‘This was my plan all along’: ASU football players say they knew turnaround was coming

TUCSON — ASU football’s fate is sealed. After a blowout win in the Territorial Cup on Saturday, the Sun Devils are headed to the Big 12 title game.

It took a win from TCU over Cincinnati after ASU finished its game to punch its ticket to Arlington.

“It’s pretty incredible. I don’t know if I can really grasp it right now,” quarterback Sam Leavitt said postgame of what it will mean to play for a Big 12 title as a first-year starter. “I’ll probably really understand what it means when I get in that situation, but it is crazy. This was my plan all along.

“I would say it to my teammates but to really see it come to fruition, it’s pretty special.”

“It’s remarkable, the turnaround that those guys and that leadership and that group has been able to do in one year,” coach Kenny Dillingham said. “It’s a special group, and we should all cherish it.”

ASU won three games in each of the previous two seasons before winning 10 this year, including a Territorial Cup revenge win after the Wildcats won 59-23 last year.

Meanwhile, the head coach said he finally learned the Big 12 title scenarios and told his team, but they knew they had already clinched at least one postseason game.

“I’m excited for what’s next and what can become (of) this program,” Dillingham said. “Like I said, this is Year 2. We were built to continue to get better, and hopefully that continues to happen, and we continue to get better.

“Are we better than I anticipated? Yeah, but hopefully we can continue to build … and create something sustainable.”

Listen to Leavitt and star teammates Xavion Alford and Cam Skattebo, however, and this is exactly what was expected.

“‘Damn right,'” Alford said he would’ve responded if told the Sun Devils would have this kind of a season.

“100%. We knew coming out of the summer, me and X,” Skattebo added.

“Everybody sees this, but they don’t see the hard work that we put in, the uncomfortable conversations that we had with each other,” Alford said.

The safety alluded to sprints in the Valley summer heat that brought the group together and emphasized the group’s level of care for each other and for winning.

“It’s crazy just to see where we came from,” Alford added. “Having those conversations about exactly where we are. We never looked ahead. We never let the outside people influence us. We never let them get in our heads.

“We knew what we could do in the building, and it was just up to us to just believe in the building.”

Now, the Sun Devils are looking at a Big 12 title game appearance in their first season in the conference.

“Everybody’s already moving onto next week,” Leavitt said. “Celebrate for a little bit now and just get back to work and see what we could do.”