Ten Fun Facts Ahead of Arizona State's Season Opener
The Arizona State Sun Devils are set to take on the Southern Utah Thunderbirds in Week 1 of the college football season. The Sun Devils look to use their home-field advantage at Sun Devil Stadium to improve to 1-0 Thursday night, which would mark the 22nd consecutive victory in a home opener for ASU.
What's the forecast for the Thunderbirds? Not particularly great, especially after getting beaten 45-14 by San Jose State last Saturday. The Sun Devils average a solid margin of victory of 24 points on opening day, while only allowing an average of 14.4 points to opponents.
For better or worse, the game figures to feature a heavy amount of Sparky push-ups following each score. While we're not quite sure on the exact number of points the Sun Devils will put up, we do know these 10 fun facts ahead of the game, thanks to ASU's media department.
Ten fun facts ahead of Arizona State's Opener
1. Jayden Daniels has committed only five turnovers on 618 plays in his career, the fewest among FBS quarterbacks since 2019 (0.8 percent of plays).
2. ASU has held opponents to less than 30 points in 20 of 30 games under head coach Herm Edwards, which is notable because as the team did allow 30-plus in 32 of 43 previous games dating back to a span from 2013-17.
3. Arizona State has played in 11 total games decided by four points or less in the Edwards era, which is tied for third in the FBS in that time period behind Kansas State and North Carolina (13).
4. Arizona State allowed a pass of 40-plus yards on only one of 158 attempts (0.6%) last season; fourth-best among Power-5 teams.
5. ASU has forced 27 turnovers in its last 10 games dating back to 2019, good for the most in the nation. It has multiple takeaways in eight of those and three-plus in four of them.
6. ASU has allowed only seven plays over 50 yards to opponents since the 2018 season, which covers 30 games. The .23 50-plus yard plays per game allowed are second-fewest in the FBS.
7. Since 2019, ASU has allowed a fourth-quarter touchdown drive just 19.4 percent of the time (12 of 62), good for 13th among all Power-5 schools.
8. ASU's secondary has combined for 123 career starts, a total that is second in the nation behind only Indiana (138).
9. Chase Lucas (39 career starts) needs only nine starts this season to break Dexter Davis' school record of 47.
10. Last season, the defensive line tallied 70 total quarterback pressures, a 17.5 pressure-per-game average along the line that was easily tops in the conference.
Donnie Druin is a Deputy Editor with AllSunDevils. Follow Donnie on Twitter @DonnieDruin, and AllSunDevils @AllSunDevils. Like and follow AllSunDevils on Facebook, and for more ASU news visit https://www.si.com/college/arizonastate/