Highlights
- Arizona State beat Morgan State 70-7 Saturday night at Mountain America Stadium in Tempe, with the game completed in 55 minutes.
- Quarterback Cutter Boley threw six touchdowns and 387 yards in his ASU debut, one score shy of the program's single-game record.
- The fourth quarter was shortened to 10 minutes at Morgan State's request, a move ASU head coach Kenny Dillingham said he had never seen before.
- ASU travels to face No. 8 Texas A&M in College Station on Sept. 12, with kickoff set for 9 a.m. Arizona time.
The Sun Devils opened the 2026 season the way dominant teams are supposed to: fast, physical, and without mercy. Arizona State beat Morgan State 70-7 Saturday night at Mountain America Stadium in Tempe, matching the score of the program's celebrated 2020 win over Arizona and doing it in 55 minutes after the fourth quarter was shortened to 10 by mutual agreement of the coaching staffs.
Cutter Boley, making his first start as ASU's quarterback, completed 21 of 27 passes for 387 yards and six touchdowns before giving way to Mikey Keene in the third quarter. His yardage total is the most by any quarterback making his ASU debut, and his six scores were one shy of Mike Pagel's 1981 program record. The 681 total yards were the most ASU has produced during the Dillingham era, and the 70 points rank tied for second-most in program history, according to the Arizona Republic.
The game was effectively over before it started. ASU scored on the second play from scrimmage when Kyson Brown took a handoff 46 yards around the left side for a touchdown. The Sun Devils then recovered an onside kick and scored again less than three minutes in. By halftime, the lead was 49-7.
Wide receiver Reed Harris was the standout skill player not named Boley, catching six passes for 137 yards and two scores. Running back Grayson Rigdon added two catches for 110 yards and two touchdowns, both on receptions that turned into long gains after the catch. Three ASU players finished with 100 or more receiving yards.
Morgan State's only score came on a single sustained drive in the first quarter, capped by a 2-yard Jordan Barnett run. Outside that sequence, the Bears managed eight punts and a turnover on downs. ASU's defense did not record a takeaway, a point Dillingham addressed directly after the game.
"If we wanna win football games as this continues, we can't be a team that loses the turnover ratio," Dillingham said. "We lost the turnover ratio tonight. We won the game, but we can't lose the turnover ratio if we wanna win a lot of football games this year."
Dillingham, a Scottsdale native and 2013 ASU graduate who is 19-8 over the past two seasons with the program, also noted the offense had room to improve despite the lopsided result, pointing to rocky moments along the offensive line and inconsistent third-down conversion rates. The Sun Devils made up for both with fourth-down conversions and big plays off perimeter blocking by the receivers.
ASU has now scored on the opening drive of 11 consecutive season openers, the longest such streak in the country. The next test arrives fast: the Sun Devils travel to College Station to face No. 8 Texas A&M on Sept. 12, kickoff at 9 a.m. Arizona time.
Sources
Every factual claim in this article traces to one of the sources below. See how we work for the editorial process.
- AZ Family (3TV/CBS5) retrieved 06/09/2026 07:46
- AZ Central retrieved 06/09/2026 07:46
Authored by The Scottsdale Signal. Drafted by AI from primary-source material under our beat-specific editorial guides; reviewed by humans before publish under our five-gate process. Sources retrieved at 06/09/2026 07:46. Every claim traces to a source.
