Kenny Dillingham after ASU's 48-7 win over Wyoming

Hello Kenny you said that you thought your your program was a lot better than last year but didn't know how would compare against other teams what did you learn in that regard tonight yeah our kids love football I think that was the easiest thing to like uh take away is the passion they have for the game they play really hard uh they PR ractice really hard though so it really is a reflection of how we've been practicing we played hard but what I was proud of was We Grew From A playing smart you know there was a few times that we had personal fouls towards us from the opponent and our guys didn't respond and last year we would have lost our minds and uh for us to be able to just lock back in and go make the next play and continue to make the next play is a lot of growth for the football team uh but that's probably that's probably the number one thing and then the fact that uh we dominated the line of scrimmage you know that team is a team that runs the football and stops the run and they've been like that for six years and the fact that we went out there and ran the ball for 240 yards and I think we outrushed them by 2011 or something like that a little bit over 200 yards in the football game uh there is no chance on Earth we could have even come close to doing that last year so let's Testament how those guys are practicing Michelle Gardner Arizona Republic can you talk about the takeaways and those kind of setting the tone and you've harped on that back to the spring and yet you get too early and that sets the tone Oh it's unbelievable I mean uh we have been every single day the guys probably are bored of it uh we start our team meeting and the only two things I show are effort plays and takeaways that's it bad ball security takeaways effort I don't show anything else I don't show somebody make a superstar catch I don't show a superstar juke move or a great it's those two things over and over and over again it's just to get in their mind that if you play really hard and you win the turnover battle all of these schemes that you're about to go do are awesome but they're Obsolete and we have to be able to do these two things and then go play smart football and execute and not commit penalties and don't kill ourselves and I was game-changing when you turn the ball over at that rate I mean we had two defensive touchdowns tonight I mean and it was as close to a shutout as I think you could possibly get uh to a shutout so in my mind it's a shutout and it's two defensive touchdowns and uh awesome job by our defense tonight and they deserve it because they've been working hard and they're playing with passion coach considering uh Sam sorry you're hiding back there very sneaky considering it was uh Sam L's first career start tonight at the college level how would you evaluate his performance yeah I thought it was good I thought he was poised I thought uh know before the game I just told him be yourself and when in doubt run you know most of the time when you're a running quarterback you're like oh I want to prove that I can throw it right so you get out there and you scramble you're like watch me watch me show everybody that I can deal this thing like no like if you're athletic and you get out there run and then fall down and what I was proud of was he took that and he applied it to the game and we talk about it all the time on first and second down we don't need you to be a superstar we need you to manage the game it's third Downs is when you can extend plays use your legs cuz if you get sacked extending a play We're punting anyway so who cares right and that's when his running showed up was those third Downs uh other than like some called runs that we had for him so couldn't be more proud of how he executed the plan uh is there's some Growing Pains oh yeah there's some things he can get better at there's some things we're going to grow off of but the kid cares and he's passionate uh and he's talented and if you have a care level you're passionate you're talented and you're smart that's why I have so much belief in uh what he is but what he's going to become over the next four years and uh cam quick followup and uh cam told us how uh comfortable he felt on the sidelines today uh compared to last year where a lot of the offense seemed to fallaw on him at times how do you think he handled being just Cam sco being running back today yeah he was way calmer uh than he was last year but that's just the growth he's made you know I've harped on that this offseason is how much growth he's had as not just a football player but as a person uh and uh you could see that you could definitely see it tonight since day one it's been about activ the valley for you you start off year two I believe it was the second biggest student section turnout um in program history so what's it like to see you know the the building blocks continue to grow as you try to activate the valley that was unbelievable the student section tonight was absolutely incredible uh we got to figure out how to keep them in the second half you know there's so many distractions around this place that we got to figure out a way to to keep them in the seats uh but unbelievable turnout and uh on that note I mean we play Mississippi State next week an SEC team who just had a a big win or they they won by a lot in this uh this week today and I don't I mean Doug I'm G to put Doug under the bus fully on this one but uh we've never won an SEC game in Arizona State history so we need a soldout crowd with the biggest student section that there's ever been we need it loud for four quarters all night long next Saturday D back to Sam's mobility in the third down conversions um he showed a lot flashed a lot of the pocket presence as well but is sliding a part of the conversation at all with him no uh only because he's not he's not great at sliding so you just got to dive better I mean I know that sounds bad but like sometimes like I've have Coach kids who struggle sliding and we do want to get him better at sliding but if he's not a great slider it's kind of an awkward thing to do if you're not good at it and we've practiced it a little bit but it's just not comfortable for him so he's just got to learn how to slide forward like dive slide if that makes sense to protect himself some uh but I think it' do do him a disservice to try to get him to slide and jam his cleat in the ground uh but I definitely don't want him to get hit as much and then Coach how do you feel on like both sides of the ball offense defense with the communication and just like the onfield adjustments with everything that's new how do you feel that went tonight overall yeah I thought with great I think uh both of our coordinators and our staff did a really good job uh just popping back forward from channel to channel and just listening to the communication and what we're talking about and we're talking about this is what they did this time so this is what we ran this last drive it worked so they're going to come back with this counter punch so we're going to call this counter punch preparing for the counter punch and being a being able to listen to that on both sides of the ball that we were uh thinking about the counter punch not thinking about what just happened uh knowing that they're on the they're on watching the video too and what's their answer schematically based off tape and we were you know counter punching uh early and I think that's just a testament to the staff and uh our guys prep uh because it was really really uh to be honest impressive uh from those guys bouncing back and forth yeah coach what about Wyoming do you feel like allowed you guys to get pretty much whatever it was you wanted offensively and defensively today I don't think there anything about Wyoming I mean that's a good football team that's a football team that returned 17 starters that won nine games that beat Texas Tech last year was tied versus Texas in the fourth quarter uh I think it was about ASU football and I think our guys came and played our brand of football you talked earlier this week um about how fumble recoveries are essentially an effort stat you got one later in the game when the team already had a very comfortable lead uh where so many guys swarmed the ball obviously w got the touchdown on that what what was that a testament to in terms of you know your reaction when you saw that yeah probably a testament to me screaming bloody murder when the ball's in the ground and they don't uh get it immediately mean I mean you could argue if it was forward or backwards it was close it was one of those it's ruling on The Field's going to stand uh they're not going to overturn it but guess what we feeled it and we returned it because it's a habit it's it's a habit and uh you know I lose my mind when plays like that I like I said that's the stuff I show every day to start team meetings because you never know when it's going to show up so for it to show up game one um what was awesome on that plays the play before Watley had uh that touchdown they ran out or mid Zone to the boundary uh Watley was the five technique Collision The Tackle swiped underneath to make the play in the B gap which is exactly like we coach and teach comes back the next play I'm screaming at him great job the next play picks up the ball and runs to the end zone uh so unbelievable job by him being able to refocus himself and stay focused on the details it two good plays in a row Patrick in kite news um coach you talked about wake with Brian Ward just his impact you bring him in from wazu um you played against him many years just way he's brought to this defense the energy the intensity and just the aggressive nature that we saw on display tonight yeah I mean we play aggressive uh we don't play scared we play to be as aggressive as possible and uh I think that's what our guys believe in is that we're going to attack and attack and attack and attack on defense and tonight we swarmed the football and you could see the effort I mean you're watching their running back get tackled by four to five guys almost every single snap because our guys are swarming and that's a testament to uh coach Ward uh coach Coupe all those Co all the all of our staff and just what they're demanding uh the expectation to be and a testment to our leaders testment to X and Shamari and Clayton and kesan and and Kook who wasn't out there today uh hopefully he'll be back in the next few weeks uh but I mean just a testament to all those guys and the work they've put in like I said what you saw tonight is what's looked at what's practic has looked like it's all it is it's what practices looked like and if we continue to practice like that it's going to be easier in a game and we're going to continue to have success and I'm just excited for when we have to get to respond to some adversity because we didn't have any bad adversity tonight other than the horrible four-minute drill that we actually excuted at the end of the first half which was embarrassing yeah um you did miss a couple field goals tonight um your thoughts about just that the Special Teams aspect you some other things went well but the kicking yeah obviously at the end of the game uh put in a uh a kefir who hadn't played and he wasn't really loose and probably wasn't fair to him to just throw him in there at the fourth quarter when he wasn't really warm and he's standing around for three hours but I wanted to give him a chance uh the end of the half that's just a combination a bad job by me uh we have the ball on the 11 ydd line with 50 seconds left we get a penalty out after a timeout specifically take a timeout so we can discuss something then we get a delay game on a check play then we come out and we take a sack when we can never take a sack there right because we're in field goal range all we want to do is win the middle eight then we come back and we throw a ball out of bounds we save 18 seconds on 18 seconds on the clock when we wanted to run the ball it was a draw taged it just uh as bad of a we can't do that if we want to win close games and I lost my mind because it's like that's the type of stuff that you can't have you can't have that bad of an operation there at the end of the first half if we want to win close football games in the Big 12 and that's something we got to get better at and I got to get better at coach uh you've mentioned this fall how the linebacker room has been one of the most special and most improved rooms of Camp obviously the two uh two interceptions are out of the gate today what is so special about that room well I mean both those guys were team captains it's funny how that works like I for I I'll I won't I won't forget zyrus went in the portal and they're like giving us the description and they're like San Diego State and they read me all these stats then the last one they're like team captain I'm like why didn't you say that first what are we talking about this was a team captain for one of the best uh Mountain West schools one of the best non power five schools the country uh yeah I don't even want I don't even want to watch tape I don't need to watch tape cuz he's wired right let me talk to him and then Kean Elliott goes in the portal and it was oh he's a team captain for a team that won the most games that they almost ever had in school history are we really going to watch the tape like what are we doing obviously these guys have something about them that's different and uh if we're going to get carried away and analyzing the film and is his hip mobility as good as the other guy and does he open and run what does that matter they are team captains on football teams that are traditionally really really good or a team that overachieved at one of the highest levels of a team could overachieve last year you want them on your football team and I think tonight was just the ultimate reflection of that they go out in the first two drives they both get interceptions it's like well ding ding ding take team captains time for a few more Jesse uh do you feel like you guys were a little maybe overlooked in the offseason oh I don't care about that yeah I mean no I don't we won three games the last two years we sign a bunch of kids nobody wanted so nope I don't I think we're right where we should be um Kenny coming into the season the expectation was that your running backs room would be pretty deep um today scat D Carlos and kaon all scored touchdowns what did you kind of see from that group today yeah it was balanced I think we got to keep guys fresh and you could see that even Jason Brown got in there late and I was glad to be able to get him some reps Al Alton got in there uh sip with the big screen uh but I think with all those running backs and everything that they did tonight I think you really have to make a I mean r line like you've got to really tip your cap to uh how they played the game tonight because I I can't count on one hand I mean I can maybe two fingers the amount of times that there was a potential tfl and when you PA a really good defense that doesn't allow teams to run the football with their returning starters and you don't have guys in the back field all night in the in the running game uh kudos to them kudos to Leaf Ben Coleman who hasn't played a game in 500 or 600 days max I mean all those dudes just played lights out in my opinion hey coach uh I know tonight probably went according to plan was there anything that kind of surprised you out there at all how bad we were in the in the first first half that surprised me I pride myself in winning the middle eight and that was really really bad uh we we didn't Sky pun a sky punt we should have uh that's my fault I flipped headsets we we we bad bad job there in the middle of the third quarter that surprised me uh yeah I mean I thought our players played really well uh I thought there's things I got to clean up um coach you talked about the importance of trust to this group and being able to trust each other in big moments not as much adversity tonight but where do you think the chemistry is and Trust amongst each other to do their individual tasks yeah I think tonight was a really big day for that uh you know when you face a good team like that's a good football team guys like that's a good football team you we'll we'll look back at this in 12 or 11 weeks and be like whoa right it's a good football team and when you're guy when you have to face a team like that week one which not everybody does right sometimes you just get to face somebody else and hopefully it goes smoothly uh but the guy's confidence level they put in the work the guys believe in themselves and then to go play like that it's just kind of a stamp of the work that they've put in and I think that's only going to grow the team together and grow that oh whoa it kind of worked all that work made us better whoa right but if you don't see results it's really hard to continue to work and motiv at uh and not everything's going to be roses and candy canes this year right there's going to be there's going to be times that it smells and we got to be able to respond and uh that's what that's really what's going to when we get that moment where we have to respond is where we get to find out the makeup of our team uh I thought we responded to the success well tonight uh but we will have we will fail this is not going to be a clear path we're going to face adversity and we got to be ready for it uh Ken you mention the end of the the first half where you have the delay and the sack but I think Sam was was saw a possible Blitz and he was trying to alert a protection there so what do you think about just his the football IQ that was on display for somebody who was in his first start I mean to be really impressive his Poise back there him calling out pressures calling I mean I think it was second Drive of the game he's flipped a Pro versus nickel fire um or no communicated it on our Sprint out he communicated to the running back that they're bringing nickel fire on a third and three um maybe the second quarter no it's first quarter uh we were sprit out to the left completed to Jordan Tyson and right there alone was like whoa in my mind I'm like okay like we we this guy's got it a little bit like he's got the savviness and he got caught once and to get caught once in a football game as a true freshman like kudos to him right really good job by him he's sad but he puts in the work so you know it's funny that the people that put in the work usually make the right decisions it's just funny how that works that work works there's no way around it even better than you expected yes I I thought there'd be more uh freeze moments where he's just like freshman oh yeah yeah yeah my bad I know that like God moments only a couple tonight only a couple where he got to the side down and was like ah like what am I doing like why didn't I throw the ball here or why didn't I do this not many of those moments mentally there's a few throws he wants to have back he'd want to have the corner route on the third down and the third quarterback um that he U threw out of bounds uh but other than that I mean the kid played a an unbelievable game uh and I'm excited about the future with him that's what really is exciting is that kid has four more years left uh potentially to play here and I think this program is going to grow is going to continue to grow and it's going to grow with him and that's super exciting thanks thank