For the second time this season, the Sun Devils will march into the bye week with a road loss where they had opportunities to walk away with a win. ASU gave up 24 unanswered points to Cincinnati and couldn’t recuperate, losing 24-14. Head coach Kenny Dillingham, among the rest of the staff and players, now has to dwell on the loss for two weeks before starting the last third of the season on the road against Oklahoma State.
“Obviously, the guys are upset,” Dillingham said. “I’m also upset because I felt like I could have coached better, and that’s upsetting when you feel like you didn’t do everything you could. We’re upset and that’s how it should be, and unfortunately, we’ve lost both of our games before the bye weeks. It may be good for the team in the long run, but not ideal.”
Dillingham commented on the special team’s insufficient performance after the game on Saturday, inviting people to send him an email regarding interest in the kicker position. After the press conference, Dillingham tweeted an apologetic message, taking full responsibility for his actions. There will still be a competition between outsiders to see what level of talent ASU has outside of the football team.
"I apologize for what I said after the game," Dillingham stated. "We got a bunch of emails showing interest in the position, and we're going to vet them all. It's hard to get on a roster, so not everybody can qualify. At the end of the day, we gotta do a better job coaching them and giving them confidence and putting them in a position to be successful."
Even with the competition, Dillingham expressed his faith in the current kickers on the team. The kickers have collectively gone 7-for-13 on field goals and 24-for-26 on extra points, with redshirt sophomore Ian Hershey responsible for five of the six misses. Dillingham still believes in the kicking room but will weigh out all his options before coming to a decision.
"At the end of the day, we have three guys who are really good collegiate kickers," Dillingham recognized. "We have to do a better job as a staff with them to get them more confident. I met with them for 30 minutes today, and I've been talking to them a lot, so I'm excited for those guys moving forward."
Although the Sun Devils dug themselves into an early hole in the game, their second-half performance almost got them back into it. The Bearcats were kept scoreless in the second half, but ASU only managed to put up a touchdown in the final 15 minutes of play. The turning points of the game were the Sun Devils failing to convert two fourth and short plays around midfield. Cincinnati was able to score 10 points off the stops, the difference in the game.
"I thought our football team battled in the second half," Dillingham remarked. "If you look at our second half of that game, we played pretty good football, but we lost the moments of the game. We lost third and short and fourth and short on offense, and when you're on the road, you can't do that. Both of my fourth down decisions to go for it were net minus 10 points. If you convert one, it's not only seven points that they don't get; it's potentially a 10-14 point swing."
In Dillingham's second year, the team has almost doubled its win total from his inaugural year (3). While the Sun Devils have a handful of plays and moments going their way from being 7-0, their defeats emphasize the parity in college football. Dillingham continues to instill belief into his team, which has the chance to clinch bowl eligibility for the first time since 2021 with four games remaining on the regular season schedule.
"I hoped we would be 7-0," Dillingham pronounced. "I absolutely hate losing, and I'm very passionate about this team and this game. It happens, but you should never learn to like it. Still, our guys are fighting, and we're in every game that we've played. We gotta find a way to finish those, but college football is crazy right now, and I think we're in a really good spot."
The last time ASU came out of the bye, it cleaned up many diminutive blunders after the players and coaches self-scouted and saw what needed to change. While it would have been nice to sit on a win rather than a loss for two weeks, the team now has the chance to come out of a two-week break hot.
"I thought we came out of the bye with good plans," Dillingham explained. "Offensively, we made some tweaks that I think were for the better. Obviously, we have to reassess and tweak things around Jeff until Sam gets back, and I think that's going to be an important part of this bye. There's been a consistency of some of the schemes that teams have gotten us with, and we have to go back and work on that."
The Sun Devils have scored on five of their seven opening drives this season, with the other two resulting in an interception. Dillingham harped on the importance of setting the tone of the game early, especially on the road. While it's important to get ahead of the opponent in the opening drive, the plan can also alter depending on who's on the other side of the field.
"I'm big on scripting," Dillingham professed. "I think it's super important for your guys to have a plan for what your top calls are. It's important to get off to a good and fast start, and you have the ability to go back to those calls if they work. Every game the purpose of your script is a little bit different."
Dillingham and his staff introduced different two-running back formations Saturday, something that is available to him this year with the heightened depth at the position. Sophomore Kyson Brown and redshirt senior DeCarlos Brooks were the two backs seen the most together, which allowed the offensive line to be more stabilized with the ability to run the ball on both sides, as well as put one of the backs in motion before the snap.
"It helps the offensive line when you're balanced like that," Dillingham explained. "So when you get into a split back formation and have the ability to run left or right balanced puts better angles up front. And that's the benefit of running split back; it's really nothing more than the angels you're creating up front."
One of the Big 12's talking points heading into the season was the immense talent of its running backs. ASU has seen multiple of those backs and how well the teams with a talented backfield control the clock. If teams keep the opposing offense off the field for extended amounts of time, the offense is unable to get into a groove and dive deep into their playbook.
"It's a loaded group," Dillingham noted. "This league runs the ball, and it's funny because ten years ago, this league threw the ball. We played Utah when they were number one in the country in time of possession, and we mitigated that, but last week, we didn't mitigate it. When that happens, we only had roughly 53 plays going into our last drive. It's harder to be aggressive because you don't have as many chances to unload what your plan fully was."
ASU's matchup against Oklahoma State after the bye week is rather ironic. The Sun Devils are sitting in the top half of the conference after being ranked in the preseason poll to finish last, and Oklahoma State is last in the conference after being voted to end the season toward the top. Still, the Cowboys' lengthened success and the passionate home crowd make it no easy task for ASU.
"They always play really hard and really tough," Dillingham stated. "They also have a great home-field advantage, and there's been consistency in their program top to bottom for a long time. The teams that create a good home atmosphere are going to always be consistently good in college football."
Sophomore cornerback Keith Abney II recorded an interception in consecutive weeks against Utah and Cincinnati and has displayed growth that has pleasantly surprised Dillingham and his staff. Dillingham also believes that Abney's work ethic has led him to this point and expects his performance to increase as the season progresses.
"He's unbelievable," Dillingham expressed. "He's a worker, always around, overachiever, and super smart. There's a reason he's having this much success, and it's the work he puts in. He's gotten bigger and stronger, and he deserves the success he's having right now. It's awesome to see somebody put in the work and then have that success."
A focal point for the team heading into the bye week is health. Redshirt freshman Sam Leavitt is among the biggest concerns for his availability against Oklahoma State, along with redshirt sophomore cornerback Javan Robinson and redshirt senior receiver Xavier Guillory. For the rest of the team, it's about tending to less significant injuries that can add up over the course of the season.
"We need to get healthy," Dillingham expressed. "Obviously not in terms of big injuries, but Sam is still questionable for the game against Oklahoma State. We'll see how Javan is doing; he's getting some tests right now to see when he can return. We made the decision later in the week not to play Guillory, as his hamstring wasn't 100%. But for everybody else, we just need to smooth out some small bumps."
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