Freshman Cardae Mack rushed for 159 yards and four touchdowns to lead Arizona State to a 28-17 victory Saturday over Kansas State in a Big 12 game at Tempe, Ariz.
Kansas State (4-3, 1-3 Big 12) lost its first game without three-year starting quarterback Avery Johnson, who was out with a shoulder injury.
Arizona State (4-3, 2-2) rebounded from its 53-25 loss at Texas Tech last week.
The game featured quarterbacks starting for the first time this season, and a true freshman third-string quarterback who entered in the second half.
Minnesota transfer Jacob Knuth made his first career start in place of Johnson.
Knuth was 26 of 41 for 194 yards with one touchdown and no interceptions.
Former UCF, Fresno State and Michigan quarterback Mikey Keene made his first start for the Sun Devils in place of Cutter Boley after replacing Boley at halftime last week at Texas Tech.
Keene was aided off the field with 25 seconds left in the second quarter because of a lower body injury.
Keene was 10 for 20 for 160 yards in the first half for the Sun Devils.
Four of his passes were completed to Reed Harris, who had 116 receiving yards by halftime. Harris finished with six receptions for 147 yards.
Boley, getting booed from some of the Arizona State crowd because of struggles that led to his benching, was unable to engineer a first down on the Sun Devils’ first three possessions of the second half.
True freshman Jake Fette replaced Boley with 2:57 left in the third quarter after Kansas State turned the ball over on downs at the Arizona State 29-yard line.
Mack, another true freshman, had a 30-yard run to help Fette in his first drive, which was capped by Mack’s 12-yard scoring run. Arizona State led 21-17 with 14:55 remaining.
Mack scored his fourth touchdown on an 11-yard run with 6:23 remaining, completing a drive in which Fette completed two passes for 30 yards.
Fette finished 3 of 6 for 45 yards after Boley was 1 of 5 for seven yards.
Arizona State’s defense forced four turnovers on downs in addition to a punt in the third quarter and in the fourth quarter.