Arizona State and Colorado, teams with interim head coaches, will face each other in Boulder, Colo., on Saturday night, both coming off losses after stirring wins in their previous games.
The Buffaloes (1-6, 1-3 Pac-12) lost at Oregon State 42-9 last week after rallying to beat Cal 20-13 in overtime the week before at Boulder.
The win over the Golden Bears was Colorado’s first under Mike Sanford, who replaced the fired Karl Dorrell on Oct. 2.
Arizona State (2-5, 1-3) came up short at Stanford 15-14 last week following its 45-38 upset of then-No. 21 Washington at Tempe, Ariz., on Oct. 8.
That was the first win for Shaun Aguano in place of Herm Edwards, who was fired Sept. 18.
Backup quarterback Trenton Bourguet replaced Emory Jones (concussion) and led the Sun Devils to the win over the Huskies.
Bourguet, a former walk-on, completed 15 of 21 pass attempts for 182 yards and three touchdowns.
Jones played against Stanford but was unable to lead the Sun Devils on a scoring drive in the second half.
The lack of production has led Aguano to open the starting QB competition for the game at Colorado between Bourguet and Jones, who was 14 of 25 for 227 yards and a touchdown, with one interception, against Stanford.
“Going forward, it’s an open competition, a true open competition for both of those guys,” Aguano said. “I still will say this: I’m going to pick the best guy that will get us that win.”
Sanford said the Buffaloes remain confident despite the blowout loss to the Beavers.
“We’ve got to learn from these,” he said. “I don’t think that’s a locker room that’s looking at this and saying, ‘Hey, same old, same old.’ I think there’s a lot of fight and a lot of belief.”
Colorado rushed for only 84 yards on 28 carries vs. Oregon State, and J.T. Shrout completed 13 of 29 passes for 206 yards, with two interceptions and no touchdowns.
–Field Level Media
