It’s officially April, which means the 2025 NFL Draft is just a few weeks from getting underway at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
There are several Big 12 players in contention to go in the first few rounds, and one of them is Arizona State running back Cam Skattebo.
The 2024 First-Team All-American and Peach Bowl MVP just wrapped up his final year with the Sun Devils, and did so in record-breaking fashion. Skattebo turned 293 carries into 1,711 yards and 21 touchdowns while adding 45 receptions for 605 yards and three touchdowns through the air.
With that, Skattebo broke the Arizona State record for total rushing yards in a season, became the first player in school history to cross 2,000 yards from scrimmage in a single season, and finished 5th in Heisman voting. His 1,711 rushing yards were the second-most in the FBS, behind Heisman runner-up Ashton Jeanty.
Despite his incredible success with ASU, scouts are fading him in the latest mock drafts after he posted a 40-yard dash just north of 4.5 seconds.
There seems to be polarizing thoughts on Skattebo’s draft stock, as he’s projected to land anywhere between the second round and the fourth round, depending on who you ask.
Arizona State head coach Kenny Dillingham has a clear message for teams that might be wary of drafting Skattebo—just watch his tape.
“I tell them you want to draft him,” Dillingham said of his star running back. “It’s as simple as this: Do you want to play him? No. He can do so many things. If you’re a team that moves a guy around, if you’re a team that relies on matchups and truly looks for matchups, he’s a nightmare.
“You can line him up at running back. You can line him up in the slot. You can line him up as the No. 1 receiver or you can line him up in the Wildcat quarterback. He can run the ball in short-yardage downs. He can do so many things for you, that his versatility is such a weapon. And he’s so intelligent that he can do it all. So, what I tell people is, you’re either going to be playing him, and you’re gonna say, ‘Dang, I have to play him.’ Or you’re gonna draft him.”
Dillingham then pointed to the other areas that Skattebo tested in that show just how athletic he really is.
“People can look at measurables, they can look at speed—*snaps fingers twice*—tenth of a second. Cool,” Dillingham said. “He’s a football player. I just tell them to watch every single play. Dude plays with such a passion, such an aggression, such a contact balance. His short area quickness is elite, his vertical jump shows the power that he has, which is why he has the contact balance.
“When everything checks out, it’s not like, ‘Oh, does he really have the contact balance?’ It’s all the things that show his athleticism that checked out. When he ran a time, that’s what everybody thought he was going to run. So, I think people should judge him off his tape. When they judge him off his tape, you don’t want to play him.”
