Here is what the Sun Devils are saying before they play Mississippi State, their second game of the season.
Arizona State offensive coordinator Marcus Arroyo on the week: I've been I'm always excited for week two because you get a chance to really see and look in the mirror who you are. No one was excited about a lot of things we did. There was some good stuff, don't get me wrong. You got a chance to go up against a playoff FCS team and come out with a win and have some big plays and a lot of things called back, and have a bunch of ugly stuff happen that you get a chance to correct. So, I think a lot more good than bad will come out of a game like that.”
Head Coach Kenny Dillingham on the SEC culture: “They got cowbells, baby. It's going to be fun. They love their football down there. I think we showed that we love our football here. Down there, they'll be there at 9:00 a.m. for a 6:30 kick, and they'll be getting ready to roll. It'll be their first home game of the year. I'm excited. The football down there is really good.”
Redshirt sophomore quarterback Sam Leavitt on expectations: “[The] bars definitely been raised. It's a lot different than last year. It was tough last year going from, you know, our last game was at the Peach Bowl to playing in that game. So, it's hard to get the juices going to that level, but you know, this week's going to be a good refresher.”
Dillingham on execution: “At the end of the day, we got to get better. We have to be a better football team. We have to coach better. We have to get our guys to execute better. We met today. We saw the errors. I showed them my errors showed them our errors as a whole group. This is what we have to do to fix it, and let's go fix it and go play a football game.”
Dillingham on the comfort level after week one: “When you're early in the season, you're trying to learn what is this team best at. I absolutely hate early-season games. It's so hard because as a coach don't feel like you can prepare your players as good early in the season as you can later in the season. There's so many unknowns that it's more difficult to prepare. So I hate early-season games. I like once you get into the meat and potatoes of the season. So this is my least favorite time. I chase ghosts, watch everything on the planet. Then teams do something they've never shown on tape, and it's exciting to adjust on the fly.”
Dillingham on gamesmanship: “Extreme gamesmanship, especially early in the season. Is that what they're doing, or do they just do that because that was week one and they were hiding something? You're there's that constant gamesmanship, especially earlier in the season. Later in the season, the gamesmanship disappears. You should have wrinkles, but you can't create a whole new identity of your team in a week. But you could have worked on something all year and saved it for week two or week three. That's very normal. So the gamesmanship piece is absolutely real this early in the season. That's the exciting part about these games.”
Dillingham on the split of passing and run plays: “Yeah, I told coach Arroyo I wanted to throw the ball around a little bit in the football game. Like that was our kind of plan going in. We had some big throws that were called back. If you add those two penalties, there's another 140 yards of passing. I think the narrative is, can you believe Sam set the record in his career for 420 passing yards, right? So, we were trying to, you know, be aggressive in the football game, part of that's on me, what I wanted to do going into the game. We faced that same problem at Texas State when we faced the chaos. You know, we've got to be able to run at the chaos, not away from it.”
Junior running back Kyson Brown on heading to his home state to play football: “I'm absolutely ready to go, ready to see my family, ready to play at that stadium. I remember just going to those games as a little kid. So, it's going to be fun just being in that environment, seeing my family, and just, you know, getting to ball out.
Dillingham on the running backs: “Yeah, I think both of them played really well. I think Kanye, when he got a few of his moments, played well. We're going to, you know, try to get those three guys and continue to get them involved in the game plan. They ran hard. They ran through tackles, positive runs. Like I said, probably should have run more direct runs in the game plan to just get downhill, more of an identity. At the end of the day, that's going to be our identity is downhill running the football. So we got to make sure we can establish that.”
Brown on the tandem of him and redshirt junior Raleek Brown: “We did some good things. We were explosive. We made some plays, and that was just a little taste of what we can do. I think we got one of the best back fields, and if not the best backfield in the country. We're going to be able to show that, we got a lot of guys that can do a lot of things, and I'm very confident in us and in myself.”
Raleek Brown on the depth in the running back room, “It's great. We got what four good backs, five? Well, we all good, but that's really playing right now. Three to four good backs that can rotate any time. So, it's a great room. So, it's fun.”
Wide receivers coach Hines Ward on : “
Dillingham on junior safety Keith Abney: “Yeah, he's about 20 pounds heavier. I think that's the most. He's always been a hard worker. He's always been intelligent. He's always been savvy. Then obviously, the more reps you get, the more you recognize things. He definitely recognizes offensive formations and stuff like that to give him tips on how to align better. But I would just say overall size, speed, and athleticism. He's really elevated that part that part of his game.”
Dillingham on the difference of Mississippi State compared to last year: “They've added over 30 transfers. They've added eight junior college players. So, around 40 veterans to their football team. When you add 40 vets, that's not including the high school class they signed. So, this team is really 65-70% new from last year's team. So, a lot of new faces. They're playing hard. You can see coach Lebby, and his identity is starting to show up, and the passion he has for the game is starting to show up. So, completely different football team. There are still some guys that are returning for them that were good football players last year that are returning again. But there's a lot of new guys.”
Dillingham on Mississippi State quarterback Blake Shapen: “He's year two in the system, so he's more comfortable in the system. They're just a little bit further ahead than they were last year. You can see it. They're more comfortable than they were last year off week one's game. So I don't know if you can ever do the same thing twice to a good player.”
Defensive Coordinator Brian Ward on Bulldogs quarterback Blake Shapen: “Yeah, I mean he's a he's he's an experienced, poised quarterback. He makes good throws under pressure. He knows when he's about to get hit, and he has the courage to be able to step into some of his throws. He trusts his receivers to be in spots. So, he does a great job in putting the ball in spots against certain coverages, and this is an offense, too, that really exploits space. He's a really talented quarterback and a leader, and um he he's able to get the ball downfield.”
Arroyo on the Mississippi State defensive system: “[It’s a] corner-based system, long, fast. They'll press you. They'll play some cover one, they'll play some zero, they'll play some drop eight. They've got a they've got a good scheme that they implement in the back end with those corners. They're long, they're experienced. They can they they've played some really good, talented teams, so they've seen it all. we've got a we've got a really good match-up against us. So excited to get our guys out there.”
Dillingham on communication against Mississippi State: “Yeah, they play so fast that if you can't get lined up, you're screwed. You better get lined up, get the call, understand who's carrying the verticals, understand who's in the run fit, how you're fitting the run, and if you don't, they're going to get on a roll and and take advantage of you because they're not going to let you, they're not going to give you a time to catch your breath. They're going to keep pushing the pedal to the metal. We've got to be able to get aligned on defense. We got to be able to get on the same page.”
Dillingham on Starkville: “When you think of Mississippi State and Starkville, it's an unbelievable college town. They got unbelievable atmosphere. Fans are awesome. They're all in, which is what you want. So there it's a great environment there, and we're trying to simulate that environment as much as we can. Obviously, you can't simulate their fan base and their excitement and that environment, but you can be as close as you can. So, we're just trying to simulate the passion of that city and that place, and it's awesome.”
Leavitt on the cowbells: “Honestly, I like it. It kind of reminds me of high school football. Yt just gets some juice going and preparing us for the game. The only time it bugged me was when they were doing it in the center's ear, and he couldn't hear me do the cadence. So, I got a little mad at that, but other than that, it was fun.”
Kyson Brown on the cowbells: “The cowbells actually just annoyed me today, but it's definitely a memory. I remember the last Egg Bowl I went to and those fans they keep it rocking the entire time. So, it's definitely just, you know, a memory.”