Shaun Aguano as play-caller is deciding factor in ASU’s win over Colorado

It didn’t take long to notice how different the Arizona State Sun Devils offense was in a 42-34 win over the Colorado Buffaloes on Saturday.

ASU interim head coach Shaun Aguano made two big changes before the team arrived in Boulder.

He not only made a quarterback switch and started Trenton Bourguet in place of Emory Jones, but he also took over play-calling duties for offensive coordinator Glenn Thomas.

The result? A whopping 557 total yards of offense and six touchdowns.

But it wasn’t just the 32 of 43 passing (74%) for three touchdowns and one interception from Bourguet, who spread the ball around to nine different pass catchers.

Bourguet’s 435 passing yards are also the most in school history for a Sun Devil making their first career start.

Aguano also ran a hurry-up offense in which the team averaged around 16.5 seconds on the play clock when the ball was snapped. Coming into the ballgame, ASU had averaged snapping the ball with fewer than 10 seconds remaining on the play clock.

“I thought we needed to have a change in that and that was one of the changes that I wanted to get done,” he told reporters postgame.

“The kids were excited just because I think there’s so many kids that played in that system prior from coming to high school, I think they’re used to that. So that tempo helped us, especially keeping the defense off balance.”

The offense also heavily utilized tight ends Messiah Swinson and Jalin Conyers, the latter of whom became the first TE in school history to catch three touchdown passes in a single game.

Tight end Upic.twitter.com/Vnz4taHICj

— Jake Anderson (@jwa1994) October 30, 2022

“[Aguano’s play-calling] was good. Obviously I think he found out that I can catch the ball a little bit, so it definitely worked out a little bit,” Conyers jokingly told reporters postgame.

“I’ve never had a game like this in college,” he added. “I don’t think I’ve ever had over three catches in a game. So to be able to do this was huge for me, huge for the team and I was able to help the team win.”

It also marks the first Sun Devil to have three TD grabs in a single game since Brandon Aiyuk managed the feat against Washington State in 2019.

Swinson finished with three catches for 55 yards and Conyers’ night came to an end with six receptions for 108 yards and three touchdowns. Wide receiver Elijhah Badger led all pass catchers with eight grabs and 137 yards.

“I knew Badger was going to be double-teamed and he was going to be primarily the guy they were going to focus on,” Aguano said.

“Our tight ends I think were underutilized in some instances and I think they’re athletic enough and big enough, so I wanted to make sure there were mismatches. You saw them all over the field — there were mismatches that we could take advantage of.”

Meanwhile, running back Xazavian Valladay added a game-high 118 rushing yards on 23 carries (5.1 per rush) for three scores.

Anotha onepic.twitter.com/e24YogA8sj

— Jake Anderson (@jwa1994) October 30, 2022

“(The game plan) just evolved on what I was seeing,” Bourguet told reporters postgame. “They were bringing some pressure and my tight end were my hot reads a couple times.

“Jaylin did a good job of finding extra spaces and Messiah too. … We have a good tight end room, a great running back room and a lot of good weapons in the wide receiver room. So offensively we just really played as a unit.”

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