In Arizona State’s 28-23 win over No. 14 BYU, Robinson came through with not only the play of the game, but arguably the play of the entire season for the Maroon and Gold. He intercepted BYU quarterback Jake Retzlaff’s pass with under two minutes left in the fourth quarter, returning it 64 yards deep into Cougar territory and keeping the Sun Devils in front.
Thanks to his contributions, Javan Robinson is the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week. In the Kenny Dillingham era, a Sun Devil has now won a conference player of the week award 15 times. ASU leads the Big 12 with 11 conference player of the week selections this season. That is four more than the second-best team (Colorado). In addition to the weekly league recognition, a Sun Devil has been tabbed a National Player of the Week ten times this year.
Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week – Javan Robinson
Sun Devil Football defensive back Javan Robinson is the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week. It is the second time a Sun Devil has won the award this year, joining linebacker Caleb McCullough from week 7. Arizona State is one of four schools that have won Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week twice.
Why he Won
Sun Devil defensive back Javan Robinson came through with arguably not only the biggest play for the Sun Devils this season, but the entire conference when he picked off a Jake Retzlaff pass in the fourth quarter of Arizona State’s win over No. 14 BYU. The Cougars were in the midst of a game-winning drive attempt, finding themselves in Sun Devil territory with less than two minutes to go. ASU needed a play and Robinson delivered, intercepting picking off Retzlaff’s pass and returning it 64 yards to the BYU seven-yard line. The interception allowed the Sun Devils to burn a majority of the remaining clock.
However, BYU would end up with one final play, a Hail Mary attempt to try and win the game. Robinson was on the coverage and credited with half a tackle, defending BYU’s Chase Roberts as he leapt for the ball. Robinson finished with six total tackles, an interception, and two pass breakups.
Big 12 Player of the Week by School
Arizona State, 11
Colorado, 7
Baylor, 5
West Virginia, 5
Arizona, 4
Oklahoma St, 4
Cincinnati, 3
Houston, 3
Kansas, 3
Texas Tech, 3
Utah, 3
BYU, 2
Kansas St, 2
UCF, 1
Iowa St, 1
TCU, 1
The ASU Victory…
— Matched ASU’s best record through 11 games since also going 9-2 in 2014.
— Moved ASU into a tie for first in the Big 12 standings at 6-2 (Colorado, BYU) – with the Iowa State result still pending.
— Moved the Sun Devils to 6-2 through eight games in conference play for the first time since 2014 (also 6-2).
— Gave ASU an undefeated record at home for the first time since 2004 (also 6-0). The Sun Devils DID have a regular season undefeated record of 7-0 at home in 2013, leading to ASU hosting the final Pac-12 Championship game not played at a neutral site. The Sun Devils dropped that game to Stanford for its lone loss at “home” that year.
— Gave ASU the single largest turnaround in program history with a six-win improvement from a year ago. ASU’s current five-win improvement is already tied for first.
— Officially gave the Sun Devils more wins this season than it has combined over the last four seasons (only 8 after ASU’s 2021 victories were vacated).
Rank and File
— Arizona State now has back-to-back wins over AP Top-25 teams (No. 20 Kansas State, No. 14 BYU). It is the first time the program has accomplished the feat since defeating No. 18 Utah and No. 8 Notre Dame on Nov. 1 and Nov. 8 back in 2014.
— This is the sixth time in program history that ASU has defeated AP Top-25 teams in consecutive games. (2024, 2014, 1997, 1996, 1982, 1975).
— The last time ASU won consecutive games over a ranked opponent with one of those games being on the road was in 1997 when they beat No. 25 Stanford away from home and took down No. 10 Washington State two weeks later on Nov. 1.
— This is the first time since 1996 that the Sun Devils have knocked off ranked teams in consecutive weeks since consecutive wins over No. 10 Oregon (Oct. 28) and No. 22 UCLA (Nov. 4) in 1996.
— The victory Improved ASU to 3-0 against AP-ranked opponents this season. It matched ASU’s most wins against Top-25 teams since 2019 (3-1) and is tied for the third-most single-season AP wins in program history (5 in 1986, 4 in 2014).
Quotables
Coach Dillingham on Javan Robinson’s interception
“I knew we just needed to make one play the rest of the game and we win. We make one sack or one interception, (we) win the game. So many times, (it’s) just one play. And guess what? We got it, we got the play to win the football game.”
Press Release courtesy of Sun Devil Athletics – Connor Smith
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