Sun Devil Football Prepares for Peach Bowl Against Texas

THE GAME –  The Big 12 Champion Sun Devil Football program returns to action in the postseason, making its debut in the College Football Playoff and squaring of against the Texas Longhorns in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl on New Year’s Day at Mercedez-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. Scheduled for a 11 a.m. AZT/1 p.m. local kickoff, the CFP quarterfinal contest between the fourth-seeded Sun Devils and and fifth-seeded Longhorns will be broadcast nationally on ABC (Joe Tessitore, Jesse Palmer, Katie George, Taylor McGregor). The game will also be available over the local airwaves in Arizona on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM (Tim Healey, Jeff Van Raaphorst, Kevin Turner, Jeff Munn). The game will also be available on ESPN National Radio (Anish Shroff, Andre Ware, Paul Carcaterra).

ON THE CHICK-FIL-A PEACH BOWL/COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFF – This will be Sun Devil Football’s first appearance in the College Football Playoff. It is the team’s second appearance in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, though it hasn’t played in the game since 1970 – a 48-26 victory over North Carolina to cap off an 11-0 season. Texas is making its second consecutive appearance in the CFP, the only team in the 2024 field to do so despite the expansion to 12 teams this year.

KICKING OFF

• ASU’s 11-2 record marks and 7 1/2 game improvement in the win/loss column from a year ago, tied for the seventh-best single-season turnaround in program history. A win this week would move ASU into a tie for second-best all-time. With a win, ASU’s nine-game improvement in the win column alone from a year ago would mark just the seventh time in FBS history a team has accomplished the feat.
• With ASU vacating its wins in the 2021 season, the 11 wins this season easily surpass the team’s combined win tally from 2020-2023 (8 wins).
• Sam Leavitt’s 90.3 grade on overall offense for the season is seventh-best among all FBS freshman quarterbacks in the PFF era since 2015 (min. 500 snaps played). Of the six players tied or ahead of him, five have started an NFL game this season (Trevor Lawrence, Caleb Williams, Drake Maye, C.J. Stroud and Spencer Rattler). He ranks ahead of the freshmen seasons of 2024 NFL starters Brock Purdy (89.4), Sam Darnold…