Arizona State without 3 starters vs. Texas State including Xavion Alford, Kyson Brown

TEMPE — Arizona State will be without three starters against Texas State on Saturday, including safety Xavion Alford, running back Kyson Brown and wide receiver Jalen Moss. Defensive lineman Justin Wodtly will return to action after missing last week’s loss at Mississippi State.

ASU coach Kenny Dillingham told Arizona Sports’ Bickley & Marotta on Friday Brown and Moss had a “slim” chance to play in the non-conference finale. Dillingham additionally said Moss has dealt with an illness this week.

“The odds of (Brown) playing are slim, I’ll say that,” Dillingham said, joking he’s not a master of the new Big 12-mandated availability reports that begin next week at Baylor. “Wodtly will be back this week, he’ll be a go. Jalen Moss, the odds of him playing are slim. He’s still out, he got sick this week as well.

“So hopefully the other guys will be back, but those are the guys that were in and out last week that will hopefully be back, and the other two very slim. I just don’t know where our medical team’s gonna put that in the verbiage, so I don’t wanna say a medical term (like questionable) and I don’t know if you get fined. I don’t know how that works.”

It was not immediately known what caused Alford to miss the game.

With nonconference play wrapping up on Saturday, the availability reports for the remaining games will be posted at 7 p.m. MST three days before each conference game.

They will be updated twice in 24-hour increments before a game-day update 90 minutes ahead of kickoff.

More to know about Arizona State injuries vs. Texas State

Brown had two carries for 11 yards before exiting the Week 2 loss after posting 145 yards on 13 touches against NAU. His absence will leave more on the plates of Raleek Brown and Kanye Udoh, who each finished with more than 100 yards at Mississippi State after Kyson exited.

Moss had two targets but no catches before he was injured in ASU’s season-opening win over Northern Arizona.

Jordyn Tyson (18 catches) and Malik McClain (two) enter Saturday as the only ASU wide receivers with catches so far this season, and coaches have mentioned Jaren Hamilton as one they’d like to involve more.

Wodtly recorded one tackle across 17 snaps before he was injured against NAU and missed the following week. He’s listed on the ASU depth chart as a starting Sparky lineman along with Elijah O’Neal, who has eight tackles and two tackles for loss in two games (89 snaps).

ASU-Texas State kicks off at 7:30 p.m. MST on the Arizona Sports app, ESPN 620 AM or 98.7 FM HD-2. It will be televised on TNT. 

Related

Kenny Dillingham's positivity is about keeping ASU's focus on the contextArizona State football aims to nail down Texas State's explosive playsArizona State needs 'phenomenally sharp' practice to translate to Texas State matchupASU's Sam Leavitt 'not tripping' but knows there's much to clean upASU football going all maroon uniforms with white pitchforks on helmets vs. Texas StateAlo-Tupuola has stabilized ASU’s offensive line from center after a year of inconsistency