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In the third quarter of Arizona State’s season opener, the reigning Big 12 Champions were ahead just 24-13 with over eight minutes to play, just after conceding its first touchdown to visiting FCS opponent Northern Arizona. Sophomore quarterback Sam Leavitt led a drive in which he somehow threw for 139 yards in two plays; however, the Sun Devils ended the drive in a three-and-out. 

Granted, that math doesn’t add up in more ways than one; a team can’t generate more than 99 yards on any given drive, and more importantly, a drive in which a team does earn 99 yards always ends in a touchdown. 

The exception, however, is when penalties have a significant impact on a contest. 

Consecutive penalties against the Sun Devils (1-0) saw two plays, one a 75-yard touchdown pass for junior running back Raleek Brown, along with a 64-yard reception from senior Malik McClain, both called back due to penalties: a holding by senior wide receiver Malik McClain and an Ineligible Downfield lineman by right guard Kyle Scott. The drive ended in a three-and-out after Leavitt tried to climb back from 1st-and-30 from his own 10-yard line. 

Those were just two of ASU’s 12 penalties on Saturday night, the most in any game during head coach Kenny Dillingham’s tenure, which cast a gloomy cloud over the Sun Devils’ 38-19 victory over in-state rivals Northern Arizona (0-1). 

“We can’t have 12 penalties for 93 yards, which probably cost us another 170 yards,” Dillingham said Saturday following ASU’s win. “When you look at it all, if you just removed the penalties, this entire sheet is 200 yards different right now, and we got to get that cleaned up; that starts with me.” 

ASU’s offense had penalties in each quarter of the contest, and it wasn’t just one player or position group making errors on that side of the ball. In total, the offense was called for nine penalties, pushing them back 60 yards, plus the 139 yards called back from the two big plays. 

It wasn’t just a singular part of the offensive unit either, Leavitt was flagged for a delay of game, McClain was called for a false start, junior wide receiver Jordyn Tyson had a false start, senior tight end Chamon Metayer was called for a holding in the fourth quarter and offensive lineman picked up a mix of penalties from false starts to holdings and even an ineligible downfield player. 

Following the game, Leavitt noted that the players understand the sloppy mistakes are inexcusable on their end, but won’t overreact to the process of knocking off any rust in the first game. 

“Obviously, we gotta go back and address the holdings and take care of the ball a little better on my end as well,” Leavitt said. “ The accountability that we have on our team, I’m not worried about it; we’re going to come back and just have to work and figure out all of the little things.” 

Penalties played a key factor in the Sun Devils “not getting in rhythm,” as Dillingham noted in his post-game press conference. ASU started off the game firing on all cylinders, going ahead 14-0 after just 10 minutes of action; however, the two early touchdowns fizzled out into mediocre sequences the rest of the way. 

For the final 20 minutes of the first half, the Sun Devils were outscored by the Lumberjacks 6-3. During that time frame, ASU picked up five flags for 43 yards, affecting both sides of the ball. 

The flags weren’t just critical due to the amount of yards picked up, but also how and where they happened. 

In the first half, the defense picked up numerous flags. In the first quarter, with ASU leading 14-0, senior linebacker Keyshaun Elliott was flagged for roughing the passer on NAU quarterback Ty Pennington, who completed a 12-yard pass on that play, granting NAU 27 total yards on the snap. Later that same drive, senior safety Myles Rowser was flagged for a personal foul when defending inside the red zone, giving the Lumberjacks an additional eight yards on a three-yard run to get within 10 of the end zone. 

Despite granting their opponents 23 yards on the drive, the defense managed to keep NAU off the board with multiple swarming plays to protect their endzone, turning them over on downs; however, getting pinned deep inside their own half contributed to three consecutive three-and-outs for the offense, and the visitors capitalized on it to score multiple field goals before the break. 

“I think it was a solid performance, but not to our standard,” ASU linebacker Jordan Crook said. “We got a lot more to show and too many penalties, but it was good to see everybody out there flying around. 

“(We need to focus on) the same things we’ve been working on, like honing in on communication, just being in the right place at the right time, and making sure calls are getting relayed and things like that.” 

Saturday’s 12 penalties mark the most ASU has had under any game since Dillingham took over as head coach; no other matchup through the first two years of his tenure saw the Sun Devils conjure up more than nine. 

The Maroon and Gold’s 93 yards against is also the second most penalty yards against, only trailing Dillingham’s first game as a head coach in a home game against Southern Utah, when they compiled 100 penalty yards. 

The previous record of nine penalties against has been equaled five times, three in 2023 and twice more in 2024. Interestingly enough, ASU is 4-2 since 2023 when it has had at least nine penalties, and 7-3 when it has had eight or more. 

Perhaps most important to the Sun Devils’ mantra is that all five games ASU has had with at least nine penalties since 2023 have been played in Tempe at Mountain America Stadium, on home soil. 

Penalties were not the end-all be-all on Saturday, and the game was never within one score once Dillingham’s side took the early 14-point advantage; however, the penalty issues did showcase a potential chink in the armor for the Big 12 champions. 

Dillingham noted that foreshadowing of penalty problems peaked through the Sun Devils’ pores during their spring game intersquad scrimmage. He noticed multiple holding penalties. 

“One of our emphases after our spring scrimmage at camp was holding outside the framework of our body,” Dillingham noted. “Even though we weren’t getting it called a lot in practice, I could feel it, and I made an emphasis.” 

Obviously, we didn’t place a big enough emphasis on that. I didn’t place a big enough emphasis to get it fixed; we as a staff didn’t place a big enough emphasis to get it fixed.” 

The Sun Devils train in a manner that demonstrates their awareness of the importance of officiating in collegiate football; every practice has officials in attendance, suited in regulated gear, and making calls during every contact-based drill. 

So it was very much to the surprise of Dillingham when seeing the amount of calls going against his side, as those reps in front of live referees are not new to the players. 

“We’ve had officials at every practice,” Dillingham explained. “We haven’t had that amount of holding calls in all of the camps that we had tonight.” 

Regardless of his players’ performance, Dillingham took an approach that was accustomed to seeing from the third-year skipper at ASU. When looking at penalties as a whole, particularly in game one. 

However even at its peak in 2024 ASU was never an uber discipline side, it finished with the sixth most penalty yards per game in the Big 12 with 53.6 and with 17 of 22 starters returning in 2025, Dillingham has put the burden on himself and the coaching staff to clean up the sloppy mistakes that riddle Week one before they bleed into matchups down the line. 

“Anytime there’s consistently the same problem, you can’t look at other people,” Dillingham said. “You’ve got to say, ‘OK, multiple people are doing the same thing; it’s not a them problem, it’s a me problem,’ and we’ve got to look at how we’re coaching it and how we’re drilling it to try to get it fixed. 

“That starts with me. I’m the end-all when it comes to stuff like that.” 

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