Everything Kenny Dillingham said after Arizona State's thrilling win over BYU

The 21st ranked Sun Devils are fresh off an exhilarating win over the 14th ranked BYU Cougars that came right down to the wire and included fans storming the field before things had even officially ended. The end result is a significant win for Arizona State that has huge implications for the Big 12 race, but there is plenty to talk about from this thriller.

Kenny Dillingham has already proven to be one of the more entertaining head coaches in college football, from crowd surfing with fans after a win to his raw energy in postgame press conferences and his penchant for going for it on fourth down so often.

But Dillingham raised plenty of eyebrows for his handling of the clock on Arizona State's final drive of the game, in which he had quarterback Sam Leavitt run backwards on successive plays to grind out the clock before the final fourth down call of chucking the ball as high as he could, which is what led to the confusion with the fans storming the field prematurely. The drive began on the BYU 7-yard line after an interception from Javan Robinson, but their fourth down attempt was snapped at the BYU 49-yard line.

Naturally, this sequence was one of the first things Dillingham was asked about after the game. His answer wasn't entirely focused on explaining the logic behind it, instead opting to celebrate the win:

"If you score, they have a minute left. There is a chance that they could score and kick an onside kick and win. In reality, there was a point where there was under 12 seconds left to go in the game and we have two plays, right? Each play should take roughly six to seven seconds if you're in a delay scenario... there's a lot of statistics behind that thought process. But, uh, we won the game, and that's all that matters"

When Dillingham was asked again to get into the specifics of what was going on during the final moments, particularly as fans were ushered off the field to play one final down, Dillingham punted a bit:

"Yeah, I love going into details on things. I'm not going to go into details on that one. We won the football game. We beat another ranked team in Mountain America Stadium, right? And this is all about the guys. These guys battled, these guys fought, these guys found a way to win, and it doesn't matter. "

"Whatever happened at the end, it happened, but you know what? We got to rush the field twice. How about that? We rushed the field three times this year. That's pretty cool. Not many people get the opportunity to do that. So come to Arizona State, because there's going to be a lot more of that going forward. "

Dillingham was also asked about the team's mindset during the second half, during which BYU outscored the Sun Devils 20-7, though they never took the lead.

"We were still winning. We make one sack or interception, we win the game. So many times, it takes one play and we got it. I have so much confidence in these guys, and we win close games because we like drama."

While Dillingham was making a joke at the end there, his Sun Devils have been magnets for high drama all season. Seven of their 11 games played this year have been decided, one way or the other, by one score. To everyone's surprise, based on the preseason expectations for Arizona State, the team has come up big in those biggest of moments much more often than not, leading to their 9-2 record heading into their regular season finale, a showdown with bitter in-state rival Arizona.

While much of the coming week will be focused on the hatred that feeds the oldest rivalry in college football, Dillingham kept things his usual light mood when asked about wearing a hoodie for this game that advertised the school's official NIL collective, the Sun Angels. Dillingham's response, in which he invokes a famous quote from the film Rounders, has to be witnessed to be properly appreciated: