Arizona State Head Coach Kenny Dillingham Weekly Press Conference
Monday, November 24, 2025
Previewing Territorial Cup vs. Arizona:
On the Territorial Cup featuring two teams at an 8-3 record: 
“It's awesome to have this game be played with two really good football teams. I think there's five teams that have eight wins in our league, potentially. I thought there were five at this point and two of them are playing in a rivalry game, and I think that's what you want this game to matter and it's awesome that it matters.”

On his favorite memories of the Territorial Cup before he was the head coach:
“I don't know if I have anything specific otherwise, other than I think about the game and Thanksgiving going together. When I think about Thanksgiving, I also think about the Territorial Cup. You get together with your family, eat Thanksgiving food, and then you eat leftovers and you watch the Territorial Cup.”

On if he felt the intensity of the Territorial Cup when he was on Todd Graham’s staff: 
“The rivalry in this game, there was a separate rivalry on top of the actual history of the school rivalry because they've all worked together. It's like a rivalry on rivalry, but this is a game that matters to the state. Your neighbor could have gone to either school. I think that's what makes this rivalry fun. People are friends with people on both sides of this rivalry, and that's what makes it so big, it is the relationships that are within the rivalry.”

On his “twist the knife” and the “no pity” phrases: 
“I've been saying that for a while, I think my dad actually said this to my little league team when I was 12 years old back when he was coaching us. It’s something kind of funny to rally behind, but, and then the other phrase is all in good gamesmanship. It should have never been posted on social media. We played well at the end of last week's game and hopefully we can build on that. They're playing very good football, they are top two in our league. They're playing as good of football in our league as anybody right now. The thing about them is they won 10 games two years ago. Their quarterback (Noah Fifita) is the same quarterback, their free safety (Dalton Johnson), who's the most valuable player on their defense, is the same kid. They have another DB (Treydan Stukes) who has been the same starter and has been there forever. They have the core of that team. It's not a shock that they're having this amount of success. It's that same group of kids who have stayed there through and through. They've been loyal to the program, stayed true to it, and now they're playing really good football. I think it's because that core and that root of people are still there from that team and that they're doubling down and people are rallying behind them.”

On why there wasn’t a lot of design runs for Quarterback Jeff Sims vs Colorado: 
“I think every game and every gameplan's a little bit different. I think that for that gameplan, we felt like the way they played defense that we could run the ball with our running backs a little bit more. We needed to be able to run the ball with our running backs a little bit more and that showed up in the game. (Running Back) Raleek (Brown) had an unbelievable game, so I think it was more about the gameplan and what we were seeing and how we wanted to attack.”

On how he balances the emotions of the players: 
“It's a one-game season, that's what I told them in the locker room after Colorado was this is a one-game season, and we finish the regular season 8-3. We got a bonus game right here and then whatever's after that. That's how I view it and I think our guys are excited, it sucks that we got in at 2:30 a.m. on a short week, it's because we still gave the guys Sunday off. You don't want to bring those guys back up and practice immediately. So I told them we're probably behind a day on them based on the scheduling. We’re already on a short week, so our backs are against the wall. They're playing as good at football as anybody in our league right now. They've got a veteran quarterback, two veteran DBs, and their defensive line’s playing great. This is probably the best secondary we've played all year, they're number two in the country in pass defense. We better come ready to play, because this is a good football team.”

On (RB) Raleek Brown performance against Colorado last week:
“It was awesome, it was great to see him get loose. We talked about having explosive runs and to see him have a few explosive runs in the game was critical for us, changed the game. His run at the end of the half and run at the beginning of the fourth quarter really changed the entire dynamic of the game.  So hopefully, we can create explosives and continue to create those explosives. For (RB) Raleek (Brown), it's awesome to see him have success. The guy has so much energy and passion and he does it in his own unique way, but he is awesome to coach. He's a blast to coach.”

On who (RB) Raleek Brown reminds (HC) Kenny Dillingham of:
“I think he's more in. I coached a kid named Kenny (Kenneth) Gainwell, back at Memphis, and he kind of reminds me of him a little bit. He's stockier than people give him credit for. Stronger than people give him credit for. A good pass catcher out of the backfield, can become explosive, that was kind of Kenny's game who was drafted by the Eagles. That's kind of who Raleek reminds me of.” 

On Arizona’s football team:
“They're playing as good a football as anybody in our league. I truly believe it's that core of guys that have stayed there over the last three years and saw the ultimate success and saw an outlier in last year. Then they're back to where they were and the team they were a couple of years ago. I really think it's those guys (DB) Genesis Smith and (DB Treydan) Stukes. Then obviously I mean, self-explanatory when your quarterback is back again and he's a high-level player. I think there's just a core there that has really established something and they wanted to be there, they wanted to stay there. That core of people has really brought out the best of that football team. Those are their best players and it's fun even though it's your rival and stuff like that. It's fun to watch guys stick through something and then come out on the other end and have an unbelievable season.”

On keeping the rivalry respectful: 
“It's a rivalry game, man. People are going to get fiery, they're going to get feisty. It's a matter of doing that in a respectful way. You can be intense and fiery and get after it, that's what it should be. I mean, we're not going into our locker room and saying we like and yay, no this is a rivalry game, it's on. You can do it in a respectful manner. You can want to compete at the highest level and respect your opponent, and I respect these guys. I respect the players that are on this team because what I've said before, they've stuck through it and it's a fun thing to watch. Those guys, from the other side have the success they're having this year. (Arizona's QB) Noah's (Fifita) played as good as anybody at quarterback in the country right now, he really is, it's a very challenging task. That back end is playing as good as literally any back end in the country. They're second to Ohio State in yards per pass given up, so they're playing. Coach (Danny) Gonzalez knows everything about both sides of the rivalry. He could come up here and say's every good stat for ASU, come up there and say every good stat for Arizona, he's a walking Arizona encyclopedia. He eventually needs to coach at Northern Arizona, so he can just be the king of the state. He's done a phenomenal job. Coach (Seth) Doege has done a phenomenal job, on the opposite side of the ball. So they've just done a really good job as a staff this year and as a team.” 

On how the offense hasn’t clicked with the opportunity to score first:
“Well one, we always defer. We're probably going to get an average of possession a half to two possessions. Then two, we're not playing great on offense, point blank. The offense has been a disappointment this year for the most part. It hasn't been firing on all cylinders for one way or another, we haven't clicked. Especially early in games, we haven't clicked. It's not even the ability to drive the football. Most games we've been driving the football pretty consistently, it's making one mistake which stops us. Last game, early in the game, we didn't drive the football.  That was the bad part about last game is the three and out rate. It's one thing when you move the ball and you get stalled because of a TFL or a penalty. Early in last week's game, we didn't move the ball at all and that was my frustration. Hopefully we get back on track and we can start a little bit faster this week.” 

On selling out every home game this season:
“We sold out the entire season. I've said it before, I mean our fans have been unbelievable this year. Activating the valley from that perspective is 100 percent all in, it's unreal. I don't think it's ever been done before in the history. OK, the stadium shrunk, I get all of it. Well we can't re not shrink it. So I don't know what to tell you. It's never been sold out before for an entire year and that's unbelievable. That's the first step. Like I said, the buy-in from the community is an essential piece in winning in college football, not just because the money behind it. People are going to show up to the games and student athletes, players are going to say, ‘Oh my gosh, this place is awesome’, and you're going to sign better players. So it's so important in this day and age for multiple reasons, and I just think people should get behind us. Hopefully we continue to progress. Like I said, it's not always going to be perfect.  We're going to win games, we're going to lose games, hopefully we win a lot more than we lose. If people can stay with us through the whole process, I think we're just going to build and build and build and have ups and downs. At the end of the day, it's going to be a really fun place to come watch football games for a long time.”

On (HC) Kenny Dillingham’s earliest memories of the rivalry game:
“To be honest, I don't. I'm horrible at like early memories. My mom is like, why did I take you to all those places, you don't remember anything. I'm like, I'm sorry, I don't. I'm horrible with the early memory thing. I would just say turkey, Thanksgiving and the rivalry game. I would say that's my early memory and then painting the A. When people used to drive by it and I used to see the A painted and my dad would explain kind of what was going on and they're trying to paint the A, we're trying to paint the A. That's a rivalry, we're protecting the A. I think that was something that I kind of remember.”

On staff member Vitz Amey’s impact for the upcoming game against Arizona: 
“He's been awesome. His passion for this place is as good as anybody that I know. He absolutely loves this place and this school. He attributes a lot of his life and success in life to this place and he'll be the first to say it. He's an emotional guy like myself, so I think his emotions will show because he's an emotional guy and he wears his heart on his sleeve. These seniors were a big part of our program change from where we were three years ago. I would say it's like two completely different groups of seniors. They've had a group of older leaders that had that success, were very successful, and are still there leading and being successful. Our guys showed up and they had to figure out how to change the dynamic and they changed it. Now their time is coming to an end, so I think it's really cool for us to have had two different programs with seniors where the place truly mattered to them. It's really fun to see our guys go out there in their last game knowing they helped take this place from 30,000 fans in the stadium to sellouts throughout their entire senior year. That's unbelievable – they saw the transition for those seniors. That's something that not everybody can say they were a part of a complete change of an organization. These seniors can say that.”

On WR Jordyn Tyson becoming more vocal with the team: 
“I think he just realized how much he appreciates his teammates. I think when he was sitting out and he was thinking to himself, ‘Man, I want to play. I want to play. I want to play.’ and then he had everyone tell him, ‘I think he's not trying to play on purpose’. He hears all that noise and his attitude is ‘No, I want to play. Why do all these people think I don't want to play? I want to play, I'm doing everything I can to play for these guys’. So I think that emotion kind of got to him. He probably was thinking, ‘I want to make sure these guys know this isn't about me. I'm playing. I want to play with you guys. This is a team, and I want to do whatever I can to be on the field with you guys for as many games as I have left’. To see his maturity and growth over the last few years is pretty special. I think that capped it off (for him). He told me they pray and then they usually give a speech for the players and he said, ‘Coach, I want to talk to the team’, and I was like, ‘Go for it’. It was pretty cool.”

On the environment he is expecting to have for Friday’s game: 
“I'm expecting this place to be rocking. Absolutely rocking. Unfortunately, there's going to be some other colors in there too, because a lot of their fans live up here as well, but I want this place to be rocking. This should be one of the best environments in college football this weekend. Absolutely one of the best. You have two really good football teams playing a rivalry game with a lot of guys who are passionate about their schools on both sides of the ball. This is what you want rivalry games to be. You want them to be this.”

On what the schedule will look like with a short week and Thanksgiving before their game on Friday: 
“We would have liked to have been here sometime in the afternoon on Saturday. We could have woken up, lifted, the staff could have put together a plan, and we could have come back on Sunday afternoon to introduce the plan and practice Monday and Tuesday. With us getting back late we kind of lost that day. It's either sleep or cram and go, and I've never been a believer in cramming and not resting your players after games. Tonight we'll come in and have our meetings and have a turkey dinner because we always have a winner dinner. I think last week was a medieval times theme last Sunday or Monday. This week, I said let's do a Thanksgiving dinner for everybody just because that's a two-for-one. All the guys will come up here and have Thanksgiving dinner before our meetings and then we'll have a normal Tuesday. We'll have a half practice on Wednesday, a walk through Thursday and go play Friday. So we just cut out our fast Friday as part of our week. It's not a huge deal because all we did was cut out Fast Friday. I had other schedules planned based on different kick times and different situations, but that's where we landed.”

On what the game vs. Arizona means to them:
“I think just the passion they have for this place. I'm showing up (to volleyball games) and all of a sudden, I see six of our players and they're watching the games. That's awesome. So I think what I attribute it to is that our players love it here. The majority of our team is truly a Sun Devil. They're going to come back to celebrate and they're going to be at this rivalry game in the future. This is what they want to be a part of.”

On former ASU (RB) Cam Skattebo coming to watch the game this Saturday:
“I haven't really mentioned it to the guys yet, but he's fired up. I'm fired up. It's what college football is supposed to be. You should graduate from a school and have a passion about that place and come back and feel like you're at home. For him to be able to come back, he's going to feel like he's at home. It’s just awesome.”

On how well-positioned the team is to return players next year:
“I think we're in a good spot. We want dudes who want to be at ASU. I feel like we're in a good spot to be able to get that accomplished. The guys who truly want to be here are the guys that are all in on being at ASU. The guys who believe we can help them achieve what they want to achieve and believe this is the best place for them and that we're going to take care of them, I think we're going to have a really good chance to keep those guys here. And then, I think we're going to have the ability to attract a lot of really good players as well. When you're selling out crowds, when you have investment from the school, it positions us really well to be a destination for some of these guys.”