No. 24 Arizona State, unranked last week when it defeated then-No. 7 Texas Tech, must now turn its attention to a Houston team that is not in the Top 25 despite boasting a 6-1 record.
The Sun Devils (5-2, 3-1 Big 12) will host the Cougars (also 3-1 in conference play) on Saturday night in Tempe in a game that will impact the standings. Both entered the weekend a game behind co-leaders BYU and Cincinnati.
“In this world, you go from in the castle to in the outhouse overnight,” Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham said Monday.
The Sun Devils’ 26-22 victory over Texas Tech was the program’s first since 2019 against a team ranked in the top 10.
Sam Leavitt had an effective return after sitting out due to a foot injury in Arizona State’s 42-10 loss at Utah.
Leavitt passed for a career-high 319 yards, completing 28 of 47 passes with a touchdown and no interceptions against the Red Raiders.
Jordyn Tyson reeled in 10 passes for 105 yards and a score and shared Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week honors with Houston quarterback Conner Weigman.
Tyson finished the game limping because of a leg injury. His status for Saturday’s game is uncertain.
Arizona State will face a Houston defense that allows 19.0 points a game, which ranks tied for 27th in the nation. The Cougars have 17 sacks and eight takeaways this season.
Dillingham said he is wary of Houston because of coach Willie Fritz’s history of success at Georgia Southern, Tulane and now Houston. Fritz is 81-63 at those three schools.
“At the end of the day, their head coach has won a lot of games for a long time at a lot of places,” Dillingham said. “They just win games by playing good defense, complementary offensive football, possessing the football and not hurting themselves.”
Houston is coming off a last-second 41-yard field goal by Ethan Sanchez in a 31-28 win over Arizona at home.
Weigman became the first Cougars quarterback with three passing touchdowns, a rushing touchdown and at least 95 yards on the ground in a game since Kevin Kolb in 2003.
He finished with a career-high 98 rushing yards operating behind a unit that was named the Big 12 Offensive Line of the Week.
The Cougars did not allow a sack and overpowered Arizona’s defense with 232 rushing yards, the most for the program in a Big 12 game.
Saturday’s game will be the first matchup between Houston and Arizona State since 1990, when the Cougars won 62-45 in Tokyo.
“Our No. 1 goal this week is beat Arizona State; they’ve got a great ballclub,” Fritz said. “I’ve got a ton of respect for them. We’ve got to be all-in with our preparation this week in order to be successful.
“We’re playing on the road. They have a great environment there. We’ve got to be all locked in on them.”
