Arizona State may have lost its College Football Playoff quarterfinal game against Texas, but football fans across the country were impressed with how the team played.
After falling behind early, the Sun Devils scraped and clawed their way back into the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, tying it up in the fourth quarter to force overtime.
The Longhorns ultimately prevailed in a second overtime period, but nearly all viewers applauded Arizona State’s gutsy performance.
“We gave everything we had,” said ASU’s star running back, Cam Skattebo, after the game, per ESPN.
Wednesday’s Texas-Arizona State game delivered exactly the kind of thrilling action that the sports world had been hoping to get from the newly expanded College Football Playoff — but that had been missing from December’s games.
Every CFP game before the Peach Bowl was basically a blowout, including Tuesday night’s Fiesta Bowl between Penn State and Boise State. The Nittany Lions won 31-14.
Deion Sanders, who is also known as Coach Prime, was among those impressed by Arizona State’s performance.
In an X post directed at ASU coach Kenny Dillingham, he said the Sun Devils had made the rest of the Big 12 proud.
“You represented all of us from the @Big12 well my brother. We are proud of u and your team. God bless u all. You’re awesome (coach of the year),” Sanders said.
Along with Arizona State, Coach Prime’s Colorado team was part of a four-way tie at the top of the Big 12 at the end of the regular season.
Arizona State and Iowa State advanced to the league championship over Colorado and BYU by coming out on top of the Big 12′s tiebreaker process.
Arizona State won the championship, which gave them a spot in the College Football Playoff.
Iowa State was picked for Pop-Tarts Bowl, while BYU and Colorado faced each other in the Alamo Bowl.
Although BYU built an early lead over the Buffaloes in San Antonio and comfortably held onto it, the game drew in a huge television audience, becoming the most-watched Alamo Bowl broadcast in the bowl’s 32-year history, as the Deseret News previously reported.
Correction: This article originally referred to the Penn State team as the Boilermakers. The school’s mascot is actually the Nittany Lion.