Arizona State fans storm field early, Kenny Dillingham livid before BYU near-Hail Mary in wild ending
It looked like Arizona State pulled off its second straight ranked victory Saturday evening in Tempe. The Sun Devils faithful stormed the field in celebration of a win over BYU, even taking down the goalposts, but the officials went to the replay monitor amid the sea of fans.
After review, they put one second left on the clock. Kenny Dillingham was livid and made his thoughts abundantly clear with the officials, but the decision gave BYU a chance at a Hail Mary. What unfolded next after the goalposts went back up added to the wild sequence of events.
The sequence all got started after a discrepancy with the clock. Arizona State had a 4th-and-Goal play with seven seconds to go, and Sam Leavitt attempted to drain the clock. He threw the ball into the air, and time appeared to expire before hit the ground. However, officials ruled there was one second left, which led to Dillingham’s fiery reaction.
Jake Retzlaff connected with Chase Roberts on the pass, but he was taken down at the 3-yard line. That – officially – sealed Arizona State’s victory to move to 9-2 on the year. For BYU, it marked a second straight loss to fall to the same 9-2 record.
Arizona State came out firing in the first half of Saturday’s game, taking a 21-3 lead into halftime. But BYU didn’t back down, scoring a touchdown on its first drive after the break to cut the deficit to 21-9 after a failed two-point conversion attempt.
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The Sun Devils answered back, though. Leavitt connected with Xavier Guillory on a 61-yard touchdown pass to make it a 28-9 ballgame. The Cougars once again responded, though, as they put together back-to-back scoring drives to get within five points, 28-23.
BYU then got the ball back again with 2:23 to go in the game, but Retzlaff threw an interception with 1:15 to go. That set up what should’ve been Arizona State’s game-sealing possession, but Leavitt’s decision to throw the ball away left that one second on the clock.
BYU and Arizona State are now part of a three-way tie atop the Big 12 standings, it could grow to four teams in first place if Iowa State wins Saturday night. That means Week 14 will have not only conference title implications, but also impact the College Football Playoff under the new format.