This is the Depth Dossier: the Arizona State Sun Devils, Week 10.

Arizona State needed a quarterback throwing touchdowns and catching one to beat Colorado 20 to 10, and that's exactly what happened in a game that was really two different contests stitched together.

Jake Fette made his first home start and delivered in a big way. He threw a 34-yard touchdown to wide receiver Reed Harris, and then caught a 1-yard touchdown pass himself from running back Cardae Mack on a trick play, fourth and goal. That made Fette the first Sun Devil since Jake Plummer back in 1996 to throw and catch a touchdown in the same game. Mack did the dirty work too, grinding out 80 yards on 24 carries to help control the clock.

That got Arizona State to a 17 to 0 halftime lead. Then the offense vanished. Arizona State didn't score a single point in the second half. The only thing that kept Colorado from clawing all the way back was special teams and defense. Punter Nick McLarty and gunner Daquwan Dunn pinned Colorado deep inside its own 5-yard line twice, and defensive lineman Albert Smith the third piled up three sacks on the night, keeping Colorado's offense off schedule when it mattered most.

The head coach, Kenny Dillingham, said after the game it was the first time all season all three phases showed up together, and the first half backs that up. Colorado managed just 103 total yards in the first half, and 62 of those came in the final 45 seconds before the break. That means for almost 29 of the first 30 minutes, Colorado's offense did basically nothing. The Buffaloes didn't even pick up a first down until the 7-minute mark of the second quarter.

Those two punts pinned deep inside the 5 functioned almost like turnovers, forcing Colorado to drive the length of the field against a defense that already had four sacks on the night. And time of possession tells the story too. Arizona State held the ball for over 33 minutes to Colorado's under 27, which mattered even more once the offense went quiet after halftime.

Now, on to some real injury news. Cornerback Rodney Bimage Junior went down with a leg injury in the first quarter and was carted off in an air cast. Dillingham confirmed afterward that he's expected to miss the rest of the season. That's a real blow to the secondary, and the staff is already adjusting. Kyan McDonald is moving into a full-time role, and Dunn is climbing to about three-quarters of the defensive snaps, with both expected to soak up Bimage's playing time going forward.

Up front, the defensive line's increased playing time matched its performance. Jalen Thompson and C.J. Fite are both up to roughly three-quarters of the snaps, Roman Pitre is up to about half, and Julian Hugo is getting a bigger rotational role at around a third of the snaps. That's a deeper line rotation than a week ago, and with Smith's three-sack performance, don't expect the staff to back off that approach.

At linebacker, it went the other way. Martell Hughes dropped to about three-quarters of the snaps, Prayer Young-Blackgoat fell into a rotational role, and Isaiah Iosefa is down to spot duty only. That's a sign the coaching staff is shifting snaps around at that position, even with the defense playing well as a whole.

Offensively, nothing changed on paper, but Fette's first home start now looks like a real program moment, not just a one-off good result. And Harris's 103-yard day suggests last week's quiet performance against B.Y.U. was the exception, not the new normal.

The big question going forward is whether Fette and this offense can find that same rhythm in the second half that they only managed for thirty minutes against Colorado.

This was the depth dossier. For everything college football, be it depth charts, data or dossiers, head over to C F B Depth dot com. We will be back next week. This was an AI-generated podcast from content developed by real human beings passionate about college football.