Two years after Arizona State turned a BYU trip to Tempe into one of the Cougars’ most painful nights, the rematch arrives with plenty of familiar baggage.
BYU offensive lineman Bruce Mitchell did not hide how the 28-23 loss to the Sun Devils still sits with him. After practice Tuesday, he was asked about that game and didn’t soften the memory.
“That sucked when they stormed the field,” Mitchell recalled. “That certainly leaves a bad taste in your mouth. I think we are all looking forward to this Saturday.”
Mitchell didn’t say outright that the Cougars are chasing revenge, but it was easy to hear the edge in his words. The scene from Nov. 23, 2024, left a mark on BYU’s locker room, and on a fan base that watched Arizona State celebrate on the field after the upset.
That loss came a week after BYU had already been stunned at home by Kansas, and now the Cougars face a similar setup: after last week’s 39-31 double-overtime loss to unranked UCF, No. 8 BYU is staring at another chance to keep one defeat from becoming two.
On the other side, Arizona State enters Saturday with a 2-2, 4-3 mark and a little momentum after a rough start to the season. The Sun Devils were hammered 55-19 at home by Baylor and lost 53-25 at Texas Tech, but last week they beat Kansas State 28-17 after true freshman quarterback Jake Fette came in for injured Mikey Keene and helped close out the win. Keene was listed as questionable in Thursday’s availability report, and additional reports Friday said Fette would make his first career start.
BYU coach Kalani Sitake sees the recent surge and knows his team can’t afford another flat response.
“If you look at what they were able to do last weekend, they have some momentum, and we’ve got to gain some,” said BYU coach Kalani Sitake. “So it helps being at home.”
That home setting matters after the Cougars’ last two weekends delivered a sharp swing in mood. BYU’s win over No.
2 Notre Dame had put the program in strong CFP position, only for the trip to Orlando to turn ugly fast. Sitake was blunt about what he saw.
“That’s not our style of play, and I am really disappointed that (style) showed up,” Sitake said. “So we’ve got to fix it.”
The Cougars also know this isn’t just about one loss in a vacuum. Damuni pointed back to the way Arizona State got rolling early in Tempe two years ago, with Cam Skattebo and Sam Leavitt helping the Sun Devils build a 28-9 lead before BYU rallied and nearly stole it at the end. Then came the double storming of the field, along with fans taunting the Cougars as they headed to the locker room after Jake Retzlaff’s deep throw to Chase Roberts fell just short of the goal line.
“They got the best of us in a heartbreaker, and so that is still in the back of our minds,” Damuni said Monday. “We want to go out and put out our best performance.
That’s how we approach every single week. Every week is the same.
But it’s a good team. No matter what the record says, every team we play is a good team, and so we have to go in and be prepared for them.”
Defensive lineman Justin Kirkland wasn’t with BYU for that 2024 game, but he has heard enough about it to understand why Saturday feels like a chance to settle something.
“The thing that happened two years ago with Arizona State, we are just trying to capitalize on that one, too,” Kirkland said. “So yeah, looking forward to it.”
There is also real urgency attached to the result. Damuni and Kirkland both said the coaches have emphasized the danger of letting one loss spill into another, something the Cougars already lived through two years ago against ASU. That defeat kept BYU out of the Big 12 championship game, and another setback Saturday would nearly certainly do the same this time.
“As we have learned from the past couple of years, anybody in the Big 12 can beat anybody on any given day,” Damuni said. “Making sure that we’re on top of our game is key. Arizona State is a good team.”
BYU will need to handle this one with a patched-up roster. Cornerback Evan “Schmev” Johnson is out after suffering a lower leg injury against UCF, a significant blow with ASU’s Reed Harris and Omarion Miller among the receiving threats on the schedule.
“They are great receivers,” said BYU cornerback Jayven Williams, a transfer from Mississippi State. “They are good competition.
But we have pretty good guys, too. So we are looking for good-on-good competition, and that’s all you can ask for.”
The Cougars are also dealing with issues up front. Sixth man Trevin Ostler announced on social media Thursday that he tore his ACL, MCL and meniscus on the same play against UCF and is done for the season. Starting right guard Kyle Sfarcioc and running back Preston Rex are listed as probable, and if Sfarcioc can’t play, Stanford transfer Zak Yamauchi would likely step in again, as he did against Notre Dame and UCF.
BYU is still without star running back LJ Martin, though Sitake said Monday the reigning Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year is “getting really close” to returning. The bigger prize, naturally, is having him ready next week against Utah in what could become the most epic and most-watched rivalry game in BYU-Utah history.
For now, though, the focus is narrower. The Cougars get Arizona State at home on Halloween, with the memory of Tempe still fresh and the need to avoid another stumble front and center.
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