(Tempe, AZ) A new era in Sun Devil football was upon us at Transfer Portal signal caller from the Kentucky Wildcats, Cutter Boley made his start. Boley won the starting job over Mikey Keene, a grad student transfer and local high player from the East Valley.
ASU was a 43.5 point favorite and on paper, this contest was not supposed to be close.
Morgan State University, an HBCU school from Baltimore Maryland came to the Valley on a guaranteed big payday. Their claim to fame is that NFL Hall of Fame running back Leroy Kelly and father of local Wildcat Radio Host David Kelly was their most famous alum.
The strength of this Sun Devil team that came out of Fall Camp was their defense, offensive line and a stable of quality running backs.
First Quarter
Devils deferred to the second half after winning the coin toss. It took only two plays when Kyson Brown rumbled 46 yards for the score. Arizona State up 7-0 before the seats got warm in Mountain America Stadium.
ASU has scored on its season opening drive eleven consecutive years which leads the NCAA.
Following the score, the Devils kicked and recovered an onside kick.
Boley got his first touchdown pass Omarion Miller and with less than three minutes in the opening quarter. What set that up was a 29 yard pass to Reed Harris to get ASU into the Bears’ red zone.
Morgan State in their first two offensive possessions, had only 4 total yards going three and out both times
ASU got to work with a short field but Boley was sacked and coughed up the ball recovered by Dylan Davis to give the Bears the ball back at their own 41 yard line. Sun Devils defense forced a fourth and one. MSU decided to go for it and was stuffed for no gain and gave the ball back to the Sun Devils at midfield.
After an overturned interception, ASU retained possession and the next playMarquis Gillis ran 25 yards to score the third touchdown 0f the quarter. Sun Devils up 21-0 at the 6:15 mark.
The next Bears possession, they got their first down off a 19 yard pass reception. That ignited the Morgan State offense and got them down to the Devils’ 2 yard line. The next play, Jordan Barnett took it in for the score. The 75 yard drive took only four plays.
The Sun Devils’ offensive line which figured to be one the teams strong points was opening holes like three lane freeway and the running back hit the line of scrimmage with a full head of steam. Boley’s 28 yard pass to Harris got another TD on a four play drive that took a 1:34 to score. ASU up 28-7 and still 2:45 left in the quarter.
There was a total of 35 points scored in the quarter.
Photo – Jake Bandoh
Second Quarter
Once again, Morgan State was forced to punt after a three and out. The Bears had 98 total yards, most of them on their lone scoring drive.
It took three plays for the Sun Devils to score again, this time a 54 yard pass to Grayson Rigdon who gained most of the yardage after the catch. ASU up bi9g 35-7 and 13:28 left til halftime.
The Arizona State’s defense other than the one scoring drive had throttled the Bears’ offense the entire game to this point forcing three and outs.
Boley who had been spreading the rock around to different receivers, this time found tight end AJ Ia on a 12 yard slant into the end zone as the onslaught continued, 42-7 and still 9:11 left in the second quarter.
This time the Bears gained 13 yards on their drive and had to punt it away. ASU’s 4-3 defense had been in penetrable.
MSU’s secondary played a very soft zone that allowed the Devil receivers big lanes in which to operate. Boley continued to find wide open receivers and had the Sun Devils at the MSU 13 yard line. After the two minute timeout, Harris caught a touchdown pass from the 8 yard line to put Arizona State 49-7 to end the first half.
Halftime
Morgan State other than their lone scoring drive, netted only two first downs in the half.
The Sun Devils balanced attack, saw them rush for 150 yards and throw for 158 yards. Boley was 18-24 for a 75% completion percentage and 5 touchdowns in his Sun Devils debut. The offense was so dominate, ASU had no punts in the half.
Photo – Sun Devils Athletics
Third Quarter
To make things worse for Morgan State, the Sun Devils got the ball first in the second half and it didn’t take long to pay off even off a fourth down, Rigdon snagged a pass that the cornerback went for the interception that left Rigdon a clear path to the end zone and a 56-7 advantage.
The offensive woes continued as the Bears swapped out quarterbacks and went with back up Ade Olanegan who didn’t get a first down on his first possession.
ASU also put in former Chandler Wolves quarterback Mikey Keene to spell Boley. On the second play, Jason Brown Jr. ran for 25 yards to get the Devils down inside the MSU 30 yard line. Keene looked crisp coming off the bench as he guided the offense with a 12 play 66 yard score with David Avit’s 1 yard plunge extending the route 62-7 with 7:01 left in the quarter.
Both teams went deep into their benches for the second half as the mismatch continued. Jason Brown Jr. slanted into the end zone from 2 yards out and 70-7 lead still with 4:34 left until the end of the third quarter.
Bears’ quarterback Olanegan in spite of not scoring, seemed to have had a bit more success moving his offense albeit against the ASU reserves.
Photo – Jake Bandoh
Fourth Quarter
Both head coaches decided finish the game with a 10 minute fourth quarter instead of the normal 15 minutes. In addition, Jake Fette the third string freshman quarterback came in for mop up duty for Arizona State.
It didn’t seem to matter, who was in for the Sun Devils, they continued to move the ball offensively.
Arizona State did falter under Fette as they had a turnover on downs not being able to convert a fourth an thirteen which uncharacteristically they went for, forgoing the field goal.
Each team just ran out the string in a very uneventful final quarter.
Final Score – Arizona State 70-7 over Morgan State as they win their season opener.
Wrap Up
Arizona State 70-7 wipeout was very reminiscent of the beat down they levied on downstate rival Arizona back in December of 2020.
Boleuy set a record for touchdown passes for a quarterback starting his first game for ASU. His 6 TD passes came before he was pulled by Coach Kenny Dillingham after the game was a foregone conclusion.
The Sun Devils also had three receivers with over 100 yards led by Reed Harris with 6 catches for 137 yards. What made the edge players look so good, was the yards after catch often with a lot of real estate downfield.
Devils held Morgan State to just 11 first downs, most of them came against the ASU reserves.
This game although no very competitive, served Arizona State well in the fact that a lot of players saw playing time and there were no serious injuries heading into the big road test next week against Texas A&M in College Station Texas. After that, the team takes a trip across the pond to face Kansas in Wembley Stadium in London England.
Tonight’s sellout attendance was 54,004.
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