The Arizona State “Victory Bell” has been quiet this season. It was rung against the FCS Southern Utah Week 1, and it hasn’t made a sound since.
That doesn’t mean the Sun Devils haven’t been making noise. They just haven’t been able to finish it and produce the roar at the end. The defense allowed a 45-yard pass against Colorado with seconds left to lose the game. They couldn’t score late in the USC game. And then there was the disastrous Pick-6 at the end of the Washington game. Everything that could go wrong would go wrong.
They were so close, though, and Kenny Dillingham knew it. The team couldn’t get a Power 5 win. They couldn’t get a Pac-12 win until last night. Arizona State finally conquered their end-of-game demons against a dangerous Washington State team and made three straight stops inside the red zone to power them to a 38-27 win.
Both sides of the ball came alive, with the offense generating 500 yards of offense and the defense holding a scary QB in Cameron Ward to only 35 rushing yards. They also produced 14 points in the second half, a problem for the team all year. It was an all-around fantastic performance by the Sun Devils.
The Victory Bell finally made noise again, and now that Dillingham’s team knows how to win Pac-12 games, it might not stop ringing.
Joey Ramos rings the victory bell for the first Power 5 win in the Kenny Dillingham era.@DevilsDigest pic.twitter.com/3riZmWVOp1
— Sammy Nute (@SammyNute) October 29, 2023
