Both ASU and Mississippi State started their seasons off with massive wins which will boost the momentum and confidence of each team. Getting off on the right foot to begin 2024, one of the two schools’ zeros will have disappear from their record on Saturday night as only one team will come out on top.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Arizona State hosted Wyoming last week and practically made the Cowboys look like they were not on the Sun Devils’ level, though it was a tight game to call beforehand. Quarterback Sam Leavitt completed 14-of-22 passes for 258 yards and two touchdowns, and linebackers Keyshaun Elliott and Zyrus Fiaseu both snagged an interception en route to a 48-7 win last Saturday.
For the Bulldogs, starting quarterback Blake Shapen was near-perfect with connecting on 15 of his 20 passes for 247 yards and three touchdowns while wide receiver Mario Craver took the ball to the house to score two touchdowns in a 56-7 blowout victory a week ago.
Shapen was originally an ASU commit in June 2019 who eyed playing both baseball and football before he ultimately de-committied a few months later. He then committed to Baylor and redshirted his first year in 2020 leading up to him playing the past three seasons (2021-23) for the Bears and entering the transfer portal this past offseason.
ASU is winless (0-5) against an SEC school in its program’s history, adding some spice to this very intriguing clash. The Sun Devils lost to Texas A&M 38-17 during the 2015 season, and haven’t went up against a team from that stacked conference since.
Entering Tempe, Mississippi State has been one of the better teams in the country in non-conference play. The Bulldogs are 10-0 since Sept. 3, 2022 and 26-5 since 2017 when they aren’t playing someone from the SEC.
This will be the first time these two schools will have ever faced each other in football, and the first time Mississippi State’s new head coach Jeff Lebby will lead his team in an away game. Lebby was previously the offensive coordinator at Oklahoma for the past two seasons (2022-2023) and had the same role at Mississippi (2020-2021) and Central Florida (2019-2020) until he recieved his first-ever collegiate head coaching job with the Bulldogs.
How to tune into Arizona State vs. Mississippi State
Venue: Mountain America Stadium in Tempe, Ariz.
Game Time: 7:30 p.m. PT
TV: ESPN (Mark Jones, Roddy Jones and Quint Kessenich)
Stream: FUBO
Radio: ESPN 620 AM (Tim Healey, Jeff Van Raaphorst, Kevin Turner, Jeff Munn)
Key Stats
- Five of Mississippi State’s six offensive touchdowns vs. Eastern Kentucky took five plays or less, with an average time of 1:38 per scoring drive. Just two scoring drives exceeded two minutes.
- The Bulldogs are coming from being in weather where it has been fluctunation from 55 to 90 degrees Fahrenheit and rain in Mississippi to around 100 degrees of heat at game time in Tempe, a massive change of scenery for the visitors.
- ASU has not allowed 30 points or more in its past 42 of 68 (61.8 %) games since 2018.
- Arizona State finished behind Oregon (zero) for the fewest missed tackles in the country during Week 1. The Sun Devils and Colorado both had two.
Prediction
Mississippi State 27-24 Arizona State
This game could be decided by a coin flip between heads and tails as it can go one way or the other, it is a tough game to predict. ASU had the more impressive win last Saturday than Mississippi State did, with the Sun Devils demolishing a Wyoming team who had nine wins and won the 2023 Barstool Sports Arizona Bowl last season. Mississippi State’s offense is super quick with its tempo and snaps which could cause Arizona State some timing issues defensively. It will be a game decided by the line of scrimmage and fine margins as a whole. ASU very well could pull off its first SEC win ever, but Mississippi State will nick it in the end.
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Reporter Alec Cipollini covers ASU Athletics, the Phoenix Mercury and more for Burn City Sports. You can follow him on his X account, @AlecCipollini
