Cam Skattebo, go straight to College Football Valhalla

A tribute to one of the great college football careers, which ended in fitting fashion. We'll remember the Skatteboot and Rally in the Peach Bowl forever.

In the second half of the Peach Bowl betweeen Arizona State and Texas, a sideline report indicated that ASU running back Cam Skattebo was “vomiting profusely” on the sideline. Skattebo’s team was getting battered by one of the strongest defenses in the country and losing by two scores in the fourth quarter. With Skattebo throwing up, his team could throw in the towel. In part for cleaning purposes. Remember: The reporter used the word “profusely.”

But Skattebo is an Arizona State Sun Devil, and in Tempe, throwing up is merely a rest stop on the road to greatness. It’s a cleansing moment when your body rids itself of toxins and evil—and an opportunity to ask for MORE! I’m all clear! I can fit so much more toxicity and evil in here now! MORE 330 POUND GUYS TRYING TO TACKLE ME! COME AT ME! (Sorry, got carried away. Skattebo is contagious.)

“I felt a lot better after throwing up,” Skattebo said after the game. “That’s when it all started.” It may have looked like Skattebo was exhausted and battered—but as the game got longer, it was Texas that seemed beaten down having to tackle Skattebo, as if the broken tackles were breaking them.

Skattebo scored three touchdowns post-puke—two running, one throwing. He powered his team to double overtime in a game they trailed 24-8 with seven minutes remaining. He finished with 284 all-purpose yards, ASU’s leading rusher, leading receiver… and he threw the only pass to their second-leading receiver. Time after time, he was hit by Texas defenders and simply kept going; each play a rebirth of its own.

It wasn’t enough. Texas won 39-31, ending Skattebo’s college career. The Longhorns move onto the semis; the Sun Devils head back home. Skattebo’s performance was so valiant that he was named the offensive MVP despite the loss, throwing a wrench in the typical award ceremony process–normally they give the trophies out on the field as the confetti flies, but a bowl rep had to interrupt Skattebo’s post-game press conference to reward him.

Skattebo became a certified College Football Folk Hero in 2024, guiding a projected last place program to the College Football Playoff through improbable run after improbable run, all while wearing a crop-top. And the Skatteboot-and-rally was a spectacular coda on a one-of-a-kind career; pure team-on-his-back heroism that earned Skattebo a spot in the eternal hall of ballers.

A quick retelling of The Saga of Skattebo.

We can call it a “saga” because Skattebo (pronounced scat-uh-BOO, in case you didn’t have the sound on) is etymologically Scandanavian. But let’s be real: Nobody has ever been named “Skattebo” before. He’s the sole Skattebo.

Cam’s origin story is that he liked putting on his older brother’s football gear and running directly into telephone poles, growing into an unstoppable force by finding the closest immovable object and challenging it to a fight. He grew a mohawk as a child, a prophetic omen that he was destined to go to Arizona State. In high school, he powered Rio Linda to their first ever California state championship. In the championship game, he went for 393 yards:

But college coaches just saw “small and slow.” Breaking tackles is cute, but college coaches tend to skip straight to the highlights of the guys who don’t even get touched by high school opponents. Skattebo didn’t get any FBS scholarship offers and stayed local, going to Sacramento State. As a sophomore in 2022, Skattebo was named conference player of the year, the Hornets had an undefeated regular season… and had their season end in a ridiculously entertaining quarterfinal matchup where Skattebo ran for two touchdowns and threw for a third. (History repeats itself.)

He transferred up to Arizona State. The Sun Devils were rebuilding, and needed bodies to do basically everything. Skattebo played running back, wide receiver, quarterback, and punter at various points in the season. And this year, The Sun Devils were was supposed to finish last in the Big 12 in their second year under Kenny Dillingham.

But they gave the ball over and over again to Skattebo. The first time I watched Skattebo at ASU, he was icing away a win over Mississippi State. With the Devils trying to run out the clock, they handed the ball to Skattebo seven straight times, and it worked. He finished with 262 yards, his breakout performance.

The Sun Devils didn’t figure out the “Skattebo on every down” strategy until October But he had at least 140 rushing yards in seven of their final nine games, picking up steam even though all those carries should’ve slowed him down. Arizona State won the school’s first conference title since 2007 (with Skattebo posting 170 rushing yards and three touchdowns in the Big 12 title game) and and then made the College Football Playoff for the first time ever. Skattebo finished fifth in the Heisman voting, a spot away from an invite to New York.

Nobody could bring Skattebo down. So he’s gotta go up.

Skattebo’s skill-ebo is what football folks call “contact balance.” Even in Skattebo’s high school highlights, he’s not always quick enough to make defenders miss or fast enough to breakaway downfield–but somehow, even when tacklers get to Skattebo with their arms, shoulders, chests, helmets, and other body parts, he wriggles away, gyroscoping his body so that no part of it touches the ground. (“HOW DID HE STAY ON BALANCE THERE!”, Joe Tessitore hollered during one particularly Skattebonkers run in the Big 12 championship.)

When I watch a running back with that innate capability—Ashton Jeanty has it too, Josh Jacobs comes to mind–I think about how some magnificent process must happen in their brain. Yes, staying alive in those plays requires strength, but there also must be some neuron, some synapse up there in the running back’s head telling them X force hitting their body in Y location at Z angle requires them to torque their body in some absurd fashion. Of course, this is all subconscious; Skattebo’s sole conscious thought is just a DJ yelling GO HARDERRRRRRRR SKATTEBROOOOOOOOO over the loudest EDM you’ve ever heard 24/7/365.

With Texas’ win, somebody has finally taken Skattebo down, stopping his forward progress. Texas won the game. The Longhorns get to keep playing. Arizona State doesn’t. I don’t know if Skattebo is going to the NFL. There are reports saying he’s a mid-round guy, but maybe pro scouts will see the same thing college coaches did.

But we never believed that Skattebo was literally invincible. Not all of Skattebo’s runs were touchdowns. He actually did get tackled dozens of times per game. What made him special is that on every run, you knew that he would fight beyond reason to get the maximum amount of yardage he could on any given play, even if three defenders were yoinking at his legs and torso.

His career got to end with the same every-last-drop certainty. In the old college football system, he might have finished his career in some random bowl game. This year, Arizona State got in because the 12-team playoff had four automatic spots for conference champions, and ASU was the fourth-highest ranked conference champion. (They’re going to try to take these auto-bids away. We can’t let them. Remember The Skattebo.)

We know that Skattebo pushed his team and his career as far as it could possibly go. He squeezed every game, every yard, every inch out of a career that could have ended after high school, could have ended in the second tier of the sport, that could have ended in last place.

Nobody could bring Cam Skattebo down, and in a loss, Skattebo still managed to rise. Sun Devils may come from hell—or the sun, I’m not 1000 percent sure on the mythology here—but the Saga of Skattebo the Solar Satan ends in College Football Valhalla, with the other heroes who balled out.