Arizona State didn’t put together a flawless night against Colorado, but it did enough to walk out with a 20-10 win and a fifth victory of the season. The offense had 11 drives, and the box score showed the mix of creativity and inconsistency that has come with true freshmen Jake Fette and Cardae Mack taking full control.
That new setup has opened the door for Marcus Arroyo to get inventive. Sometimes it has looked sharp. Sometimes it has looked a little too clever for its own good.
The Sun Devils finished with two touchdowns and two field goals, but the red zone numbers tell a more uneven story. Colorado actually made better use of its chances inside the 20, scoring a touchdown on one of two trips. Arizona State managed just one touchdown in three red-zone possessions.
The missed chance that stood out most came late. After a 58-yard screen pass to Reed Harris, ASU moved all the way to the Colorado four-yard line and came away empty.
The sequence went incompletion, a 0-yard pass and another incompletion before the Sun Devils settled for their second field goal of the night. That sequence helped turn the fourth quarter into a slog, and Colorado later answered with a touchdown drive that stayed alive thanks to a roughing the kicker penalty on ASU.
For all the success Arizona State found with wildcat looks and run-pass option concepts built around Fette and Mack, there were also moments when the offense seemed to lean too far into the trickery.
One example came when ASU didn’t run the ball at all inside the five-yard line, then turned around and ran it up the middle twice from the Colorado 17, setting up a desperate third-and-10 for its freshman quarterback.
Still, the night also featured the kind of play that shows why this package exists in the first place: Cardae Mack throwing a touchdown to Jake Fette on fourth-and-one. It was the kind of snap that can light up a highlight reel. It also came with a warning label, since Mack nearly threw an interception on the same type of play two quarters later.
That’s the balancing act now. Mack’s background as a former high school quarterback has drawn comparisons to the “Wild-Skat” stretch of 2023 Arizona State football, when Cam Skattebo handled a little bit of everything. But that earlier team didn’t have Reed Harris and Omarion Miller, who are likely to be NFL draft picks this spring.
There’s value in keeping a young quarterback protected with simple designs, especially when the backfield has this kind of athleticism. But there’s also a point where simple starts to become predictable.
Mack’s efficiency reflected that on Saturday. He finished with 3.3 rushing yards per attempt, his lowest mark of the season in a game where he carried the ball at least 10 times.
The bigger concern is how much the outside playmakers get involved if the offense keeps leaning so heavily on the same looks. Creative play-calling is a strength. It just can’t become a crutch.
That question gets even sharper with UCF coming up. The Knights rank in the top five in passing yards allowed in the Big 12 and sit more in the middle against the run. They’ve also been living in shootouts, allowing 32 points or more in each of their last four games and going 2-2 in that span.
Arizona State hasn’t topped 28 points against a Big 12 opponent this season, and it has gone over 30 only twice, against Morgan State and Hawaii. Since Fette and Mack took over, the Sun Devils have scored 28, 20 and 20, with the defense carrying much of the load in those wins.
So the question for Saturday is simple: if UCF starts trading scores, can ASU keep pace with this version of the offense?
Arizona State and UCF are set for Saturday, November 14, at 3:30 p.m. EST (12:30 p.m. PST) on ESPN2.
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