ASU specialist Parker Lewis will never forget his first college game.
Sun Devil fans can’t forget his debut either…for all the wrong reasons.
The Saguaro High School graduate had a hand (well, foot) in a prolific USC comeback – or Sun Devil collapse, depending on how you look on it – and the setting played a role in the lore of that day. It was the COVID-shortened 2020 season. There weren’t fans in the building. Pac-12 After Dark turned into Pac-12 at breakfast with a morning kickoff. Lewis recalled it had rained in Los Angeles that morning.
It was all weird.
But the Sun Devils held a 27-14 lead late in the 4th quarter. ESPN predicted ASU had a 99.8% chance of winning. Then USC converted an improbable 4th down and scored.
Then they did it again.
To set up the go-ahead touchdown, a true freshman making his college debut had to convert an onside kick. Parker Lewis accomplished that and booted the extra point to give the Trojans the lead and eventual win.
After all these years, he’s now donning the maroon and gold and still doesn’t quite know how that comeback came to be.
Now in Tempe, he’s the self-proclaimed grandpa of the Sun Devil specialists after spending time at USC and Ohio State. He’s returned home and is reunited with his high school coach in tight ends coach Jason Mohns. Assistant head coach and special teams coordinator Charlie Ragle was one of the first coaches to recruit him when he was at Cal.
He has experience on kickoff, as a place-kicker and as a punter, and he wants to help stabilize a unit that struggled in 2023.
His college career started with some magic. He’s hoping to end it the same way while helping the team he took down back in 2020.
Jordan Hamm
