Here is what the Sun Devils are saying after their big win against Texas Tech, as they look forward to hosting Houston.
Dillingham on what Saturday’s win over Texas Tech does for recruiting: “I do think the viral moments are good for a brand and they're good for a culture with your team as long as you can respond from them and understand that once the next day hits, it's over. Nobody cares anymore. What do we have to do to get better? How do we improve? Because if we don't constantly improve, we're going to have more moments like we saw two weeks ago, not more moments like we saw last week.”
Dillingham on what it's like coming off of an emotional win to get ready for this next game against Houston: “You have to get your guys refocused and get them ready to go. It's difficult from the perspective I mentioned earlier. It’s a challenge, and our guys have to be ready to step up to the challenge of refocusing and giving that level of passion and energy over the next six days.”
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Dillingham on Houston deserving more respect nationally: “They're 6-1 and they've lost to a top 15 team in the country. They win games. Their head coach (Willie Fritz) there has won a lot of games for a long time at a lot of places. Just winning games by playing good defense, complementary offensive football, possessing the ball, taking care of the football, not hurting themselves. He is winning again, and their football team is 6-1 with one loss to a Top 15 team. They're a phenomenal football team because they're balanced, they play to each other's strengths, they have an identity and that's what leads to winning.”
Dillingham on offensive lineman Makua Pule’s performance against Texas Tech: “I thought (Pule) played really well great snaps, great tags, and he held up versus really good football players. I was very pleased that he played.”
Dillingham on wide receiver Jaren Hamilton with wide receiver Jordyn Tyson out: “Yeah, he had a good week. I think a bunch of people have to step up. I think it can't just be him, you know, you can't just replace Jordyn Tyson with one person, right? So, you've got to have a group and a team effort to replace, you know, 10-15 yards at a time.”
Dillingham on facing Houston quarterback Connor Weigman: “He's a duel. They put him in positions to where you have to treat him like a triple option quarterback, even though he's not. They do enough of it to make you count his hat, to where they get you in coverages that they can expose you down the field with their passing game. They're very good at quick passing game; they get the ball out really fast. They take shots, then they add plus one runs with their quarterback, that's all you need in football. That's why their time of possession is so high, and that's why they're 6-1. They have a philosophy on how to win.”
Dillingham on the impact kicker Jesus Gomez makes for the team: “We kick a lot more field goals. Now people like my dad are like, ‘Why are you kicking so many field goals?’ Last year, it was like, ‘Why do you always go for it?’ My family usually gives me the beat of the fans. I don't know what y'all want. I'm just going to do what I think is best. So to have a guy like that be able to kick field goals and make them with confidence, it's won us a couple of games. That's been a critical piece of our team this year.”
Dillingham on fourth-quarter miscues on special teams: “Embarrassingly bad football that I'm going to get fixed. We kept the entire team in our special teams meeting today, and we said, ‘We’re going to watch every one of these plays together, quarterbacks, offensive line, I don't care. We're staying in here because everybody needs to understand how important this was to winning and losing a football game.’ I haven't done a good enough job making sure people understand the importance (of that) and it was a reality check for us as a football team to get better at that area. There's going to be an improved intensity, an improved effort, and improved mindset in those phases of the game because that was just unacceptable.”
Dillingham on how he reaches out to other coaches for advice: “They're just guys that I have a lot of respect for that have won for a long time. I just pick up the phone and call them and say this is what we're going through. You've been through everything, so tell me how you would handle this. Tell me what you would do, and just try to listen. Sometimes you need other people outside of the building to ask questions, too. I call a variety of people, guys I've worked with, guys I haven't, just to get opinions. It's just calling the people who you think’s their expertise in those areas and listening because I'm still new to this. I'm still learning every day. I'm still trying to get better, and I think the day that I try to stop getting better is the day that I'm going to start to get worse.”
Reshirt sophomore quarterback Sam Leavitt on playing at home: “Our fan base can create a huge upside for us. It's the weather that we play in every single day, so we're used to it. You don't got to travel. You're comfortable with the scenery and everything like that. It's just the comfortability of it and then, you know, having your fans on your side creating the noise.”
Dillingham’s assessment of the Big 12 and how it has felt playing against difficult teams this far: “It's exciting. We get to play another one-loss team, so that's great stuff. This conference is just so deep across the board. You never know who can win any game. Anybody can beat anybody any week in this conference, and that's the challenge of the league. That's why every game has to be so singularly focused on like it is the most important game, and you just have to survive. It's like we survive, all right, survive again. Take a deep breath for 12 hours, survive, and repeat for as long as you can go.”
Dillingham on managing the human aspect of players who are dealing with injuries: “It’s the most important part: the people, not the player. The people make the player. So many times in college sports, people worry about the player. In reality, if you can get the person to just be happy, to want to work, be inspired, he becomes a better player. So for us, it’s always about the person first, the player second. But I don’t always know their numbers. I know them as people, and I do that deliberately. I want people to know people in our program, Number 32, come here, but Prince (Dorbah), come here. There’s a big difference to me.”
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Dillingham on field storming and things being thrown on the field: “College sports is college sports. People are going to complain and celebrate everything. You’re going to have two sides of every argument. So I’m not going to pick one because then the other side won’t like it. But I’ll say this, we should never judge people by emotional moments. Players, opposing teams, or coaches in those moments of high energy, and fans on the field. You should never judge somebody in those moments based on a clip. You have no clue what happened prior to that or after that, and I feel like you should never judge those players in those moments. I’ve seen some clips of some guys, and it’s not fair to judge people in those moments.”