’12th-man experience’: No. 21 ASU set for showdown with No. 14 BYU as sold-out crowd awaits

The brother and father of Arizona State quarterback Sam Leavitt played at BYU, which takes on ASU at Mountain America Stadium. (Photo by Daniella Trujillo/Cronkite News)

TEMPE – Arizona State football has finally made its push into the top 25 teams in college football, landing at No. 21 in the nation. One of the most important games of the season now lies ahead of the Sun Devils as they get ready to face off with 14th-ranked BYU at Mountain America Stadium.

Coach Kenny Dillingham’s mantra has been “Activate the Valley” since he arrived at ASU, and it looks as if he’s done just that – Saturday’s matchup will go down in front of a sold-out crowd. Reportedly, student tickets were in high demand with the Ticketmaster queue reaching up to 1,000 people waiting to claim tickets.

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Players have felt the buzz all week and are ready for the Sun Devils crowd to create a home-field advantage. Quarterback Sam Leavitt is more pumped for practice knowing he’ll be in front of a packed stadium this weekend.

“It’s extra juice to come to practice and put more work into the week,” Leavitt said. “I feel like it’s just another game. Folks are definitely excited to play in this game, and that’s a factor, but individual reps were going just as hard if not harder.”

Leavitt’s brother and father are former BYU players, but it’s not changing his mindset heading into the game.

“It’s the same as every other week; it doesn’t change based on what my family’s done in the past,” Leavitt said. “It’s pretty funny watching (BYU) growing up and now I get to play them.”

The magnitude of the game is recognized by players like defensive back Keith Abney II, and Abney hopes the crowd will be able to help give the Sun Devils an advantage.

“We should have a 12th-man experience, it should be like the crowd is a 12th player on the field,” Abney said. “It should be electrifying, the fans are going come out and look good, we’re activating the Valley.”

A year ago ASU finished 3-9, suffered through a self-inflicted bowl ban and seemed like a program that might need years to rebuild. Now, the Sun Devils are 8-2 overall, 5-2 in the Big 12 and find themselves in contention for the conference title – and potentially a College Football Playoff spot.

While many have found it hard to wrap their head around the quick turnaround, running back Kyson Brown attributes it to the work the Sun Devils have put in all year.

“Wrapping my head around it wasn’t hard because we knew coming into the season how hard we worked,” Brown said. “I feel like that’s the hardest I ever worked in my life, and I feel like that for the rest of the guys. We knew we would reap the benefits of what we put in and bringing it to each other every day.”

Running back Alton McCaskill takes part in drills during ASU practice Tuesday ahead of Saturday’s game against BYU. (Photo by Daniella Trujillo/Cronkite News)

Through last year’s struggles and what seemed like a broken program, to a squad that is now nationally ranked, Sun Devils fans have bought into what Dillingham has been selling. And Brown credits the ASU faithful for helping them get to a game of national importance.

“They bring a ton of energy,” he said. “Being on kickoff and running down there to hype up the crowd is one of my favorite things to do. They just give energy. I know we’re going to bring the energy on our end, so it’s going to be interesting to see what it’s going to look like this weekend.”