Here is what the Sun Devils are saying leading up to Saturday’s game versus Texas State, as they are coming off a loss at Mississippi State.
Arizona State head coach Kenny Dillingham on the team’s emotion: “I think our team's in a good spot. I told our guys, you can't get the outside noise and the clout, right, is going to disappear, whatever that means, okay? But the goal of the season and the vision of the season really has no change. I think the guys have responded really good.”
Dillingham on the three explosive touchdowns: “We'd like to have all three of those calls back as a coaching staff, because all three of those calls create communication, which we didn't do a good enough job communicating in two of them. So, all three of those calls I'd like to have back, and I'd like to play cover, two in every single time they took a shot in my hindsight that would be my perfect scenario in those three.”
Dillingham on second-guessing himself: “So, 100% I will always if something doesn't work, I lay up in bed all night saying, ‘Man, should we have gone for it? Man, why didn't I go for it? Man, should I kick the onside kick that I thought was there at the end of the game?’ You always live in this hindsight world. So yeah, everything that doesn't work, I literally constantly second-guess after the game, and what we could have done that would have been the best call. 100% I wish we were in soft two coverage on that last play that broke for a touchdown.”
Dillingham on the third down conversion rate: “We just got to simplify things. We got to give our players easier things to see. We got to get our guys more comfortable. We're taking a big emphasis on that. It will allow us to stay in more of a rhythm on offense. We're getting into third and longs. We're not getting into as many third-and-good manageables as we would like. So, we got to get into third and better manageables, and we got to do that with first and second down, obviously. And then once we get to third down, get one conversion. I think we'll get rolling.”
Offensive coordinator Marcus Arroyo on establishing the run: “Yeah, I think that identity is part of what we've tried to establish here since we've been here is running the football effectively, understanding that can dictate the course of a game. It's part of your identity on offense. You hope to establish that. That's our that's our brand of football, and everything comes off of that. Your play actions, your rhythm, your situational football. You're in better situations on second on third down.”
Dillingham on quarterback Sam Leavitt’s freedom: “I definitely think we have to find that balance with him. I don't think I've done a good enough job putting him in positions to have easy success. I think one of the best things that I've done in my past is giving quarterbacks the ability to really just operate, and then when they need to make special plays, make it. I think sometimes we're asking them to make too many special plays and not enough just easy plays. I've got to find ways to not let that happen in the future so we can help him. If he's not in a rhythm, that's my fault, and I've got to force him into a rhythm, and we haven't really got him in one of those.”
Leavitt on his performance: “There's a lot of things I got to clean up. Quite frankly, I didn't play very well and take a lot of things on me, and it's things I can clean up, just knowing the game plan better and fixing my footwork, being more calm, it's a lot of the same things that was, early in the season last year.”
Dillingham on the lack of pass catchers getting involved outside of Jordyn Tyson: “Yeah, we got to get more guys involved. So, that's the plan. In fall camp, we had more guys involved all the time. We got to do a better job myself getting more guys involved. That simple. We have guys out there that should be involved, can be involved.”
Tight ends coach Jason Mohns on the tight ends potentially breaking out: “We're ready to go. You call our number, they're going to be in the right place. They're going to do the right thing, and they're going to be ready to execute. We don't get too hung up on that. That's not that's not how we judge our success based on touches or targets or things like that. The minute you start worrying about getting the ball or not, then it finds you, and you're not ready because your head's not in the right place. I know we've got some dynamic guys that can make an impact and and they're ready to go when the number's called.”
Dillingham on tight end Chamon Metayer’s blocking performance: “That dude was unbelievable. He has bought into playing a brand of football that's old school, and we do have to get him the ball more because he's playing really good football right now. I couldn't be happier with how he's playing, his buy-in. He's just one of the unsung heroes for sure.”
Mohns on the tight end room outside of Metayer: “We felt all on that we had a really talented tight end room and that's because of Cameron Harpole and because of Kamari Anderson, and those guys have done a great job preparing all spring and all summer. It was really a three-man rotation with the ones. We've been in so much 12 (personnel), we've been in so much 13 (personnel) that those guys, they're all listed as starters on the depth chart. We're excited about our group. They push each other, they challenge each other, they get along so well. I love my tight end room.”
Offensive line coach Saga Tuitele on the offensive line: “We're developing. They're tough kids. We just got to continue to improve on our footwork and our eyes, our communication. We're still developing. We're still fixing the problems that we need to be fixed. They were at the top of their game, but our goal is to play the best we can the next game and just keep building on that one. I know they're going to fight. I know they're going to be in the they're going to go in right direction, and we just got to clean up some of the technique stuff, football technique stuff.”
Dillingham on the defensive formation they called at the end of the game: “We were in quarters, pretty much the majority of the night. We were in quarters that last play they scored a touchdown on and that was one of our base calls throughout the night. In that scenario was a soft quarter shell, and we were playing that most of the night. You would love if you hit home; the game's over because they have no timeouts. You would love to play that side. In hindsight, I would wish we were in cover two and we just played a bracket shell coverage, give up the completion, let them play catch, but that's the best part about coaching is, sometimes it doesn't work and it sucks, and then you get to say that you wish you were in something different.”
Dillingham on hindsight: “Hindsight means for me if something doesn't work, you always want to second-guess yourself. It's the game of second-guessing. But yeah, so hindsight to me is it didn't work. So that sucks. We didn't hit home. It didn't get the result we wanted. So I always look at that and say, man, could we have been in, could we have hit home playing a cover three pressure? Could we have hit home with just a four-man rush? Maybe. Right. But we felt like we had a guy that we had a chance to come free and and it didn't work.”
Dillingham on the Texas State offense’s most concerning things: “The explosive play rate down thefield. Then they get explosive runs with the quarterback in the plus-one running game. They run flat read, counter, flat read, power read. So now everything has to be treated differently. You have to have a plan for that. So we're preparing for a plan for a plus-one run game. We have pretty good run defense, and their most explosive runs are majority plus one runs. Their running back's really good, too, though. he doesn't get tackled negatively ever. He always gains yards. So, we got to be able to limit explosive plays.”
Dillingham on what the Sun Devils need to clean up: “We got to play a complete game, obviously. So, playing a complete game, starting fast. We started fast in week one and then, last week, we didn't start fast, but we didn't start super fast as a football team in either game. It was kind of sluggish. We called a fake punt, which got us in a rhythm in week one. I want to see early drives on offense. So we got to create drives so we can actually get into our plan, so we can get guys touches.”