Following a high-flying and surprising 3-0 start, Arizona State (3-1,0-1 Big 12) suffered its first loss of the year on Saturday against Texas Tech, 30-22. Their hiatus this week allows them to refocus itself for the remainder of the season. For head coach Kenny Dillingham, the difference on Saturday came down to execution, overloading the playbook in preparation for the Red Raiders, which led to the Sun Devils scrambling when making decisions and reading in-game situations, aspects he wants to clean up with the week off.
“When you have a billion things in, it's hard, and I think that's partly me,” Dillingham said. “I'm a scheme guy, so I'm involved in both sides. I have to do a better job of not giving ideas to both sides in which they put in, and they put in their own ideas; we got to balance it out a little bit. But that's me. I gotta do a better job of that, and not just throwing ideas out there.
“I didn't feel like our guys played fast enough. So, we got to be able to shrink what we're doing to make sure our guys can play fast and know where their fits are and know how we're blocking things.”
The ineffective execution saw Texas Tech convert on 8-19 third-down opportunities, compared to only 5-14 by ASU. Furthermore, Dillingham’s squad went 0-3 on fourth-down opportunities. The struggle to convert on key plays is another issue Dillingham credits to an over-stacked playbook and feels that a more pragmatic approach to game planning will lead to a higher rate of success on game day.
“We didn’t execute some things in detail,” Dillingham noted. “It's not the player's fault because I don't think we coach that detail specifically enough, and we didn't teach why that detail makes the difference. When you're talking fourth-and-shorts, you're talking really tight coverages. So, the difference between somebody open and not open is a release path, simple as that.”
A consistent theme in these first four games is Dillingham’s contentment with the team's intensity on each play and the team’s mental ability to bounce back and recover from mishaps, elements he feels have noticeably improved since the 2023 season.
“I don't know if last year when a guy makes a mistake like that, gets a stupid penalty,” Dillingham explained. “If they could have stayed on the field, regained balance. Just throughout the season, what I'm proud of is our guys don't quit. Even when we made stupid mistakes, which was uncharacteristic of us, some of the things that were done last week, which is unacceptable, but the positive was our guys who made those mistakes were able to regather their composure and go finish.”
Saturday's contest marked the inaugural matchup in ASU’s Big 12 tenure, and as expected, Lubbock, Texas, proved to be a rowdy environment for the visitors. Dillingham mentioned the importance of home-field edge in conference play since the atmosphere Arizona State experienced in that venue is the norm and not the exception in this league.
“One of the things just playing at [Texas] Tech is kind of what we expected; the home-field advantages in this league are real,” Dillingham claimed. “They're absolutely real. If you're a team that doesn't have a distinct home-field advantage, your football team is at a disadvantage in this league. That environment we played in was a real environment. It was loud. There were cowbells ringing throughout the game. There were tortillas, and it sounds comical, but that environment, there are (only) 18 to 22-year-olds.
“If we want to compete in this league, we're going to need an environment at home that combats that. We're going to need an environment at home that people are like, Oh, we have to go play there. That is a real advantage in this league, and that is a real difference-maker.”
There were still some positives to take away from ASU’s first loss of the year. The fact that they faced a mixed bag of competition levels has allowed the team to face new game plans each week, as opponents have showcased the pillars that represent virtually the complete array of possible defensive schemes.
“We've happened to see all four in four weeks,” Dillingham remarked. “So, there are some growing pains there. That's not ideal, but you can't practice all that (variation of schemes) at a good enough level. When you're facing something new every week, there's no consistency. So, I think now that we've seen all those things, and we go into a week, there's going to be a lot to pull back from. ‘Hey, this is like Texas Tech week. Hey, this is like Mississippi State week.’ We can pull from things now for our guys, whereas before you practice that in the off-season, but you can't say, ‘Hey, we're going to only worry about the opposing team scheme.’ You got to get good at some things.
“So, I think we are going to learn from those four games as we move forward. And it really is a good blueprint for us as we continue the last eight games because we've kind of seen most of what things can really do from an at-count perspective.”
The conference play gauntlet, which currently consists of five AP top-25 schools from the Big 12, will see ASU face four of those five opponents this year. Dillingham desires to take the necessary time to improve on the kinks his team has left to iron out, so he will delay full-blown preparations for Kansas (1-3, 0-1 Big 12) until next week following the Jayhawks’ matchup with TCU this weekend.
“The best teams get better throughout the season,” Dillingham commented. “Our toughest opponents are still ahead of us; everybody knows that. We have to continue to improve, so we're in the process of self-scout right now in terms of what's been good, what's been bad, shrinking what we've doing the last few weeks, specifically last week.
“I'd say we're going to focus on the plays we want to practice right that are also good versus Kansas, but we're not going to put in all the schemes and all that stuff and say, two weeks at Kansas. It's going to be focusing on us with a Kansas emphasis. We'll watch the (Kansas) game Saturday, and then we'll rewatch Kansas again after the game with all the new cut-ups. Because what people forget is teams change throughout a season, especially teams that may not have had the success early in the season as they've wanted to. They're going to adapt and change.”
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