Dampier rushed for 120 yards and three touchdowns in his best game of the season as the Utes dismantled the Devils, 42-10.
Though the start of Saturday’s game wasn’t delayed by much, the pregame festivities were anything but normal at Rice-Eccles Stadium.
As driving rain poured down, lightning strikes lit up the night sky in Salt Lake City, delaying players from warming up on the field and preventing fans from entering the stadium.
Eventually, after workers squeegeed the soggy turf, which had accumulated puddles of rainwater, players were able to enter the field for warmups with about 30 minutes to kickoff — a significant departure from the norm, which is usually an hour prior to game time.
While the storm brewed outside, Utah’s players were doing warmups inside the team’s locker room. When they finally emerged onto the field, instead of going back to the locker room like normal after warmups, they went directly to the sideline.
No pregame band performance on the field, no player introductions, no fireworks when the Utes ran out of the tunnel — it was a significant departure from the usual.
Though the fans who braved the stormy weather were loud and engaged, at kickoff, the Rice-Eccles Stadium crowd was noticeably sparse, though it filled in as the game went along.
Would the deviation in routine throw the Utes off?
Not a chance.
From the beginning of Saturday’s late-night contest, the Utes were locked in.
In fact, given the 42-10 win over No. 21 Arizona State, perhaps Utah should try the abbreviated routine more often.
“Usually we have a long warmup outside and we had some mats inside warming up in there, throwing the ball, but honestly it wasn’t bad. It was kind of fun, maybe we should do it again. It’s kind of nice,” said Jackson Bennee, who started at safety in place of the injured Nate Ritchie.
“It kind of brought like that youth ball feeling when you could just go out there and go warm up and then straight to the game. It was kind of fun,” said Utah quarterback Devon Dampier.
Though the Sun Devils were missing star quarterback Sam Leavitt, Arizona State’s defense — which allowed just 78.2 yards of rushing per game heading into the game — was still largely intact, aside from starting safety Xavion Alford, who has been out since Sept. 13.
It was the first big test for the Utes’ offensive front since the loss to Texas Tech, in which the Red Raiders dominated both sides of the line of scrimmage, and the Utes aced it.
“We trust those boys up front, our front five. I trust those guys over anybody. We take whatever the defense gives us and our run game was moving, we’re moving the ball efficiently, stuck to it,” Dampier said.
Dampier ran wild, rushing for 120 yards and three touchdowns in his best game of the season and becoming the first Ute quarterback since Travis Wilson against Oregon in 2015 to run for 100 or more yards.
With the success in the run game, there wasn’t a need to put the ball in the air — Dampier threw it just 12 times, completing seven passes for 104 yards.
After the bye week, Dampier is close to 100% healthy, and you could tell on Saturday.
“It opens it (the offense) up a bunch,” Whittingham said of a healthy Dampier. “And you saw some of the moves he made tonight, he just wasn’t capable of making those moves the last few weeks but now with the bye week, the bye week really helped him out and elated that he’s back to 100%.”
Running backs Wayshawn Parker, NaQuari Rogers and Daniel Bray combined for 144 rushing yards, with Rogers finding the end zone twice.
It didn’t even matter when Dampier was replaced by Bryd Ficklin in the fourth quarter; ASU could not stop the Ute rushing attack. The freshman QB added a rushing touchdown to stretch Utah’s lead to 42-10.
Utah scored touchdowns on six of its seven drives, punting just once.
“We started fast and never let up. There was no lulls in the game. I think we only punted it one time. We only punted it one time in this game so we’re not punting very much and that’s a good thing and a good sign,” Whittingham said.
At halftime, the Utes had 183 rushing yards and Dampier had 87 himself, eclipsing what the Sun Devils usually allow in an entire game.
Offensive coordinator Jason Beck used Dampier’s running ability more than any game this season and Arizona State’s defense couldn’t contain him.
On the Utes’ first touchdown of the night, Beck called a quarterback keeper on fourth-and-2 from the Sun Devil 12-yard line and Dampier made the right read and a good cut to punch in Utah’s first points of the night.
Two drives later, and it was Dampier again making plays with his legs, first on a fourth-and-1 conversion and later on a 24-yard touchdown run where Dampier slithered to the end zone, evading two would-be ASU tacklers to put Utah up 14-7.
He wasn’t done there, with four more runs of 10 or more yards, including a 22-yard rush to get the Utes in the red zone late in the third quarter. Utah’s quarterback would polish off that drive with a nine-yard rushing touchdown, stutter-stepping and making two Sun Devils miss as the Utes took a commanding 35-10 lead.
After allowing a field goal on Arizona State’s first drive, which featured two fourth-down conversions, Utah’s defense settled down and shut down the Sun Devils until 4:32 in the third quarter, when ASU scored its only touchdown of the evening.
There was definitely a downgrade in talent with Sims at the helm instead of Leavitt, but you play who’s in front of you, and Utah’s defense dominated for the majority of the game.
“Defense played outstanding start to finish,” Whittingham said.
The Utes held the Sun Devils to just 259 total yards and sacked Sims five times. Cornerback Smith Snowden was tasked with guarding one of the best receivers in the nation in Jordyn Tyson and did a good job, limiting him to 40 yards on eight receptions.
“It was obviously a focal point and Smith Snowden did an outstanding job on him,” Whittingham said. “He shadowed him a lot of the night, not completely, but a lot of the time, and to hold a talent like that to just 40 yards is a credit again to the secondary and the way they played tonight. He’s a heck of a player.”
Defensive end John Henry Daley had another excellent game with 2.5 tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks. The secondary as a whole had its best game of the season, especially defending ASU’s deep passes at the start of the game.
Those vertical passes were an emphasis for the Sun Devils early on, and the Utes shut those plays down.
“I thought the secondary played really well. We were in great position on those balls up the field all night long. Very proud of the way Smith Snowden played and Blake Cotton and Scooby (Davis) and those guys really, I think it was their best game of the year, so good to see that happen,” Whittingham said.
All three phases excelled in the win, including special teams. Bennee jumped over the Arizona State line and blocked a field goal in the second quarter to keep it a 14-3 game and Mana Carvalho had a 24-yard punt return that set up Ficklin’s touchdown run.
“(Defensive coordinator Morgan) Scalley, he’s a master when it comes to scheming something up like that and they showed what we were looking for. Honestly, we were kind of moving around. I didn’t think we were going to get it off, but yeah, it worked out. Jumped over and there you go,” Bennee said.
Saturday started a tough two-game stretch that will define the 2025 Utes. Though the test against Arizona State was diminished due to Leavitt’s absence, Utah’s dominant win and dismantling of the Sun Devils’ defense proved that the Utes are still a contender in the Big 12 Conference despite an early-season loss to Texas Tech.
“They’ve been a determined bunch ever since that loss. Not that they were not practicing well prior to that, but that was a very disappointing game to them and you could tell they were hurt and ticked off and I think they’ve responded as well as we possibly could have hoped for,” Whittingham said.
Next up, a probable Top 25 matchup in Provo that pits the 5-1 Utes against 6-0 BYU in a rivalry game that could have a huge impact on the Big 12 title race.
“Should be a great matchup. I mean, a one-loss team and an undefeated team...I would assume we’ll be ranked,” Whittingham said.
“We don’t pay a whole lot of attention to that right now, but that most likely will be the case, so I would say it’s shaping up to be the biggest event in the state of Utah, sporting event, like it is most years.”
Category: General Sports
