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Jason Brown Jr. rush against DukeJason Brown Jr. rush against Duke

Sun Devil captains:

  • Sr. LB Jordan Crook
  • Sr. DL Jacob Rich Kongaika
  • R-Sr. DL Prince Dorbah
  • R-Sr. OL Kyle Scott

​​Bowl record:

  • The Sun Devils made their eighth all-time appearance in the Sun Bowl. 
  • With Wednesday’s result, ASU now has a 4-3-1 record in those games.
  • Additionally, ASU is now 15-18-1 all time in bowl games.

Series history:

  • Wednesday’s matchup marked the first meeting between Arizona State and Duke since Dec. 27, 2014, when the Sun Devils knocked off the Blue Devils, 36-31, in the 2014 Sun Bowl.

Jeff Sims:

  • Sim’s 375 passing yards were fifth-most in Sun Bowl history and his 445 yards of total offense were second-most.
  • Sims became just the fifth FBS quarterback since 1996 to record 375+ passing yards and 70+ rushing yards in a game. 
  • He is just the 24th FBS quarterback in ANY game since 1996 to pass for 375+, rush for 70+ and record 3+ passing touchdowns AND 2+ rushing touchdowns. 
  • Wednesday’s contest marked the second time this season Arizona State quarterback Jeff Sims has been credited with a touchdown through the air and on the ground during the same game. Sims scored two rushing touchdowns and threw for another in the Sun Devils’ 24-19 win at Iowa State on Saturday, Nov. 1. 
  • With his 8-yard passing touchdown to Khamari Anderson midway through the third quarter, Sims registered his second passing touchdown to pair with two rushing touchdowns in the game. He joins Sam Leavitt (vs. Northern Arizona on Saturday, Aug. 30) as the only Sun Devils to pass for two scores and rush for two scores in the same game in 2025. The performance marked the first time in Sims’ career that he rushed for and passed for a pair of touchdowns in the same game.
  • In doing so, it was just the fourth time since 1997 that a Sun Devil quarterback accomplished the feat with Taylor Kelly doing it twice in 2013 and Sam Leavitt accomplishing it earlier this season. 
  • Sim’s 181 first-quarter passing yards were the most by an ASU quarterback Jayden Daniels did so during the 2021 campaign. 
  • By finishing Wednesday’s game with 70 rushing yards, Sims surpassed 2,000 career rushing yards spanning his six-year collegiate career. 
  • Sims became just the second ASU quarterback to rush for two touchdowns in a Bowl Game alongside Mark Malone at the 1978 Garden State Bowl against Rutgers (also two). 
  • Sims recorded his fifth career three passing touchdown performance when he connected with a 6-yard passing touchdown to Malik McCain with 12:31 remaining in the fourth quarter. 
  • Sims’ 375 passing yards against the Blue Devils were the most by any Sun Devil this season and most since Trenton Bourguet had 376 on 37-of-49 passing against Arizona on Nov. 25, 2022. 

Individual notes: 

  • Jalen Moss became the fourth Sun Devil with a 100-yard receiving game during the 2025 season. Moss, who entered Wednesday’s game with a single game high of 52 receiving yards, joined Jordyn Tyson (4x), Jaren Hamilton (1x) and Malik McCain (1x) as ASU student-athletes to reach the 100-yard receiving plateau in a game this season. 
  • First-year Sun Devil place kicker Jesus Gomez connected on a career-long 54-yard field goal attempt with 32 seconds remaining in the second quarter. The kick was Gomez’ 22nd made field goal attempt of the season, which ties him with Zane Gonzalez (2014) for sixth place on the program’s single-season made field goal list. Gomez’ 22 made field goal attempts in 2025 mark the most by an ASU place kicker since Gonzalez connected for 26 throughout the 2015 season. 
  • Jesus Gomez’ 54-yard field goal in the closing seconds of the second quarter marked the third-longest made field goal by a Sun Devil in program history. It was the longest made field goal by Arizona State since Oct. 15, 2016, when Zane Gonzalez made a program-best 59-yarder at Colorado. Gomez joins Gonzalez and Luis Zendejas (Nov. 6, 1982 vs. Oregon State) as the only place kickers in program history with a made field goal of 54 yards or longer. 
  • By surpassing the 100-yard rushing mark on the afternoon, Jason Brown, Jr., registered the seventh time this season that a Sun Devil rushed for 100-or-yards in a game. Brown, Jr., joins Raleek Brown (4x), Kayne Udoh (1x) and Jeff Sims (1x) as the Sun Devil student-athletes to run for 100-or-more yards in a game during the 2025 season.
  • On ASU’s first defensive series of the contest, Justin Wodtly was credited a sack on third down to stall the Duke opening drive. The sack marked the sixth straight game Wodtly has gotten to the quarterback. Wodtly’s 15 pressures in the month of November were tied for fourth among Big 12 linemen and his five sacks are most in the league for the month (third among all FBS linemen).

Team notes: 

  • The 14 points scored by the Arizona State offense during the game’s first quarter were tied for the most first-quarter points by the Sun Devils this season. ASU also scored 14 first-quarter points during its season-opening contest against Northern Arizona on Saturday, Aug. 30. 
  • Jeff Sims’ rushing touchdown in the first quarter to open the scoring was ASU’s first touchdown against an FBS team in the first quarter since the Iowa State Big 12 Championship game on Dec. 27, 2024.
  • ASU has rushed for 100+ yards in 29 of the team’s 39 games under Kenny Dillingham.
  • With Jeff Sims’ pair of rushing touchdowns against Duke, it marked the first time Arizona State’s offense had three-or-more student-athletes with four-or-more rushing touchdowns during a single season since 2021, when four Sun Devils rushed for four-or-more scores. 
  • Redshirt freshman defensive back Tony-Louis Nkuba’s interception of Duke quarterback Darian Mensah, who entered the game with 449 pass attempts on the season, was only Mensah’s sixth pick of the season on XXX pass attempts).
  • Jason Brown became the fourth Sun Devil to rush for over 100 yards in a game this season (Raleek Brown, Jeff Sims, Kanye Udoh). It is the first time that has happened since 1996 (Terry Battle, Jeff Paulk, Marlon Farlow, Michael Martin).
  • Jalen Moss became the fourth Sun Devil to have over 100 receiving yards in a game this season (Jaren Hamilton, Mailk McClain, Jordyn Tyson). It was the first time ASU had four or more players reach the 100+ receiving yard mark in a game in a season since 2017 (5)
  • The contest marked just the 12th game since 1996 that three more players recorded 100+ yards from scrimmage in a game (Jason Brown, Demarius Robinson, Jalen Moss).
  • ASU’s 244 rushing yards were its fourth-most in a bowl game since 1996. 
  • Arizona State’s 6.6 yards per rush were its 24th-best in any game since 1996.
  • Despite starting a rag-tag offensive line that featured two-first time starters at tackle, a true freshman at right guard, a redshirt freshman at center and a true freshman coming into the game as a sixth man, ASU did not allow a sack in the contest. It was the third time in ASU’s final five games that the Sun Devils didn’t allow a sack and the team allowed just two total sacks in that stretch. ASU’s two sacks in the final four games of the regular season were tied for the fourth-lowest total in the FBS in the month of November. The five total sack yards allowed for the month were second-lowest in the country. ASU had allowed 25 sacks in the first eight games of the season (3.1 per game) prior to the 0.50 over the last four games.

Random notes: 

  • There are more than 23,000 ASU alumni in Texas, the third most in a single state behind only Arizona and California. 
  • The Sun Bowl Most Valuable Special Teams Player Award is named after Sun Bowl long-time executive John Folmer, a former Sun Devil team captain who played at ASU 1963-65.
  • El Paso, Texas is the site of Pat Tillman’s final collegiate game, when ASU beat Iowa, 17-7, in the 1997 Sun Bowl. 
  • Wednesday’s Sun Bowl matchup between Arizona State and Duke resulted in becoming just the third game in the bowl’s history to combine for 80-or-more points, becoming the first to reach the mark since NC State and ASU combined for 83 on Friday, Dec. 29, 2017. 
  • Arizona State set the Sun Bowl’s single game total offense record by finishing with 619 yards of total offense. 
  • Arizona State and Duke combined to set a Sun Bowl single game record for combined yards of total offense with 1,158.