Caleb McCullough leads Arizona State’s win over Utah

TEMPE – Caleb McCullough had the game of his life in Arizona State’s 27-19 win over No. 16 Utah on Friday at Mountain America Stadium, using an outstanding defensive performance to lead to an upset victory.

ASU (5-1, 2-1 in Big 12) capitalized on his 12 tackles and two interceptions, including one, as Utah (4-2, 1-2) made its final attempt at a comeback.

“It meant a lot to me knowing we got the win. “I’m doing what I can to win,” McCullough said of his game-winning interception. “I’m not really a stats player. … This is my senior year and my main goal is just to win.”

The linebacker is one of the few Sun Devils left before Kenny Dillingham took over, and his fortitude to hang in there and wait his turn paid off on Friday.

“I put in a lot of work to get to this position and I tell my family and everything that one day I will get my chance,” McCullough said. “When you get that opportunity, the work will show, and it showed tonight.”

The additional opportunity came when Green Dot linebacker Keyshaun Elliott sat out the first half after incurring a penalty the previous week. But even when Elliott returned to the field in the second half, McCullough remained on the field because of his performance.

“Caleb is one of my favorite kids on the team because he just does whatever you ask,” Dillingham said. “He’s bigger than ever, he’s faster than ever and he’s playing better football than ever.”

“This is a guy who was here during the whole mess. He was here when all the bad things happened,” Dillingham added.

The head coach said he has asked McCullough to persevere after each of the last three to nine seasons, adding that the linebacker deserves a game ball for his contributions.

Where else did Arizona State’s defense shine against Utah?

Arizona State’s defense showed great poise as they had their backs against the wall for the second straight game, holding Utah to no points and no turnovers, just as they had done against Kansas a week earlier.

Dillingham praised the group for standing its ground in its own territory, stopping several Utah drives and holding the Utes to four field goals and a touchdown.

Utah coach Kyle Whittingham spoke the week before the game about red zone efficiency being a focus in the bye week, but there it was the Sun Devil defense that came up big.

While previous ASU defenses have relied on bend-don’t-break and produced mixed results, this was a performance that lived up to that.