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.

Boley threw two interceptions, including a pick-six on his second attempt of the day, as part of a half where he was 5 of 10 for 124 yards and one touchdown. Most of those yards came on a 74-yard touchdown to Raiden Vines-Bright.

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.

The quarterback was incomplete on his last three passes, including the second interception as he tried to make something happen near the end of the half.

ASU was down 43-10 at the half, as its defense wasn’t doing Boley any favors with poor tackling and significant holes in coverage.

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 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 backfires 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, the ASU running backs combined for 4.8 yards per carry on 14 rushes.

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