Nick Saban claims Arizona State 'physically kicked Texas' ass' in Peach Bowl

Arizona State fell behind early against Texas in the Peach Bowl on Wednesday, but once the Sun Devils got rolling they were hard to stop. ASU rallied from a 17-3 halftime deficit to force overtime against the Longhorns, before dropping a heartbreaker.

Arizona State piled up 510 yards of offense and outrushed Texas 214-53 in the game. Nick Saban appeared on The Pat McAfee Show on Thursday and discussed the keys to ASU’s success.

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“Once they regained their poise in the game, and just became who they were, they were a physical team all year, they ran. Skattebo’s a physical guy,” Saban said. “The quarterback took advantage of their ability to run the ball and then make plays down the field, even though they don’t have great receivers.

“But as soon as they became who they are, they competed and really almost kind of physically kicked Texas’ ass a little bit in this game.”

Arizona State was not lacking confidence entering the matchup, with quarterback Sam Leavitt saying beforehand that he was going to prove he was the better QB over Quinn Ewers. Saban feels like the Sun Devils were perhaps too confident ahead of the Peach Bowl.

“I think psychological disposition is really important in terms of playing in big games. These guys talked a lot of smack going into the game, so they had high expectations and they thought they were going to go out there and just dominate this game in the beginning. It didn’t happen,” Saban said. ‘They got frustrated. And that’s why I think it’s so important for whoever’s playing in these games to be able to stay who you are, control what you can control. You control what you do.”

Saban added that at times in big games, teams can get too caught up in outside factors and not go play their game. Perhaps that hurt Arizona State early on against Texas.

“The game’s always going to be about what we do. Forget about what the other team does, that’s technical in terms of how we match the patterns or how we block their fronts. But the rest of it is, you’ve gotta focus on what you’ve gotta do and quit worrying about all this other outside bull shit,” Saban said.