The first game of a college football season serves just as much as a stepping stone as it is for a team’s record. It’s a team’s first competitive action against another opponent who hasn’t been in their film room studying the team’s schemes and plays. Kenny Dillingham and Arizona State had plenty to take away from their 24-21 week one win over Southern Utah, but not just from what went down between the lines.
“Week one games, you never quite know what you’re gonna get,” Dillingham said. “At the end of the day, you have to get the job done.”
On the football field, a passing grade is a win. Dillingham, though, demands more than such a feat from his players. Ultimately, he wants to see growth and improvement on the mental side just as much as the physical side. In particular, the notion of getting too fired up for a game is an aspect of his debut that Dillingham is looking to improve upon. During the lengthy delay on Thursday, Arizona State's head coach admitted to getting his guys overly excited, which caused mistakes in the second half, nearly leading to the ultimate collapse.
“I think I got the guys overly hyped for the second half,” Dillingham noted. “I was so concerned that there would be a lack of energy. Probably over-energized them, and that’s on me as well. That’s probably why we had more penalties in the second half.”
In total, ASU would accrue nine penalties on Thursday, totaling 100 yards, with eight of them coming in the second half, surrendering 85 yards. The majority of these would come on offensive holding calls, which Dillingham said represented the misbalance of focus between his offense and defense.
“We were a little more energy than substance on one side of the ball,” Dillingham cited. “I thought the defense kept their focus but the offense we had a little more energy than true substance. Part of that is the situation we’re playing in as well.”
After tallying three touchdowns in the first half, including two on their last two drives, the Sun Devils came out of the extended halftime break flat and wouldn’t score another touchdown for the remainder of the game, settling for a Dario Longhetto 38-yard field goal which proved to be the difference on the scoreboard. True freshman Jaden Rashada, who had looked impressive in his debut half, didn’t come out of the locker room with the same level of play. With his rhythm and cadence disrupted, the offense fell behind, and Dillingham stressed the need to avoid such lapses.
“That’s something I firmly believe in is getting quarterbacks in rhythm,” Dillingham stated. “It’s vital. We gotta be able to get him in a rhythm and get him comfortable early.”
While the notion of it being his first collegiate game may have tampered with his confidence, the weather delay certainly didn’t help Rashada. With the freshman finishing the day much worse than he started it, throwing for just 62 yards in the second half, Dillingham knows there’s still plenty of work to be done to live up to the fans' expectations of this team. Some of those expectations are naturally placed on him as a head coach too, and Dillingham compiled plenty of notes on what he could do to improve with the headset and play sheet.
“For me, it’s just watching more film,” Dillingham suggested. “Mid-game, obviously managing. The situation at the end of the half, do we have enough time to throw the ball with five seconds left, do we wanna go for a 4th-and-8? Do we wanna punt the ball there? Can we make this the last possession of the half?”
Dillingham also expressed the need to communicate more effectively with his team during the game.
“Seeing signals from the sideline on offense, communicating the motions and the shifts on defense," Dillingham explained, "getting in and out of different coverage calls. There are two different types of communication, one is midgame on defense, and the other is pre-snap on offense. The communication pieces made us run about seven to ten dead plays in a football game. When you’re running 60-something snaps, it's a percentage; you have no chance to be successful.”
Despite Southern Utah and Mother Nature’s best efforts to keep ASU from completing last Thursday's contest, the ultimate goal of victory was still achieved. The massive dust storm and subsequent lightning strikes, which turned a usual 20-minute halftime period into a nearly three-hour wait, left Dillingham searching for answers during the extended break on how to reach that final destination. His players were also searching for answers in the long wait but on their homework assignments.
“A learning experience for me is to make sure every homework assignment is complete on a midweek game,” Dillingham noted. “Just in case you get a delay. I never thought about that on a Thursday game in terms of delay.”
While ASU was ultimately successful in getting the job done on Thursday both on the field and in the classroom, their conference mates overshadowed them. Every team in the Pac-12 started their season with a win for the first time in over nine decades, with college football minds throughout the country now dubbing the Pac-12 as one of the elite conferences in the country for the 2023 season. Based on each team’s performance, many have been quick to point at ASU as the possible weak link based on its week one output. However, Dillingham remains unbothered by the competition he’ll face down the road, regardless of their league affiliations.
“It doesn’t matter what anybody else does,” Dillingham said.” I literally could care less what any other team in the country does ever. I am 1000% concerned about us winning football games but, more importantly, playing to our ability. That’s our number one goal.”
Their number one goal now will shift to the next game, where a Power Five program in Oklahoma State will come to town. Dillingham once again insisted that no game, team, player, coach, etc., would get him away from his focus on his own team and their performance. With a future Big 12 foe coming to Tempe on Saturday, Dillingham reiterated where his focus lies.
“I only care about us,” Dillingham said. “I don’t care about anybody else, ever. It’s not about anybody else ever. It’s about our football team. We go out, we get better, we work, and we slowly grow, and we’re a team that’s a better week 12 team than we are a week one team. That is the goal. That is the mission.”
Now getting the opportunity to host a power-five opponent, Dillingham also put out the challenge to Sun Devil fans to make Mountain America Stadium a formidable home-field advantage, in comparison to the low turnout taking place in the second half on Thursday after the weather justifiably drove them out.
“Can we sell this place out,” Dillingham questioned Sun Devil fans “Can we create a home-field advantage?”
The one aspect of the gravity of this upcoming game, Dillingham would admit to, is how the aura around a program like Oklahoma State can be used as a marketing tool to bring more people to the game on Saturday, which would help motivate the Sun Devils.
“We can really create a competitive advantage for our guys, and people really underestimate the value of that. That’s what these big non-conference games really show. People get to come watch a team that they don’t get to normally watch play. Let’s get everybody in this city, everybody in the valley, out to the game. Let’s have an unbelievable atmosphere for our players.”
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On the personnel front, junior tight end Jalin Conyers is “fine” according to Dillingham, despite not playing Thursday’s second half with stiffness. Sophomore safety Xavion Alford has been ruled ineligible to play this season following a similar NCAA decision rendered on junior wide receiver and fellow USC transfer Jake Smith. Both players, who began their careers at Texas, hadn't earned their degree yet when transferring to their third school, and the NCAA has been denying waivers nationwide to transfers in similar situations.
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