Following last year’s game against the Texas Tech football team, Arizona State head coach Kenny Dillingham talked about the chaotic nature of seeing tortillas flying around inside Jones AT&T Stadium.
Dillingham and the Sun Devils used that loss to Texas Tech as a launching pad to win the Big 12 Conference championship and earn a spot in the College Football Playoffs. Arizona State won’t have to deal with tortillas this time around, since the Sun Devils will get to return the favor when they host the Red Raiders on Oct. 18.
In what is being pegged as Texas Tech’s biggest game of the season, do the Red Raiders have what it takes to go on the road and knock off Arizona State?
Get to know Texas Tech football’s opponent: Arizona State Sun Devils
Dillingham and the Sun Devils were the darlings of the college football world in 2024, going from being picked dead last in the preseason Big 12 coaches poll to conference champs.
Much of that success can be attributed to do-everything running back Cam Skattebo, who had one of his worst games of the season in terms of rushing against Texas Tech. Skattebo is off to the NFL, but Arizona State returns just about everybody else who played a big role last season, including quarterback Sam Leavitt, who has replaced Skattebo in the Heisman conversation.
Leavitt passed for 2,885 yards and 24 touchdowns compared to six interceptions and added 443 yards and five scores on the ground. He gets back top receiving option Jordyn Tyson — brother of former Texas Tech basketball player Jaylon Tyson — whose late-season injury kept him out of the CFP. Tyson’s 1,101 receiving yards left him third in the Big 12 behind a pair of Top 10 picks in the 2024 NFL Draft, Colorado’s Travis Hunter and Arizona’s Tetairoa McMillan.
Defensively, the Sun Devils bring back 11 of their top 13 tacklers from last season, including players who had 13 of the team’s 16 interceptions.
One Arizona State football stat for Texas Tech fans to know
Outside of the 30-22 loss to Texas Tech last season, Arizona State’s only other setback before the Peach Bowl loss to Texas in double-overtime was a 24-14 loss at Cincinnati. Leavitt did not play in that game, and the Sun Devils went on to win six straight games after that.
Score prediction for Texas Tech football vs. Arizona State
Arizona State 35, Texas Tech 24: By this point of the season, the hope is the Red Raiders have found their continuity, but that’s much harder when three of their first four Big 12 games are on the road. This setback would put Texas Tech at 2-2 in Big 12 play, needing to win out for a chance at the conference title game.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech football 2025 schedule preview: Get to know the Arizona State Sun Devils
Reporting by Nathan Giese, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal / Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
