ASU turns to Mikey Keene as Cutter Boley struggles at Texas Tech

After a poor first half from Cutter Boley, Arizona State went with quarterback Mikey Keene to begin the second half at Texas Tech on Saturday.

Keene led a much smoother offense, albeit against a defense that was rightfully on cruise control, one that didn’t have any film on Keene in an ASU uniform.

He threw for 256 yards and two touchdowns on 74% passing to outdo Boley’s 124 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions on 50% passing.

“There was a spark there when he went in the football game. We moved the football, we were efficient,” head coach Kenny Dillingham told reporters postgame. “He took some sacks we don’t want to take, but I thought he had a great command and control when he was in. We had to do something to shake it up.”

The Sun Devils lost 53-25 after trailing 43-10 at half when the quarterback change was made, as ASU’s defense wasn’t doing Boley any favors with poor tackling and significant holes in coverage.

“We can’t just act like the week is done when we get to a game day,” Keene told reporters. “We do all this stuff in the summer, work our asses off the entire summer, we earned 12 opportunities. … This was our best week of practice. When Dilly says all this stuff to you, it sounds like he’s [expletive] but I swear to God it was the best week of practice.

“It’s got to come from us. The coaches aren’t on the field, so ultimately it comes down to us.”

Dillingham said he’ll assess the starting quarterback for ASU’s next game against Kansas State after reviewing the tape, declining to name a starter postgame.

Boley threw a pick-six on his second attempt of the day and later had another interception on a throw he shouldn’t have forced near the end of his half, the third of three straight incompletions to end his day.

The pick-six appeared to be well within Boley’s control, as the pass was behind Reed Harris‘ route and straight into the hands of Texas Tech star linebacker Ben Roberts.

Keene entered the season with a boatload of college experience, as he had more than 2,200 career snaps across two seasons at Fresno State and two seasons at UCF. He spent last season at Michigan.

He led the Mountain West in completion percentage each of his two seasons at Fresno State (67.1% in 2023 and 70.5% in 2024). He carries a career passing touchdown-interception ratio of 65-28.

Keene previously appeared for ASU in the season-opening blowout win over Morgan State, as he threw for 32 yards on 4 of 7 passing.

Offensive line tweak doesn’t pay off for ASU

As ASU got back two of its starting offensive linemen in center Tana Alo-Tupuola and right guard Wade Helton, the pair swapped places on the line.

“We want to let Tana play a little more free. Not worry about MIKE points, not worry about checks; let him just play free, fire off the rock,” head coach Kenny Dillingham said on the pregame radio show. “And we want Wade to take a leadership role at that center of making points and kind of taking control.”

Helton took the most center snaps of any Sun Devil last season (422) after Ben Coleman suffered a season-ending injury about halfway through the year.

The tweak did not lead to better offensive line play Saturday, as Alo-Tupuola was bull-rushed for a third-down sack at one point and Texas Tech got plenty of advantageous one-on-one situations.

In addition to the four combined sacks and QB hits against Boley, Keene was sacked four times and hit one other time. The ASU running backs combined for 4.8 yards per carry on 20 rushes.

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