ASU football's rushing attack needs more than Cam Skattebo

Cam Skattebo shouldn’t be solely responsible for Arizona State’s rushing attack. That was the case last year and Sun Devils coaches admitted he was exhausted by the end of the season.

Let’s take a look at the current season, when the team played with six ball carriers and the coaching staff expressed their confidence. Skattebo would not have to take over the offensive. Nevertheless, Skattebo has 30 more appearances in four games than in the first four games of last season.

The Sun Devils (3-1, 0-1) will face Kansas (1-4, 0-2) at Mountain America Stadium on Saturday at 5 p.m. and the good news is that head coach Kenny Dillingham has his full complement of running backs Backs features Available for the first time this season.

“We absolutely have to do it,” Dillingham said, emphasizing the need to get others involved in the running game. “Our yards per carry overall as a team is still not high enough, especially over the last two weeks. We need to increase our yards per carry. The best way to do that is to make some big plays, and we still haven’t produced enough big plays in the running game that go for 30, 50 yards.

“We were very old fashioned in our running game as far as six yards, five yards, three yards, five yards. Ultimately you have to be explosive. I do think bringing in more running backs, keeping guys fresher, pitching. “More guys, that’s one way to do that.

Skattebo, a powerfully built 5-foot-10, 215-pound player, was pushed early this season because others in his group were unavailable. He scored 86 runs in the first four games, leading all running backs in the FBS. In the 30-23 win over Mississippi State, he caught a career-high 33 carries for 262 yards, earning him National Player of the Week honors.

In 2023, his high was 24 runs and that was one of only two games in which he had 20 or more.

Skattebo was also instrumental in the passing game, with 13 balls for 190 yards. In the receiving department, he is second only to Jordyn Tyson.

The most notable absence this season was that of redshirt sophomore Raleek Brown, a transfer from USC who is expected to complement Skattebo as a more explosive runner capable of the big plays Dillingham mentioned. Skattebo’s trademark is the hard-nosed running yards rather than the breakaway speed that leads to explosive gains.

Brown suffered a hamstring injury at the start of fall camp and missed the first two games as well as the rest of the preseason work. He had two runs against Texas State but still wasn’t right, so Dillingham sat him out in the next game against Texas Tech. The bye week benefited Brown, who showed off his explosiveness in practice this week.

“He’s an explosive player,” offensive coordinator Marcus Arroyo said of Brown. “He has the ability to make big plays. He’s got to get back on the field and get scored on, take care of the football and know what we’re doing, but he’s a big game guy. That’s why he’s here. That’s why I am.” “His role in the offense is getting better every week and I’m excited to get him back here healthy.”

As for the others, junior Alton McCaskill, a transfer from Colorado, and senior DeCarlos Brooks have only played in one game each. Both had limited training participants before the bye week, but went full throttle this week.

Given that these players only had cameo appearances, it’s a little surprising that healthy sophomore Kyson Brown only scored 11 carries, although he also had five receptions, one of which went 68 yards for a touchdown against Wyoming. He also played on special teams.

The other player on the team is true freshman Jason Brown, a four-star recruit from Seattle.

Running backs coach Shaun Aguano said Brown and McCaskill were slower to get into the mix because they arrived in the summer and didn’t have the benefit of participating in spring practices. ASU is McCaskill’s third stop. He ran for 961 yards as a true freshman in Houston in 2021, but then missed all of 2022 due to injury.

“It was hard for these guys to come here in the summer and take over the offense,” Aguano said. “These other guys had it in the spring, so they’re a little behind, but I like their talent and we’ll see how it develops. The room is pretty full at the moment.”

ASU football’s rushing attack needs more than Cam Skattebo

ByJasper

By Jasper

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