The Big 12 has been impressive through the first two weeks of the 2024 college football season, and we’re not just talking about how competitive the teams have looked overall.
Sure, the league has held its own against the other Power Four conferences — as suggested by four Big 12 teams making the latest College Football Playoff projections from CBS Sports.
Perhaps more impressive than that, though, is the individual performances that have come out of the league in the first two weeks of the season.
In Week 1, Arizona wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan was named AP National Player of the Week after notching ten catches for 304 yards and four touchdowns in a 61-39 win over New Mexico.
Now, the Big 12 has made it two-for-two on the AP’s highest weekly individual honor, and it isn’t even leaving the state of Arizona.
Arizona State do-it-all running back Cam Skattebo takes home the honor in Week 2 after rushing for a career-high 262 yards on 33 carries (7.9 yards per carry) in a 30-23 win over Mississippi State.
Skattebo recorded 297 all-purpose yards in the contest and had a staggering 12 runs of 10 yards or more in the game — that leads the country for the most 10+ yard rushes through two weeks. The 262-yard rushing performance ranks Skattebo second all-time for a single-game performance in Arizona State history, trailing only Eno Benjamin’s 312-yard game against Oregon State in 2018.
His longest run of the night — a 39-yard dagger late in the fourth quarter — set Arizona State up with a first down at the Mississippi State 12-yard-line and allowed ASU to run out the clock and finish the game.
“Today was fun,” Skattebo told reporters after the game. “That’s the most fun I’ve had in a football game in a long time. We had our ups and downs, but that was fun. You can ask these guys up front. Bullying dudes, grown men, who are 300 pounds, that’s fun to us.”
The victory was Arizona State’s first win over an SEC opponent and continued the Sun Devils’ hot start to the 2024 season, setting them up at 2-0 ahead of a pivotal matchup against Texas State (2-0) on Thursday night.
