Arizona State will play Texas in College Football Playoff quarterfinals (Peach Bowl)
As expected, the Arizona State Sun Devils will face the Texas Longhorns in the College Football Playoff quarterfinals on New Year's Day.
The Longhorns literally ran over No. 12 Clemson 38-24 on Saturday in their first-round CFP game. Texas finished with 292 yards rushing on 48 carries and had two running backs go over 100 yards.
The No. 4 Arizona State vs. No. 5 Texas CFP quarterfinal game will be played as the Peach Bowl in Atlanta. The early betting odds have Texas as 13.5-point favorites.
After stunning the college football world and winning the Big 12, Arizona State (11-2) received a first-round CFP bye. ASU coach Kenny Dillingham gave his team a week off before beginning preparations for the quarterfinals on Monday.
"We're not preparing for [the Peach Bowl] yet, we're preparing for us. We're trying to fix some things that we've got to get better at, trying to fine-tune some things from our perspective and get our condition level back up," Dillingham said earlier this week.
"We haven't played a four-quarter football game. When we play in the Peach Bowl it will have been six weeks since we played four quarters of football. Our starters didn't play in the last quarter of the UA game, they didn't play in the last quarter of [the Big 12 championship], so it's going to be literally six weeks since they played four full quarters of football ... that's the number one thing I'm trying to balance right now is how do you keep these guys in conditioning shape when it's going to be six weeks since they've played a real football game."
When they play that game they'll have to contend with a Texas offense that manhandled Clemson. The Longhorns racked up 494 yards of offense and averaged 6.1 yards per rush. Junior running back Jaydon Blue had 14 carries for 146 yards and 2 touchdowns, and sophomore running back Quintrevion Wisner had 15 carries for 110 yards and 2 touchdowns.
Arizona State's defense has not allowed a 100-yard rusher since Kansas State's DJ Giddens rushed for 133 yards in ASU's 24-14 victory on Nov. 16. The Sun Devils had one of the best run defenses in the nation this season, only allowing 117.5 rushing yards per game.
ASU vs. Texas will be strength on strength: the Longhorns only allowed 106.7 rushing yards per game during the regular season.
Dillingham and offensive coordinator Marcus Arroyo like to feed the ball to All-American running back Cam Skattebo, who finished the regular season second in the nation in all-purpose yards with 2,074 (1,568 rushing and 506 receiving).
Skattebo, who finished fifth in the 2024 Heisman Trophy voting, rushed 16 times for 170 yards and 2 touchdowns in Arizona State's 45-19 Big 12 championship game victory over Iowa State. And he did not play in the fourth quarter.
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Ben Sherman has been covering the sports world for most of his journalism career, including 17 years with The Oregonian/OregonLive. One of his favorite memories was covering the 1999 Fiesta Bowl - the first BCS National Championship Game - at Sun Devil Stadium.