Texas football (12-2, 7-1 SEC) and head coach Steve Sarkisian will battle the four-seed and Big 12 Champion Arizona State Sun Devils (11-2, 7-2 Big 12) in the quarterfinal of the College Football Playoff on New Year's Day.
Cameron Skattebo leads Arizona State's physical rushing attack in the Peach Bowl quarterfinal in the Playoff vs. Texas football in Atlanta
Texas will have to deal with a physical ground game in the Peach Bowl in Atlanta, GA, against Arizona State, who will look to set the tone in the trenches on offense against the Longhorns' defensive front seven.
Both teams have relied on their ground games to take over control of the time of possession battle on the clock scoreboard. In the first round of the College Football Playoff, the Longhorns got over 250 combined rushing yards and four big touchdowns from running backs Quintrevion Wisner and Jaydon Blue.
Arizona State was the second-ranked rushing defense in the Big 12 this season, which puts more pressure on Sarkisian and the Texas offense to make the most of the possessions they have to set the tone for the first half.
Here are three problematic Arizona State players for the Longhorns to deal with in the Playoff quarterfinal on Jan. 1.
Leif Fautanu, C
Arizona State's physical and experienced offensive line were the unsung heroes for the success that the skill players had in the Big 12 this fall. Led by First-Team All-Big 12 center Leif Fautanu, the Arizona State offensive line helped the Sun Devils' ground game rank fourth in the Big 12 in rushing offense this season.
Texas likes to stack the trenches with "big humans" at the line of scrimmage for each side of the ball for the lines. Arizona State's offensive line features five big humans with multiple years of starting experience, averaging around 6-foot-3.5 and 320 pounds.
The 6-foot-2 and 315-pound redshirt senior Fautanu is actually the lightest among the five experienced starters for the Arizona State line on offense.
Fautanu was the highest-graded pass-blocking center in the Big 12 (per PFF). He hasn't allowed a sack in over 400 pass-blocking snaps this season.
Arizona State likes to run a gap scheme behind their big and fundamentally-sound offensive senior guards and center Fauntanu. The Sun Devils averaged over six yards per carry on gap schemes to the A and B-Gaps on the ground.
Due to injuries to the top two running backs and starter Phil Mafah in the first round, Texas didn't have to worry about defending the threat of a ground game from Clemson in the Playoff win last weekend.