A 48-7 victory over Wyoming on Saturday night naturally revealed many pleasing aspects, along with some blemishes that may have gone somewhat unnoticed in a dominating victory. One element, though, that still remains a mystery even after such an eventful contest is the Sun Devils’ ability to handle hardship that may develop in the course of the game.
And with the competition level stepping up a good few notches with Mississippi State (1-0), ASU head coach Kenny Dillingham is excited to see how his team handles those uncomfortable game situations not only this Saturday but for the rest of the season.
“We didn’t face any adversity, and that’s what I’m hoping we get,” Dillingham said. “We need somebody to beat us and catch a home run post or run over our linebacker, and somebody miss a tackle. I want to see our guys respond to that, and until somebody beats us and our guys make a mistake, I truly won’t know where we are. I know we’re talented and have the ability, but the ability to trust in big moments is still a question mark in my mind.”
Heading into Saturday night’s game this weekend, the Sun Devils are a combined 0-5 against the SEC, a streak they hope to break when they face Mississippi State. ASU lost by an average of nearly 10 points across the board, losing to Georgia twice, LSU, Missouri, and Texas A&M. They came close to beating Georgia in Athens on September 26, 2009, but fell short in a 20-17 game. As of Monday, ASU is a roughly 5.5-point favorite to win the game, but the Bulldogs as the Sun Devils are riding a good wave of momentum, too, winning their week one matchup against Eastern Kentucky 56-7.
“We have a chance to do something that the school’s never done,” Dillingham expressed. “Success in our program is being the very best at what you’re currently doing all the time. Let’s go be successful again this week, and that’s the message. That’s a really good football team we’re about to play. I don’t care who they played, that’s impressive to beat a team by 50 points. We got a tough team against us.”
As a quarterbacks coach for Auburn in 2019, Dillingham had a front-row seat to the SEC's culture and play style. The combination of talent, pressure, and passion in the South motivates the players to play so well, and Dillingham wants to bring that same type of feeling back to Tempe, where he believes they had at one point.
“There’s not many distractions other than college football,” Dillingham conveyed. “I think that culture is why the kids play so passionately down there. There’s more pressure because of that in the South on kids, and not in a bad. There are a lot of people who are very passionate about their football, and that’s what we’re trying to build here. I think there was a time here when Saturday was all about ASU football. That’s the culture we want to bring back here because our players feed off that excitement from the fans. After all, they know it matters.”
One thing Dillingham credited the players for was their effort from beginning to end. The team, especially the defense, never took their foot off the gas pedal and continued to shut down the Wyoming offense even when the game was put well out of reach. That’s something that Dillingham feels is a testament to the way they practice.
“Our guys have given such great effort in practice,” Dillingham noted. “It’s easier to buy in more when you see success. It’s harder to sell the vision unless you have success, so I think the first week showed what it can be. Nobody signed up to win one game. We work too hard to play one game. Can we respond to that, and can we continue that level of work ethic and that level of passion? Does that passion die because we played well, or does that passion just get stronger and stronger?”
Another evidence of their practice production is the way it is being displayed on the field. Senior running back Cam Skattebo is a prime example of that, as he began his special teams duties by running full speed down the field on the opening kickoff and delivered a big hit on the Wyoming player who attempted to block him. Senior wide receiver Malik McLain was in Skattebo’s place on the second kickoff and drew a personal foul penalty from the opponent. Dillingham believes that is where the game is won, doing the little things and getting under the opponent’s skin.
“I think the minimum standard for what it looks like now is higher,” Dillingham professed. “When you play the game violently and with aggression, some people can only respond outside of the framework of the game, and that’s when you know you have somebody. I think from the first kickoff when Skattebo made that impression that we’re going to play our best players, and they’re going to set a mindset that this is the next 60 minutes.”
Two players on the team, senior receiver Jake Smith and junior safety Xavion Alford, started in Saturday’s game after not playing last year due to being ruled ineligible by the NCAA as undergrads who were multi-team transfers. For Jake Smith, this meant that Saturday night was his first game action since 2020, a hiatus that took place after suffering a foot injury shortly after transferring from Texas to USC. Alford, who played at Texas before he transferred to USC, missed the 2022 season due to injury after playing for USC in 2021 and was seeing the field for game day for the first time in two years. Dillingham was certainly excited to finally see the tandem suit up on Saturday and praised their contributions in the win over Wyoming.
“I think they both played well,” Dillingham said. “The leadership of Xavion shows up everywhere. He gave our motivational speech pregame, and he’s way better than me at it,” Dillingham joked. “The way he carries himself is something that I’ve been around a few times, but it’s rare. I wanted Jake to touch the ball in the first four plays, and he got a little too excited when he caught a screen pass. I gave both those guys game balls because they’re the definition of battling and adversity.”
While watching the game film from Mississippi State’s win over Eastern Kentucky, Dillingham noticed that the defensive schemes they were running weren’t what he was expecting. Dillingham isn't necessarily jumping to switch his entire game plan to match that and knows the challenges when an opponent's scheme tendencies can suddenly shift.
“We’ve checked every box except the one thing they haven’t done in over ten years,” Dillingham explained. “I’m not going to get carried away in one game of film. I know the identities of the coordinators and where they come from. If you can be an odd five-technique team and move a linebacker down to the defensive end when you’re in four down, then you can easily be an odd four-i team and make that same weakside linebacker an overhand. We face so much four down with our team in practice that we just have to prep for odd weak overhang, add three-high safeties, and mix in some four-down looks.”
Dillingham isn’t a coach who solely adjusts his game plans specifically to the opponent he’s playing week to week, and likes to have a balance of employing a scheme that will take advantage of his team’s strengths. Dillingham knows that Mississippi State will expect him to make adjustments based on Saturday’s performance, but he is more focused on breaking down the Bulldog defense in ways they wouldn’t expect to.
“You always have to find the best plan for both,” Dillingham said. “You can’t say we’re going to start running 13-personnel, and if they want to play odd, we’re going to be in 14 (personnel) and run the power. You have to find ways to fit your scheme that attacks things naturally. Everybody knows nickel teams get put in formation on the boundary, and that’s not a rocket science thing. If you’re going to do certain things offensively and attack certain ways, they’re going to know. It’s how you do what you do and then mix in new ways to attack a team that they haven’t seen.”
Activating the valley is a mantra that Dillingham originated and that ASU athletics as a whole has embraced. Various Sun Devil teams have shown their commitment to that. Basketball head coach Bobby Hurley and baseball head coach Willie Bloomquist were both in attendance for Saturday’s game, although Hurley’s attention was focused on one of the nation’s top high school basketball recruits, local Gilbert Perry standout and five-star forward Koa Peat, whose brother redshirt freshman Keona plays on the offensive line for the Sun Devils. When asked about his fellow head coaches attending Saturday night, Dillingham, who can't comment on any recruiting matter regardless of sport, was sly with his response.
“I don’t know if Coach Hurley was there to watch us, but I hope he enjoyed the game,” Dillingham mentioned as he smiled. “Coach Bloomquist sent me a text before the game, and he was fired up. We’re both (he and Bloomquist) trying to bring our programs back as alumni to be as successful as possible and make the state, school, and alumni proud.”
Perhaps one of the biggest focal points that Dillingham mentioned was the fan attendance for the upcoming game. Saturday’s game against Wyoming had the second-highest student attendance since 2010, at 13,698, second only to September 24, 2014, against UCLA, when 14,084 students were in the stands. Dillingham mentioned he wants to break the record this Saturday and joked that he will enroll more students if need be.
“I think it’s cool,” Dillingham expressed. “The excitement with Graham Rossini (athletic director) and the athletic department, what they’re doing to hype up is a huge advantage for our guys. At the beginning of the game, with the student section roaring, it is an unbelievable feeling. I want to have more students than there’s ever been at a game this weekend, and we want to break the record.
“I want you guys to be a part of history for the first time Arizona State’s ever won an SEC game. Let’s pack it out from the fans to students to everything, and let’s make this the best environment in college football this week.”
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