What Colorado can expect from Arizona State in final home game of 2025
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The Colorado Buffaloes play their final home game of 2025 this Saturday, hosting the Arizona State Sun Devils at 6 p.m. MT. At 3–7, the Buffs have navigated a strange season in Boulder, marked by a quarterback carousel, an unclear identity and thin depth across the roster. Arizona State arrives as one of the most intriguing teams in the Big 12 and a fascinating case study. The Sun Devils are 7–3, with losses to Mississippi State, Houston and Utah, yet they're also the only team to hand powerhouse Texas Tech a defeat.
Since 2020, the Big 12 has crowned a new champion every year. Many expected ASU to end that streak and repeat as conference champions, but the season has been anything but predictable for head coach Kenny Dillingham and his team.
Here's a closer look at who Arizona State is and what they'll aim to do against the Buffs on Saturday evening.
Schedule Breakdown
The Sun Devils opened the 2025 campaign looking sluggish, struggling in their matchup with Northern Arizona before falling on a walk-off play to Mississippi State in Week 2 in Starkville. After that setback, Dillingham tightened things up, and ASU responded with three straight wins, including two tight three-point victories over Baylor and TCU.
Their momentum stalled with a blowout loss to Utah, a game played without quarterback Sam Leavitt. Then, just when everyone had written them off, the Sun Devils came out the next week and stunned the country, taking down Texas Tech 26–22 with legacy performances from Leavitt and wide receiver Jordyn Tyson. They followed that massive win with a letdown, losing to Houston at home and Leavitt suffered a season-ending foot injury.
ASU went into Ames as 8.5-point underdogs and beat Iowa State without Jordyn Tyson and without Sam Leavitt. Once again, this team made no sense; there was simply no logic to their responses. And last Saturday, they survived another scare against a 4–6 West Virginia team, pulling out a 25–23 win behind backup quarterback Jeff Sims.
ASU Stats and Injuries
This ASU team is incredibly strange, yet they remain in the Big 12 championship mix if they win out and get some help from BYU, Houston and Utah losses. Statistically, the Sun Devils sit eighth in the conference in total offense and seventh in total defense. The numbers are pretty middle-of-the-pack, almost pedestrian for a contender, but strong coaching has kept them firmly in the hunt.
Star wideout and future NFL first-rounder Jordyn Tyson hasn't played since the Texas Tech game because of a hamstring injury. Sam Leavitt has missed three games and counting due to his own injury and is out for the season. There are also growing rumors that Leavitt may be done in Tempe and could enter the transfer portal, a significant blow to the program. Even with the injuries, the outside noise around Kenny Dillingham possibly leaving for a bigger job in the SEC or Big Ten, and everything else swirling around this team, Dillingham has steadied the ship and somehow has ASU fighting for another nine-win season.
What to Expect from ASU versus Colorado
On Saturday, expect a heavy dose of quarterback option from ASU's Jeff Sims, who is the team's second-leading rusher despite appearing in only six games and starting just three. Sims can hurt you through the air, but the 6-foot-4, 220-pound senior loves to use his legs and has been consistently effective on the ground these past few weeks. Former Colorado wideout Jordyn Tyson is officially questionable for what would be his return to Boulder, and if he plays, look out. He's a true game-changer and a likely top-ten NFL draft pick in April.
Defensively, ASU brings a strong run defense, but Colorado hasn't had much of a run game all year, so that matchup essentially cancels out. The Sun Devils' pass defense, though, sits in the bottom tier of the Big 12, which gives freshman quarterback Julian Lewis a real chance to attack if the offensive line can get healthy and his trio of receivers—Miller, Brown, and Williams—finds its rhythm.
Arizona State is one of the strangest teams to break down, and the closer you look, the less any of it adds up. This could turn into a much more interesting matchup than most college football fans expect. We'll see how it plays out with kickoff at 6 p.m. in Boulder under the Folsom Field lights.
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This article originally appeared on Buffaloes Wire: Colorado vs Arizona State preview: What to expect Saturday
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