Here is what the Sun Devils are saying after their loss to Utah and before their game versus Texas Tech.
Arizona State head coach Kenny Dillingham on where the team struggled against Utah: “Well, we struggled tackling. We're still struggling in the low red zone. We had two drives in our first three drives that went 17 plays versus Utah. If you would have told me that, I would have been fired up.”
Dillingham on what happened with quarterback Sam Leavitt: “I know people think like there's no gamesmanship here. This is just purely being honest. The reality is he's day-to-day. We're going to find out when we move him around on Tuesday and Wednesday's practice, if he's good enough to play on Saturday. I would say anybody who came to practice, did he move around at those two practices on (last) Tuesday and Wednesday? Did he run? Answer is no. Did he practice? Yes, but it wasn't full practice, then we made a decision because Jeff got all the reps in the bye week. We wanted Sam to get reps on Tuesday and Wednesday, thinking he was going to play. Didn't progress like we thought.”
Dillingham on how Jeff Sims played: “I thought Jeff threw the ball where it should go. A few times, the ball was probably overthrown or something like that a couple times, but for the most part, I thought he played really, really well. He didn't take early down sacks when we were in real offense. To his defense, he really only played six real drives, and most of those drives were extended drives that he made the play when it was necessary. So even through all the negative, there are some positives there. I was really pleased with how he played, and I got a lot of confidence in Jeff.”
Offensive coordinator Marcus Arroyo on the Texas Tech defense: “They can get home with just their four guys. They can get home with just the front guys. They can control the line of scrimmage. There's a ton just in the front in the run game and the pass game that they don't need to really do a lot of sophisticated stuff to try to get home. That's where it all starts. Then, in the back end, they do a really nice job calling each other with coverage. They do a really nice job.”
Redshirt junior wide receiver Jordyn Tyson on where he has developed most: “That's a good question. I think yards after catch. I feel power output in total. Some days my legs be tired, but some games they don't. I think I'll be feeling good this game.”
Defensive coordinator Brian Ward on the Texas Tech offense: “There's never a break, with any of these offenses that we're playing. Texas Tech is loaded everywhere. They got guys who are going to play on Sunday everywhere on offense. We got our hands full, and we got the group that can play with anybody.”
Dillingham on the run defense against Utah: “We couldn't tackle them. I mean, it was impressive. like it wasn't fun to be on the other side of not being able to tackle somebody, but we couldn't tackle them. He averaged 12 yards a carry. That's not ideal. They do a great job schematically. They did a great job. I mean, they put a 350-pounder at tight end. They outphysicaled us.”
Dillingham on the meaning of all-in on NIL: “I think all-in is constantly changing. I think all-in is saying, wherever you know the top end is, we're going to get there. That number is changing, and that's what all-in is constantly changing. It's a moving target, and you got to be willing to adapt and move and do what's necessary to hit all-in.”
Dillingham on how the team has practiced: “I think we've definitely gotten better this week, and I'm excited to go play football.”
Dillingham on practicing without center Ben Coleman, who is out for the year: “Yeah, I thought it was good. Wade (Helton) was out a little bit today as well. So Makua (Pule) took a lot of first-team reps, so that was good. We'll see where Wade's at, but it was good. I was happy with how we practiced this week. I was happy with the physicality. Now we got to go out and play football to our standard.”
Dillingham’s message to the fans ahead of Texas Tech: “We need to be loud. We need to be fiery. This is an absolute game-changing environment that we can create. The last time we had a home game, the opposing team said we created an advantage. We need to create that same advantage this week. That's the challenge every home game is this a place where people show up and it's loud, it's fun, it's exciting, and it's sold out. I'm pretty sure most of our games the rest of the way are close to being sold out from that perspective, which is awesome.
Kenny Dillingham’s message to the fans: “The last time we had a home game the opposing team said we created an advantage. We need to create that same advantage this week.”@Devils_Detail pic.twitter.com/fyr7U33uWI
— Andrew Hayslett (@AndrewJHayslett) October 13, 2025
Dillingham on the meaning of out-coached: “So, to me, in college football, the word out-coached, every time we lose, we get out-coached because we don't have a GM. Every loss that we have, I'm responsible for every single person in this organization. So it doesn't matter if we miss a tackle or if there's a bad scheme or if they get us schematically; it's out-coached. That's how I view it is the extreme ownership of I have brought in every single person into this organization. If we miss a tackle or if we don't make a play or if we have a bad scheme or something like that, that all falls on me.
"Maybe out-coached isn't always the perfect term, but at the end of the day, everything always falls on me. So when we have failures or we don't hit an expectation for a multitude of reasons, it's my fault. That's what I mean by out-coached is who else do I look at? Everybody's here because of me, right? Which means everything falls on me, and it should; every bad thing ever said about this program should fall directly on me, not our players, because it's I brought them here, that's our job to put them in the best position to succeed, and that 100% is on me. So that's what I mean by when I say that.”