ASU Football ‘12 Plays of Christmas’: Kobe Williams steals pick-six in debut against New Mexico State

It was his NCAA Division I debut, and sophomore cornerback Kobe Williams made the most of it, catching an interception to score on a 49-yard return against New Mexico State.

NMSU quarterback Tyler Rogers under threw his receiver by at least a car-length before Williams, the Long Beach City College transfer, caught it like a receiver and took it back like a punt returner into the end zone, following his blockers.

The touchdown brought ASU to its largest lead over NMSU, 37-13, with 13:52 left in the game.

The Aggies later scored three times unanswered, but fell short, losing 37-31. It was Arizona State’s first of seven wins on the season.

• It was the first interception on the season for ASU, and it’d stay like that until six games later when the Sun Devils earned four picks against Utah.
• That was the 15th pick-six in the Todd Graham era, which at the time, was the second-most in all of NCAA Division I football since 2011.
• Rogers, the quarterback who threw the interception, ended up with the fifth-most passing yards in the nation, at 3,825 yards; however, that was his first of 16 interceptions.