Imitation may be one of the great forms of flattery, but not much of what Arizona State is doing mirrors that of Washington State. The current conference counterparts that will soon be no longer will have their final clash as Pac-12 members on Saturday in Tempe, and it’s a matchup that is a bit more familiar to the Sun Devils this time around.
Two key pieces of the complete overhaul of the football coaching staff last winter were last year part of the Cougar staff. Arizona State head coach Kenny Dillingham lured both Brian Ward and AJ Cooper away from their posts in Pullman to become the new defensive coordinator and linebacker’s coach in Tempe, respectively. With two of their own now on the opposing sideline, Washington State head coach Jake Dickert will surely be looking to engage his old friends in a chess match mentally as much as the physical battle on the field. But for Dillingham, there’s only so much that can change on the football field.
“It’s a little bit overused,” Dillingham said in relation to the matchup between the coaches. “In reality, 80 percent or 70 percent of football is similar. You’re gonna play types of thirds. How you play thirds and how you adjust is a little bit different. How you play your hands is gonna be a little bit different. So, football is football. It’s how you call it and how you teach the fundamentals.”
Part of those fundamentals, at least according to Dillingham, is personal conduct. While no one player was singled out, Dillingham spoke on Monday of how the offense’s bus, traveling in Seattle before and after the game last Saturday, was not as clean as the defense’s. In year one at ASU, Dillingham believes it critical that off-the-field behavior matters just as much as it is to create a successful, winning program.
“I put it up on the on the board in our team meeting and took photos,” Dillingham said of the situation. “I’m the last person off the team plane to make sure it's clean. I go back on the buses afterward. We’re at a stage in the program where everything matters. Eventually, I won’t have to do that. Eventually, that’s gonna take care of itself. I know the buses are gonna be clean, I know people are gonna be here early, I know the locker room’s clean, I know on the plane people are gonna pick up after themself. We’re not quite there yet. So, guess what I have to be? I have to go behind, I have to wait, and I have to make sure things are getting done. Then I have to coach it, explain it, and teach it.”
In order to help him formulate the ASU program around his philosophy, Dillingham brought in Ward and Cooper to help boost a defense that was often seen as a liability in the Sun Devils 3-9 campaign a year ago. This year, it’s that group that has given Arizona State a fighting chance to win against top-flight programs in USC and Washington. While the defense will take the cake of the praise, there is something to be said about the team’s effort and tenacity, even at a 1-6 mark and a self-imposed postseason ban. To their credit, the Sun Devils have gone toe-to-toe with multiple national championship contenders, and the first signs of that culture are beginning to show through the team leaders despite all the losing.
“If you’re hurting, it means you care,” ASU quarterback junior Trenton Bourguet said. “It stinks that we’re not here to lose. Everyone wants to be a winner. But to know that we’ve lost the last three games by 14 points two touchdowns combined, it stinks to know just how close we are. But we’re super excited to break through, knock down that last wall and explode.”
“It’s one of those things that we gotta correct,” junior tight end Jalin Conyers added. “We gotta be one of those teams that faces the facts and deals with the adversity. That’s not only my job, but guys that are on this team’s job is to correct that. I take responsibility for the little stuff like that happening. I gotta be better to help our guys be better and just everyone in general.”
“Certain leaders lead in different ways,” Dillingham explained. “Some people lead through example, some people lead vocally, some people lead through emotions. So I think there’s different types of leadership.”
When discussing the discrepancies between the offensive and defensive sides of the ball, though, Dillingham sees a difference in leadership there on top of the glaring performance gap that already exists.
“The defense has just a few more natural-born leaders,” Dillingham noted. “They’re just kind of the alphas. On offense, I think we got a few guys, but it’s just not the same leadership. We’re gonna do some things. We’re gonna split up the busses from now on to try to mix up some of the leadership on our team, just to get a little bit more of that raw, emotional leadership that the defense kinda has.”
A big part of the defensive guidance has been its coordinator, Brian Ward, and without him in their corner, the Washington State defense has tried to adjust under the command of Jeff Schmedding. For Bourguet, though, who quarterbacked the Sun Devils in their losing effort to the Cougars last season, he doesn’t see an overwhelming identity flip from his first bout with them.
“I think, for the most part, they’re pretty much the same type of defense,” Bourguet noted. “Little difference here and there just with the new coordinator. For the most part, it’s pretty much what we see every day. We’re pretty much playing our defense. It’ll be a good test.”
As is always with Dillingham, though, it always starts and ends with his team.
“It’s a team,” he said. “We’re in it together.”
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