Defending Big 12 champion Arizona State kicks off conference play Saturday night on the road against Baylor in Waco, Texas.
The Bears (2-1) and Sun Devils (2-1) play each other for the first time since 1990, a nonconference game won by Arizona State in Tempe, Ariz.
Baylor features a high-powered offense led by quarterback Sawyer Robertson and running back Bryson Washington. Robertson already has 1,070 passing yards and 10 touchdown passes through three games.
Washington has recorded back-to-back 100-yard games and has carried the ball a combined 52 times in that stretch. He had a pair of touchdowns Baylor’s wins over No. 17 SMU and Samford.
The Bears trailed 38-24 halfway through the fourth quarter in Dallas at SMU before Robertson threw touchdown passes to Josh Cameron and Kobe Prentice to force overtime. The 21-yard TD to Prentice came with 34 seconds left in regulation.
“I think any time when you’re starting to learn your team and guys are playing well, you want to feature the stuff that’s going good,” Baylor coach Dave Aranda said this week. “So I think that’s going on right now.”
Arizona State opened the season with a No. 11 national ranking. But a loss to Mississippi State on the road in Week 2 knocked the Sun Devils out of the Top 25 before they bounced back last weekend with a win over Texas State.
The Sun Devils entered the season with Sam Leavitt rated as one of the top returning quarterbacks in the nation. Leavitt got off to a bit of a slow start, but has a top target in wide receiver Jordyn Tyson, who has 24 of his team’s 50 total receptions and 314 of the team’s 527 receiving yards.
Tyson also has four touchdown catches this season.
“We’re a really creative team that plays within the system,” Leavitt told AZCentral.com. “That’s the player I am, I kind of need to be free flowing in a lot of ways while playing within the system.”
Raleek Brown is averaging 8.3 yards per carry and leads the Sun Devils in rushing with 292 yards.
