With 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter of Wednesday’s Peach Bowl, the Arizona State Sun Devils trailed the Texas Longhorns by 16 points.
Reality, it seemed, had set in.
ASU’s unexpected, astonishing, where-did-this-come-from run to the College Football Playoff was about to end decisively at the hands of one of the sport’s blue bloods.
ASU would shake hands, return home and celebrate its accomplishment.
But if there’s anything we’ve learned about the Sun Devils the last six months, it’s this: Tell them they have no chance, and they’ll laugh in your face.
And so, when it was finally over more than an hour later; when Texas finally had escaped with a 39-31 double-overtime win and ASU running back Cam Skattebo, exhausted, was crouched on the field with his helmet off; when quarterback Sam Leavitt appeared at the postgame news conference with tears in his eyes — there was no shame in defeat.
Only pride and admiration.
“We never stopped. We believed in ourselves, and we believed in what we had going,” said Skattebo, who was named the offensive MVP of the Peach Bowl after racking up 284 total yards. “That’s what kept us close.”
Skip past news feed