Jayden Daniels engineers thrilling ASU comeback
EAST LANSING, Mich. — It all came down to the final minutes in Arizona State’s 10-7 win over No. 18 Michigan State at Spartan Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
The tension was impossible to ignore. Fans were on their feet, screaming at referees, screaming at coaches,
screaming just to scream.
ASU’s defense had finally begun to crack, allowing a fourth quarter touchdown that gave Michigan State a 7-3 lead.
The Sun Devils offense, meanwhile, had done next nothing in the second half, putting up just 53 total yards and no points before the final offensive drive.
And despite all this, ASU’s freshman quarterback Jayden Daniels was on the sidelines, just being a freshman, not thinking about how this could be the moment that we all look back on as the start of something special.
“He’s always laughing, making jokes,” ASU coach Herm Edwards said. “He was on the sideline when I walked over in the fourth quarter. He said, ‘Coach, we’re good.’ I said, ‘Really? Because you know we haven’t moved the ball past the 50, yet.’ He said, ‘Coach, we’re good.’ I said, ‘All right.’”
Elsewhere, ASU’s offensive coaches were baffled. They had reshuffled their offensive line, moving Cohl Cabral back to center, where he made himself in to an NFL prospect last season. Freshman Dohnovan West moved from center to right guard. And freshman LaDarius Henderson stepped in at left tackle.
For perspective, offensive line coach Dave Christensen told his colleagues that he’d only started one freshman in his 30 years roaming college sidelines. This year, he’s had three. And two were in this game.
Offensive coordinator Rob Likens was ready to toss his playbook.
“We were drawing up stuff in the dirt,” he said. “… We had to slide, protect, help. It was very hard to call the game.”
It was so bad that he effectively punted on third-and-16, handing off the ball to Eno Benjamin, rather than take a shot downfield.
“We ran the ball on third and long, and we were up there kidding with each other, me and (secondary coach) Tony White, I said, ‘I’m gonna run the ball here. And I know what’s gonna happen. We’re gonna punt it. You guys are gonna pin ’em. You’re gonna stop ’em. And we’re gonna win the game on the last drive.’”
The guy who keeps a Bible verse on his cellphone to keep cool during games turned out to be a prophet.
ASU took over at their 25-yard line with 3:34 left, trailing 7-3. Edwards looked to Daniels.
“I told him, ‘Big fella, it’s time,’” Edwards said. “And he went, ‘I gotcha coach.’”
Daniels looked to his teammates. “We just stayed calm out there,” he said. “I told Cohl and them, ‘Just give me some time, and we’re gonna win this game.’”
He completed one pass to Kyle Williams. He completed another to Eno Benjamin. First down.
But the miracle finish wasn’t going to happen without a big play.
“We thought that we could just get behind them at some point in time during the game,” Likens said. “I don’t even remember the play call. I know Brandon (Aiyuk) caught it on the sideline. … I just knew that somewhere along the line if we kept running verticals, kept running deep that somebody was gonna pop. Jaden was just gonna Johnny Manziel his way out of there. He was gonna scramble left and scramble right and somebody was gonna pop open.”
That’s what happened.
“They did a good job disguising coverages … (But) we knew that we had the deep ball,” Daniels said. “BA ran a great route. The ball was kind of underthrown. I mean, he could have scored on that. But he just made an unbelievable catch. It kickstarted the drive, giving us momentum and energy on offense.”
It wasn’t without drama. Daniels had to scramble for a first down on fourth-and-13 from the Michigan State 28.
“He’s a smart runner,” Edwards said. “This guy is pretty savvy as a quarterback. And I think it caught people by surprise that he would take off and run like that … He saw the coverage and as soon as he saw it, he took off. He said, ‘I can make it.’ And he made it.”
Daniels said he just took what was available.
“It was just, not really trying to force anything in the passing game,” he said. “If it wasn’t there, if I was able to just make something happen, make something happen using my legs. … Just trying to keep that drive alive.”
A couple of plays later, it looked like Frank Darby dropped a sure touchdown, setting up a third-and-5 from the Michigan State 8
The next play, Daniels did it again, scrambling for a first down.
“He did some things with his legs,” Edwards said. “He basically got a bunch of first downs. Made some critical runs.”
Daniels threw for 52 yards on the final drive. He ran for 27. Then he handed the ball to Eno Benjamin on first-and-goal from the 1.
“He told me, ‘Give me the ball, I’m gonna go win this game,’” Daniels said. “So, I just trusted him, I knew once he got hit that he got the ball across the plane. … I knew that Eno was gonna score regardless.”
He did, and ASU beat Michigan State 10-7 in Big Ten country, a massive upset that’s likely to propel the Sun Devils into the top-25 for the first time this season.