Kenny Dillingham used his bye-week podium to make three announcements that belong in the same sentence. He said Cutter Boley "hasn't thrown the ball to the opponent one time in three games" and declined to count what happened at Texas A&M as a real interception, while adding that the passing game still needs to get the ball downfield more. He said starting right guard Wade Helton is in danger of missing both the Baylor and Hawai'i games with the lower-leg injury he suffered at Texas A&M, though backup Rob Lapuaho should be available again. And tight end Khamari Anderson's left-leg injury from the Kansas game will, per reporting, end his season.
So the week ASU set aside to get healthy subtracted a starting guard and a blocking tight end from an offensive line that had 25 combined Division I starts among its returners when camp broke, 14 of them belonging to Stanford transfer Luke Baklenko. Baylor comes to Mountain America Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 3 at 7:30 p.m. MST on ESPN, three days after its defensive line put five sacks and 13 tackles for loss on Colorado.
The part of the A&M tape that matters again
Dillingham's defense of his quarterback is not empty. Boley completed 21 of 34 for 254 yards and two touchdowns in College Station and was officially sacked once; Dillingham blamed the first interception on his own play-action call and the second on a miscommunication. It is also true that both of those throws were caught by Texas A&M defenders and returned for touchdowns in the fourth quarter, and that on the first one Marco Jones drove right tackle Jalen Klemm backward into Boley as he threw. ASU still ran for 115 yards, so the problem was never the line's ability to move people. It was continuity. Center Tana Alo-Tupuola went out briefly, Helton slid over to center to cover for him, then Helton himself left hurt, and Lapuaho finished at right guard.
That is the sequence to keep in mind Saturday night. Baylor's front does not need to beat five linemen working in rhythm; it needs to find the seam that opens when the fifth lineman is a fill-in and the tight end who used to help him is gone for the year. Watch the first three snaps ASU runs from an obvious passing situation. If Boley is getting the ball out on time and the interior is holding the pocket's depth, the rest of the night gets a lot easier.
What Boley is being asked to be
The version of Boley who threw for 387 yards and six touchdowns without an interception against Morgan State in his first ASU start is the ceiling. The version who threw two fourth-quarter interceptions returned for touchdowns at Texas A&M is the floor. Mikey Keene is still on the roster with 35 career starts and 8,245 passing yards behind him, which is the quiet context underneath Dillingham's public vote of confidence. The staff has an alternative and is choosing not to use it. Every clean pocket Boley converts into a completion this week is an argument that they were right.
The one thing the coach asked for out loud is the thing Baylor's pass rush makes hardest. Throwing downfield requires holding the ball. A 12-play, all-underneath touchdown drive would be a perfectly good outcome for the scoreboard and no answer at all to the downfield throwing Dillingham asked for.
Stakes, honestly
ASU is favored at home, around 61 percent. That is comfortable, not safe, and the margin between those two things is roughly the number of possessions Baylor's front ends early. A win nudges ASU's Big 12 title-game chances to about 3.9 percent; a loss leaves them near 0.6 percent. Neither number is a season. What Saturday actually settles is whether the patched interior line can hold up for nine more weeks.
The last time these teams played, ASU won 27-24 in Waco on a 43-yard field goal on the final play. Baylor turned it over three times that night. Nobody in Tempe should assume the rematch comes with the same gift, particularly not with the giveaway ledger currently pointed the other direction.
The Sun Devils got back to Tempe on Sept. 20 from the Texas A&M-to-London stretch, rested, and resumed practice Sept. 23-24. This was the season's only bye. Everything from here is nine straight playing weekends, and the depth chart that takes the field Saturday is close to the one ASU will be living with for all of them.
Full week view at /2026/5/arizona-state, and the model details at /methodology.