Here is what the Sun Devils had to say ahead of their trip to Utah.
Arizona State football head coach Kenny Dillingham on the trip to Utah: “We definitely pointed out that the last time we played here, it was really bad, it's a tough environment. There's 50 60% chance of thunderstorms, rain. We could hit a delay. We have an 8:15 kickoff that could also get delayed. We may be playing this game at 10:00 p.m. 10:30. That's not a far-fetched scenario based off the weather report. And it doesn't matter when we play it or where we play it. We're going to play a really good football team with a great crowd. And we got to be ready to go play a physical brand of football, and we got to be able to do all the little things, right.”
Redshirt sophomore quarterback Sam Leavitt on the trip to Utah: “I think I saw the stat they’re like 90 92% win in the last 10 years at home at night game. It's going to be an electric environment. You know, I've heard about playing at Utah. My whole family's out there, so it's going to be a fun time.”
Dillingham on the potential storms during the game: “I really don't care about the weather. We got to prepare for it. We got to spray footballs down as much as we can. We got to do stuff like that. But at the end of the day, football is won by one person moving the other person the other direction and then not giving the other team the ball. At the end of the day, like weather can affect how you get that accomplished, but you still have to take care of the football, and you still have to move the person in front of you the other direction. We have to play some wet ball drills, but we're not focused on that. We're focused on, you know, the task at hand, which is Utah.”
Dillingham on the start of games: “We just got to start faster. We got to have better plans early. We made an emphasis of it in our team meeting this morning, of we got to start practice faster. We're gonna change some things up, not a bunch, but you know, make a little tweaks to try to, you know, create some urgency at the start of practice, because it is taking us a while to get into our rhythm.”
Offensive coordinator Marcus Arroyo on Utah’s defense: “This is a really, really good defense. They play well. They've been coached this way for a long time up there, as we all know. I've played against this style and this coaching group, it seems like for decades since I was a player. I mean, that's how long this group's been up there. They coach them really well. They're really strong. They're really big up front. They play good man coverage. They're really well with their techniques. They've run this same system with the same alignment for a really long time, and they recruit to that. They do really good job. They don't beat themselves. They know where to get lined up. They can line up really late and know what they're doing.”
Leavitt on his TCU performance: “I didn't even look at the stats or anything, but it just felt the best. I watched the tape and I grade myself the best. I'm not looking at the stats. You know that you could have a couple passes that go for a lot more yards than in one game than another, but how well you played overall, know how well you saw the game and delivered the ball and managed the clock and everything like that. So, I do feel like it was my best game.”
Dillingham on the running backs that could be used in the red zone: “We've looked at everybody. I was going see what the Baconator (linebacker) Tristan Bacon could do back there. He was a running back in high school, but he got tweaked a little bit last week. So, we've thought about a variety of people to get it fixed. We've got a plan to hopefully be better in those scenarios. I feel really good about the plan.”
Assistant running backs coach Trenton Bourguet on his role: “It’s been awesome. I tell people I’m living the dream, being able to be out here with my former teammates and former coaches, but learning under them. Doing what I love is coaching football, so it's been a blast.”
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Dillingham on the Utah offensive scheme: “It's not the Utah of old from a scheme perspective. This is a triple-option football team. This is a team that uses the quarterback as a plus one. The quarterback will pull runs, and now they have the really good O-line, the physicality they've always had, and now the quarterback can pull it and run off triple option, which creates another layer of difficulty to defend these guys. I really think they took another step forward in terms of difficulty to play, especially schematically.”
Dillingham on Utah quarterback Devon Dampier: “He's a phenomenal player. I definitely should have recruited him harder, to be honest. He's definitely proved me wrong. I always thought he was a really good player, but how productive he's been in college football, super impressed by him. His ability to extend plays. How he runs the offense and operates it. Definitely a miss by me 100%. He's a tough guy to tackle. He gets the ball out fast. He just does a lot of things well. I got nothing but respect for him.”
Defensive coordinator Brian Ward on Utah’s offensive line: “When you got five guys that could all play in the NFL on their offensive line and that have a great future ahead of them, and when you put them up against our front four and the depth that we have at the D-line, it's going to be a great battle. We're just going to constantly challenge our guys each and every day this week. It's about the process, and if you guys are preparing the way that you need to do day in day out, Saturday is going to take care of itself. So, we're excited about the matchup. It's going to be a heavyweight battle and and uh get your popcorn ready.”
Dillingham on who he wants to have the ball in big moments: I want when the game's in the line, I want our big guys to have a chance, our best players to have a chance, even if it's not the best football play. I like to say to our staff all the time, right, I don't want to win the game as a coach, I want the players to win the game. It's our job to let them win the football game. At the end of the game, you got to let your best players win the football game. I can sleep at night if I can lean on our best players in the biggest moments.”