Way-too-early Top 25 projections for 2021 college football season

Arizona State didn’t have much of a season in 2020, as the Sun Devils only got to play four games after the Pac-12 opted to return for fall football. A COVID-19 outbreak on the Arizona State roster forced the program to shut down for nearly a month and led to the cancellation of three games in November. The promise of what returns to Tempe for Herm Edwards and his staff will be enough to get AP voters to push the Sun Devils up into their preseason Top 25.

That all starts with quarterback Jayden Daniels, the third-year starter at quarterback who enters 2021 as a Heisman hopeful. In 16 games over two seasons, Daniels has thrown for 22 touchdowns against only three interceptions. He will be helped out by a deep backfield that includes Rachaad White (10.0 yards per carry in 2020) and DeaMonte Trayanum, No team had better turnover luck in the FBS than Arizona State, which finished plus-two in average turnover margin in 2020.

Warm-up games at home against FCS Southern Utah and against UNLV out of the Mountain West precede what looks to be a tough test for the Sun Devils. Arizona State heads to Provo to face BYU in a revival of a former WAC rivalry game. They must also face Washington, rising UCLA and Oregon State teams, and divisional foe Utah on the road. Working in Arizona State’s favor is the fact that they get USC at home and avoid Oregon entirely in interdivisional play.