Rodney Bimage Jr. done for year as ASU turns to DaQuwan Dunn

Saturday's "probably" is now official. Dillingham closed the door on Monday, and the news hit the ASU beat right away.

The injury happened midway through the first quarter of Saturday's 20-10 win over Colorado. Bimage's lower right leg got caught in linebacker Martell Hughes' tackle attempt while Bimage was defending a screen. He left on a medical cart with his leg in an air cast. That's never a good sign, and after the game Dillingham didn't sugarcoat it: "That was not a good one. Unfortunately, he'll probably be out for the year unless something drastically changes." Nothing changed.

This is a real loss for the Sun Devils' secondary. Bimage, a junior who saw limited action as a true freshman in 2024, had become a full-time starter. He had 26 tackles, 5 passes defensed, 1.5 tackles for loss and a fumble recovery before going down. That isn't a guy you replace by flipping a switch.

So the youth movement keeps rolling. Dunn joins fellow freshmen Jake Fette and Cardae Mack as starters, and Suka Lokotui, Julian Hugo and Zeth Thues have all logged real snaps too. Dunn is a 6-foot-1 former 3-star corner out of Berkner High School in Richardson, Texas, with a 78-inch wingspan. As a senior there he had 4 interceptions. In fall camp he got virtually every snap with the second team, so this isn't someone pulled off the scout team.

His first extended look against Colorado had both sides of being a freshman. He made plays on punt coverage, but he was also flagged for roughing the kicker, which extended a Colorado drive that ended in a touchdown. That's the deal when you're starting freshmen in November: the talent shows up, and so do the mistakes.

The good news for Dillingham is that the defense didn't fall apart after Bimage left. ASU had 4 sacks and 8 tackles for loss and held Colorado to 10 points, and linebacker Owen Long said the unit rallied around the loss. Now Dunn gets the job every week. Watch how often opposing offenses go after the freshman corner. They'll test him early, and how he handles it decides whether this secondary holds up the rest of the way.