990, 34-13. The Sun Devils jumped out to a 24-0 lead with 5:27 left in the second quarter, taking complete command of the game. ASU had 28 first downs, rushed 56 times for 271 yards, and totaled 131 yards passing, good for a 402 yard outing, all while holding the Bears to 286 yards of offense.

CONNECTING THE TEAMS
• The Bears and Sun Devils have a few connections, including the addition of former BU outside linebacker Emar'rion Winston to the ASU roster in 2026. Winston is playing defensive line for the Sun Devils, a year after his lone season with the Bears that saw him start all 12 games and total 25 tackles, including 5.5 for a loss with three sacks. He has played in two games for ASU, with a tackle vs. Morgan State.
• The Bears have Connor Cameron, a junior offensive lineman from Chandler, who spent two seasons as a walk-on at Arizona State, on its 2026 roster for the second consecutive year.
• Baylor boasts several connections to the state of Arizona, including starting tight end Matthew Klopfenstein, a native of Scottsdale and a product of Horizon High School. In addition, JACK Ryan Davis, a native of Phoenix and a product of O'Connor High School, is in his first year with the Bears.
• Baylor director of athletics communications Max Calderone is a native of Arizona, attending Boulder Creek High School in Anthem.

DEFENSE, SPECIAL TEAMS STARS IN COLORADO WIN
• Behind another dominating defensive effort, a sterling special teams performance and a fourth-quarter offensive surge, Baylor earned a 23-13 win over Colorado in the Big 12 Conference opener for both teams.
• Baylor rallied past Colorado with a fourth-quarter drive to complete a conference-opening win over the Buffaloes and finish a three-game homestand. Coupled with its defensive performance over the first four games to open the year, the Bears have now held four consecutive foes to under 20 points, marking the longest such streak since 2005.
• Baylor limited Colorado to 363 yards of total offense, with the Buffs only mustering a pair of field goals and a third-quarter touchdown. BU forced Colorado into punts on eight of its 15 drives, adding a forced fumble and a pair of fourth-down stops. Beyond a 95-yard drive in the third and a 49-yard reverse pass in the first quarter, the Bears held Colorado to 219 yards of offense. On the 12 of 15 drives the Baylor defense held the Buffs without points, Colorado was limited to just 131 yards of offense.
• Baylor's special teams were special, led by senior punter Palmer Williams, a Ray Guy Award Finalist in 2025 and the nation's leading punter in 2024. Williams booted it seven times for a 50.4-yard average, with four punts going for 50+ yards and four punts downed inside the 20-yard line. WR Jayden McGowan, who had two catches for 34 yards in the pass game, was a weapon as a punt returner, with seven punt returns for 130 yards, including a long of 36. Rhett Armstrong tied his career high with three field goals, including a McLane Stadium record-tying 54 yarder, nailing attempts from 37 and 27 in the second and third quarters, respectively.
• Linebacker Travion Barnes had a Baylor career-high nine tackles, with two TFLs. He led a BU defense that had five sacks and 13 tackles for a loss, the most since a win at Kansas State in 2019.

- BaylorBears.com -

Football Ventures to Arizona State for Road Clash in Tempe

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Players Mentioned

Rhett Armstrong

Travion Barnes

Connor Cameron

Ryan Davis

Matthew Klopfenstein

Jayden McGowan

Sawyer Robertson

Michael Trigg

Bryson Washington

Palmer Williams

Kole Wilson

Emar'rion Winston

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