Four games. That’s how long it took for the Arizona State defense to generate its first turnover in 2023.

Forty seconds. That’s how it long it took for ASU to get its first turnover for this 2024 season. 

Redshirt junior linebacker Zyrus Fiaseu read Wyoming junior quarterback Evan Svoboda perfectly and intercepted the Mesa Red Mountain alum on the second play of the game, returning it for a touchdown to start the year in near-perfect fashion for the Sun Devils to establish an early 7-0 lead.

They didn’t stop there either.

On the very next offensive drive for the Cowboys, facing a long third-and-23, the ASU defense again capitalized on a mistake from Svoboda, this time as another linebacker – junior Keyshaun Elliott – intercepted Svoboda on an overthrown pass. Seven plays later, redshirt sophomore Ian Hershey booted a 29-yard field goal to make it 10-0 at the 6:19 mark in the first quarter.

Coach Kenny Dillingham called the linebacker room the “most improved” during the preseason. And less than 10 minutes into the first game, the group proved him right. It’s also a testament to ASU’s ability in the transfer portal as both Fiaseu and Elliott are transfers. The Sun Devils picked up 30 transfers this past offseason, with the class ranking No. 30 in the nation and fourth in the Big 12, according to 247Sports.

ASU added its third turnover of the game in the third quarter when Svoboda attempted to hit wide receiver Tyler King on a swing pass to the left, but threw the ball behind his intended target. ASU redshirt senior Justin Wodtly scooped it up and ran 6 yards for the touchdown to make it 41-0 with 6:07 to go in the third quarter.

It was all part of a superb evening from the ASU defense, which held Wyoming to just 53 yards of total offense in the first half. Wyoming didn’t score its first points until 2 seconds remained in the game.

One of the themes of spring and fall camp for ASU was emphasizing the need for turnovers.

Great play all around: Sam Leavitt leads ASU to convincing victory in 1st career start

“I expect us to run to the football, and I expect us to get takeaways this year,” ASU head coach Kenny Dillingham said ahead of the season.

ASU didn’t get its first takeaway until the first quarter of the fourth game of last season against USC when linebacker Tate Romney recovered a fumble. The Sun Devils were the last team among FBS schools to force their first turnover last season.

ASU was a dismal 127th — out of 130 schools — last year in turnover margin. Rice, Nebraska, and Temple were the only schools to finish below ASU in 2023.

That trend is now shifting in favor of the Sun Devils. The message is starting to get through.

“It’s incredible,” Dillingham said in his postgame news conference. “Every single day — guys are probably bored of it — we start our team meeting and the only two things I show are: effort plays and takeaways. That’s it. Bad ball security, takeaways, effort. That’s it. I don’t show anything else. It’s those two things, over and over. It’s just to get in their mind that if you play really hard and you win the turnover battle, all these schemes that you’re about to go do are awesome, but they’re obsolete. And we have to be able to do those two things, and then go play smart football. That was game-changing when you turn the ball over at that rate. It was as close to a shutout as you can possibly get. So in my mind, it’s a shutout and it’s two defensive touchdowns. Awesome job by our defense tonight. They deserve it because they’ve been working hard.”

ASU also executed on running the ball as senior running back Cam Skattebo (11 carries, 49 yards, one touchdown) and redshirt senior running back DeCarlos Brooks (six carries, 47 yards, one touchdown) led a potent, multipronged ground attack. 

Even redshirt sophomore quarterback Sam Leavitt got in on the action, showcasing his scrambling ability to the tune of 47 yards on eight carries.

In all, the Sun Devils rushed for 241 yards on 49 carries as a team. ASU had 499 yards of total offense on the night in a commanding 48-7 victory.

Logan Stanley is a sports reporter with The Arizona Republic who primarily focuses on high school, ASU and Olympic sports. To suggest ideas for human-interest stories and other news, reach out to Stanley at logan.stanley@gannett.com or 707-293-7650. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter: @LSscribe.

The  Arizona State football team opened its 2024 schedule with a game against the Wyoming Cowboys on Saturday, Aug. 31.

And it opened it with a bang in the first half.

ASU football intercepted the first pass of the game and returned it for a touchdown and never looked back in the first two quarters, building a 27-0 halftime lead on Wyoming.

Follow our live updates of the game, which is being played at Mountain America Stadium in Tempe, Arizona, for the latest score, news, notes and analysis of the college football Week 1 non-conference game between the Sun Devils of the Big 12 and the Cowboys of the Mountain West.

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The Sun Devils now have two defensive scores in this game.

Wyoming’s Evan Svoboda’s pass was thrown behind his receiver and ASU’s Justin Wodtly recovered it and ran 23 yards for the score, giving ASU a 41-0 lead on Wyoming.

FOX Sports rules analyst Dean Blandino, on the FS1 broadcast, said that it looked like the pass was a forward pass, but the officials did not agree, upholding the backward pass ruling and the touchdown for the Sun Devils.

ASU now has three takeaways in this game. The Sun Devils were -11 in takeaways last season.

Score: ASU football 41, Wyoming 0 (6:07 left in third quarter)

The Sun Devils just punted for the first time in this game, with 6:45 left in the third quarter.

ASU’s latest drive went for 37 yards over six plays. It is just the second time it hasn’t scored on offense, the first coming late in the first half when it missed a field goal attempt.

Arizona State has a 24:14 to 14:01 advantage in time of possession in this game.

The Sun Devils just forced Wyoming to punt, although the Cowboys didn’t really help matters, gaining just six yards on three running plays on the drive.

This game is already ugly, with ASU up 34-0, but it has the potentially to get really ugly, at least for the Cowboys.

ASU fans aren’t complaining.

Sam Leavitt has his first touchdown pass as an Arizona State Sun Devil.

The QB just engineered a 9-play, 75-yard touchdown drive for ASU football to start the second half against Wyoming, throwing a 25-yard touchdown pass to Chamon Metayer for the score.

Leavitt also had a 6-yard run and a 15-yard run on the drive.

He’s now 12-for-18 in the game for 179 yards, with the touchdown.

He has 26 yards rushing.

Score: ASU football 34, Wyoming 0 (11:03 left in third quarter)

The first half is in the books at Mountain America Stadium in Tempe and it was a good one for the Sun Devils, who have a 27-0 lead on the Cowboys.

ASU has 241 yards of total offense, while Wyoming only has 53. ASU is 3-for-7 on third downs, Wyoming is 1-for-6.

Wyoming has thrown two interceptions. ASU didn’t have any turnovers in the first half.

Penalties have been a big factor in the first half, with Wyoming penalized seven times for 65 yards. ASU has one 5-yard penalty in the game.

Some key performers for ASU in the first half were QB Sam Leavitt, who is 0-for-14 for 134 yards, running back Cam Skattebo, who has 41 yards and a touchdown on nine carries and wide receiver Jake Smith, who has three catches for 47 yards in his debut for the Sun Devils after being injured last season.

Evan Svoboda, a Mesa Red Mountain High graduate, is just 4-for-10 for 32 yards, with two interceptions for Wyoming.

The Sun Devils had to settle for some field goals when they would have rather had touchdowns, and they missed a field goal late in the first half, but you really can’t complain about their first half of football this season.

It has only been two quarters, but it was a good two quarters for Kenny Dillingham’s team in its quest for a much-improved season after going 3-9 last year.

Halftime score: ASU football 27, Wyoming 0

The Sun Devils came up empty on offense for the first time in the first half Saturday when Ian Hershey missed a 38-yard field goal late in the second quarter after ASU’s drive stalled against the Cowboys.

Wyoming kneeled the ball for one play to end the half with ASU leading 27-0.

ASU just extended its lead to 27-0 with a 24-yard field goal from Ian Hershey after ASU’s drive stalled deep in Wyoming territory.

Still, the Sun Devils are up 27-0.

Who saw that coming? ASU was just a 6.5-point favorite in odds for this game.

Sam Leavitt has been efficient in his first start for the Sun Devils and is currently 8-for-11 for 95 yards, with no touchdown passes and more importantly, no interceptions or fumbles.

Score: Arizona State football 27, Wyoming 0 (4:28 left in second quarter)

Wyoming quarterback Evan Svoboda, a Mesa Red Mountain High product, is having a rough homecoming so far as the Cowboys’ starting QB.

Svoboda is 3-for-9 in the game, having only thrown for 22 yards. He has had two passes intercepted.

It’s been rough going, as the Cowboys only have 52 total yards.

It’s probably not the homecoming Svoboda envisioned.

The Sun Devils are rolling early in this game against the Cowboys.

Cam Skattebo just ran it in from 2-yards out on a 4th & 2 for Arizona State, extending ASU’s lead to 24-0 with 9:47 left in the second quarter.

Skattebo lined up at quarterback for ASU on the play, and took the direct snap from the center, with DeCarlos Brooks helping lead the way to him making it into the end zone.

Skattebo is up to 41 yards on nine carries in the game.

Score: ASU football 24, Wyoming 0 (9:47 left in second quarter)

Wyoming’s fourth drive of the game went for six plays and just 13 yards, ending with the Sun Devils again forcing the Cowboys to punt, their second of the game.

Evan Svoboda is struggling for Wyoming. He’s just 3-for-9 in the game for 22 yards, with two interceptions.

Wyoming isn’t faring much better on the ground. It has nine carries for 33 yards rushing.

ASU just went on a 10-play, 72-yard drive that took five minutes off the clock and ended with a 2-yard touchdown run by DeCarlos Brooks to give the Sun Devils a 17-0 lead as the first quarter clock ended.

ASU has 51 yards rushing in the game, 30 from Cam Skattebo.

Sam Leavitt is 4-for-5 for 36 yards in his first game as ASU’s quarterback.

ASU’s defense was the star of the first quarter, however, for the Sun Devils, after getting two interceptions and allowing just 37 yards of total offense for the Cowboys.

Score: ASU football 17, Wyoming 0 (end of first quarter)

Let’s give ASU’s defense some credit.

The Sun Devils just forced Wyoming to punt, making three straight drives that they have stopped the Cowboys.

That’ll do, especially after ASU’s woes on the defensive side of the football last season.

Wyoming has 37 total yards in this game and two first downs. It is 0-for-2 on third down.

The Arizona State Sun Devils have a 10-0 lead on Wyoming in the first quarter at Mountain America Stadium, the latest score coming on a 29-yard field goal by Ian Hershey after ASU’s defense got its second interception of the game.

ASU wasn’t able to punch it into the end zone, but it did get its first points on offense of the season with the field goal.

Arizona State’s first touchdown of the season came on a pick-six.

Score: Arizona State 10, Wyoming 0 (6:19 left in first quarter)

Last year, it took the ASU football defense four games to get a takeaway.

This is not last year.

ASU football’s defense has two takeaways in the first quarter against Wyoming, both interceptions, that have come on the Cowboys’ first two possessions.

Keyshaun Elliott intercepted Wyoming’s Evan Svoboda for the second takeway.

Svoboda is now 2-for-4 for 16 yards with the two interceptions.

ASU will take it.

Well, ASU football couldn’t have asked for a better start against Wyoming.

Zyrus Fiaseu intercepted an Evan Svoboda pass on Wyoming’s second play of the game, and Svoboda’s first pass attempt, and ran it back 26 yards for a touchdown for the Sun Devils, giving ASU a 7-0 lead less than one minute into the game.

Score: Arizona State 7, Wyoming 0 (14:19 left in first quarter)

Arizona State will be without RB Raleek Brown (hamstring), OL Sean Na’a, OL Jalen Klemm, DL Prince Dorbah (knee), DL Anthonie Cooper (knee) and LB Tate Romney (broken arm) in the game against Wyoming.

ASU football depth chart: How roster stacks up for game vs Wyoming

The game can be seen at 7:30 p.m. MST on FS1 (stream with this free trial from FUBO).

Chris Myers will have the play-by-play call, with Petros Papadakis as the analyst.

Read more: Arizona State football vs Wyoming schedule, time, TV channel

ASU football is a 6.5-point favorite over Wyoming in the game, according to BetMGM Sportsbook.

The Sun Devils are -250 on the moneyline. The Cowboys are +200.

The over/under for the game is set at 47.5 points.

Read more: What odds say about ASU football vs Wyoming game

ESPN gives the Sun Devils a 72.5% chance to defeat the Cowboys in the Week 1 college football game, but not everyone is predicting an ASU win in their Week 1 college football picks and predictions for the game at Mountain America Stadium on Saturday.

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Reach Jeremy Cluff at jeremy.cluff@arizonarepublic.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter @Jeremy_Cluff.

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