Cardae Mack Scores Four Touchdowns as Arizona State Beats Kansas State 28-17

Arizona State started its seventh different quarterback of the Kenny Dillingham era on Saturday. By the fourth quarter, it was on its third quarterback of the afternoon. The home crowd had booed the second one, the first one was hurt, and the third one had thrown exactly two passes all season.

Somehow, the answer to all of that chaos was a freshman running back.

Cardae Mack ran for 159 yards and four touchdowns in his first career start, true freshman Jake Fette led two fourth-quarter scoring drives in relief, and Arizona State beat Kansas State 28-17 at Mountain America Stadium. The Sun Devils are 4-3 and 2-2 in the Big 12, back above .500 after a blowout loss at Texas Tech the week before. Kansas State falls to 4-3 and 1-3.

Two backup quarterbacks, one strange first half

Both teams walked in with quarterback questions. Kansas State was without Avery Johnson, out with an upper-body injury, so fifth-year senior Jacob Knuth made the first start of his career. Arizona State handed the job to Mikey Keene, who was making his first start for the Sun Devils after Cutter Boley was benched the previous week.

Knuth struck first. Kansas State went 65 yards in nine plays, and Knuth found Jaron Tibbs on a 7-yard crossing route for a 7-0 lead.

Arizona State needed one play to change the mood. Keene hit Reed Harris for 51 yards on the Sun Devils' first snap, and four plays and 55 seconds later, Mack was in the end zone to tie it. Harris had four catches for 116 yards in the first quarter alone.

Nick McLarty's punt was downed at the Kansas State 1, and when Arizona State got the ball back, it went 55 yards in nine plays. Mack took a direct snap on a fourth-and-1 during the drive and scored his second touchdown for a 14-7 lead with 14:16 left in the half. Kansas State answered with a 22-yard Luis Rodriguez field goal to make it 14-10.

Then, in the final minute of the half, Darien Whitaker Jr. rolled into Keene on a completed pass. Keene left the game. He was 10-of-20 for 160 yards, all of it in the first half.

The third quarter from nowhere

Boley, who had started Arizona State's first six games, came in for the second half. It did not go well. He went 1-of-5 for 7 yards, the offense managed 19 total yards on three straight possessions, and the crowd let him hear it.

Kansas State took advantage. After a three-and-out, the Wildcats got a 27-yard punt return to the Arizona State 21, and Knuth punched it in himself on a 10-yard run to give Kansas State a 17-14 lead with a little under eight minutes left in the third quarter.

Enter Jake Fette

With 2:57 left in the third, Dillingham went to his third quarterback. Fette, a true freshman, had attempted two passes all year. "We felt like there was a lull," Dillingham said. "We wanted some energy."

He got it. Fette's first full drive went 71 yards in seven plays. Mack finished it with a 12-yard touchdown run on the first play of the fourth quarter, and Arizona State led 21-17 for good.

"Jake's got that look in his eye," Dillingham said.

The next drive was more of the same. Fette moved the offense 65 yards in seven plays, and Mack took another direct snap and ran 11 yards for his fourth touchdown, making it 28-17 with 6:23 left. Over those two drives, Fette converted a third down with a 14-yard throw to Omarion Miller and dropped a 22-yard back-shoulder ball in to Harris. He finished 3-of-6 for 45 yards. Those numbers will not make a highlight package. The two drives will.

Mack's big day, beyond the box score

Mack carried 26 times for 159 yards, 6.1 yards per carry, with a long of 30. The four rushing touchdowns are the most by an Arizona State true freshman since Leon Burton in 1955, and Mack is the first FBS freshman with four rushing scores in a game this season. He had 26 of the 30 carries that went to Sun Devil running backs, and he did real damage out of the wildcat, including the direct-snap run that sealed it.

"It's a great feeling to be back in wildcat," Mack said. He also kept it simple when asked about his day. "I just play my role."

This was not a one-week fluke either. Mack ran for 154 yards against Hawaii two weeks earlier. On an afternoon when Arizona State started its sixth different offensive line combination in seven games, the freshman was the one constant.

The defense finally showed up

The most surprising number of the day belongs to the Arizona State defense. The Sun Devils had allowed 50-plus points in each of their previous two Big 12 games, giving up 244 rushing yards to Baylor and 260 to Texas Tech. Kansas State came in sixth nationally in rushing at 239.8 yards per game.

The Wildcats ran 32 times for 84 yards. Total offense was 278 yards on 73 plays, just 3.8 per snap. Linebacker Martell Hughes was everywhere with 14 tackles and 1.5 tackles for loss, Owen Long added 10 tackles, and the Sun Devils piled up a season-high 10 tackles for loss.

"Trusting the guys around you," Hughes said of how they slowed the run. "Doing your one-on-11 defense, that's what we live by."

Freshman edge rusher Julian Hugo delivered the final blow, sacking Knuth on a fourth down late in the game to end Kansas State's last real threat. Arizona State outgained Kansas State 359-278, and neither team turned the ball over. The full numbers are in Arizona State's official box score (opens in a new tab).

Kansas State's missed chance

Knuth was respectable in his first start, going 26-of-41 for 194 yards with a passing touchdown and a rushing touchdown and no interceptions. Tibbs caught nine balls for 57 yards. But without a run game, Kansas State never had a way to close.

Collin Klein did not sugarcoat it. "Lost the battle at the line of scrimmage on both sides and that was the difference in the game," he said. He did have kind words for his quarterback. "I was very proud of Jacob Knuth."

Knuth was harder on himself. "It was a moment I've been waiting a long time for. It meant a lot to me," he said, before adding that his performance was "not good enough. We didn't get the victory." Kansas State's official recap (opens in a new tab) has the Wildcats' side of it.

What it means

At 2-2 in the Big 12, Arizona State is still alive in the middle of a crowded conference, though Utah sits at 4-0 and BYU at 3-1. Next on the schedule was a Halloween trip to BYU, which was coming off a 39-31 double-overtime loss at UCF. Dillingham said Fette would start in Provo if Keene could not go. The school's own game recap (opens in a new tab) has the full history Mack chased down.

For Kansas State, 1-3 in conference play makes a Big 12 title run a long shot, and bowl positioning becomes the more realistic goal. Next on the schedule was a trip to Colorado on Oct. 31, and getting Johnson healthy was the obvious first priority.

The last word

Dillingham summed up a roster leaning on its youngest players. "We got a lot of guys here who are making an impact early," he said.

That is putting it mildly. A freshman running back scored every touchdown, a freshman quarterback steered the comeback, and a freshman edge rusher closed the door. Arizona State has spent a month searching for answers at quarterback. On Saturday, the answer was mostly "hand it to Mack."

Sources: Arizona State Athletics recap, The Associated Press, ESPN, Arizona Republic, AZFamily, Arizona Sports, The State Press and FOX Sports. More college football coverage on Undrafted.

Photos: Sun Devil Athletics.