Arizona State Head Coach Kenny Dillingham Weekly Press Conference
Monday, November 10, 2025
Previewing Week 12 and West Virginia:
On Jeff Sims taking pressure off Raleek Brown in the run game:
“Anytime you can be a plus one run game, you look at their run game on offense, they utilize their quarterback in the run game, whether it's direct runs or inverted reads or traditional zone reads. They use every bit of their quarterback in the run game similar to how we use Jeff, a little bit different but similar in the last week. I think it definitely alleviates and allows you to have a plus one run and that's why Coach Rodriguez has always won games because he's dedicated to the plus one run game. I think for us we're trying to take a little bit of that element here towards the end of the year and add that for us. How much of that, I think that's going to change game by game, gameplan by gameplan, depends on what defenses are doing against us. This is the number one rush defense in the last three weeks in our league. They're doing a phenomenal job stopping the run.”

On facing West Virginia’s run defense and the potential of a “chess match”:
“Their defense is going to face some of that. What we did was a little different, there are big zone reads, counter reads, and flat mesh read teams. We were more direct run last week. There wasn't a read, it was catch and run, when you do that it's more of a math problem. When you're in the zone read game, it's more schemes and in numbers advantage and triple option based, so they're a little bit different philosophically, but the premise of it is the same. It's one extra person, Coach Rodriguez is a guy that I've studied for a long time. Dating back to when I was a high school coach out here and he was the head coach in the state and he did a phenomenal job down there. He won a lot of football games, so for us this is a really good challenge and his team plays really hard. They're on a two game win streak, they could very well be on a three game win streak. This is a team that's getting better and better.”

On if West Virginia’s rushing offense is similar to Utah’s:
“I wouldn't say it's similar to Utah. I don't know if we faced a team like them, in their scheme yet, it’s a little bit different from that perspective. They successfully run the ball at a high rate and they threw the ball last week at a successful rate.”

On what he saw in practice today:
“We had good energy out there today, it was sort of a getting back on our feet kind of practice. I think we worked some of the kinks out today. We hit, we got to fight a lot, and we got to play catch, so I thought the guy's energy was good. Like I told the guys, it's a great opportunity for us to do something a little bit different. We thought it was necessary to put in the work now and hopefully it was a good decision.” 

On the chances of making the Big 12 Championship Game:
“We're focused from what we said at the beginning of the year, being the best version of ourselves. I told the guys that we've been horrible at responding to success this year. We've been really good at responding to failure, but we have not responded to playing a good football game or beating a good team well, so we need to do that. We need to show this season that we can play a good football game and come back and play another one and stack them up, and that's what I'm excited for. I'm excited to see if our guys can go out there and play with the same passion and energy in back-to-back weeks, and stack good football games.”

On what he did on the bye week:
“I watched tape and recruiting film. I also watched a ton of West Virginia film too and went recruiting on the road. The only thing I did that was quote on quote fun was I flew with Bri [his wife] to Denver and got to watch Bo [Nix] play on Thursday night. I haven't gotten to see him play live yet in the NFL, so I wanted to go see him, and that game was filled with former players. There were so many guys in the game. Jarrett Stidham, I coached him at Auburn for like a short, like 3 week period of time when I got there for the Music City Bowl, so we got to joke about that. I was able to be around a bunch of guys that I coached in that game, so it was an opportunity that I wanted to take advantage of during the bye week but other than that it was business as usual.”

On what he admires about Coach Rodriguez:
“I think Rich Rod's coached in a lot of places, so he’s kind of been all over the country. I think the one thing that I admire about him is that his team plays really hard. They play tough, physical, and they know who they are. They're going to fire off the ball and double team your three technique. They have a mindset and a way to play the game that is attacking, being physical and aggressive, and I think that starts with him and every team you've ever watched him coach. They play the game with that level of passion and intensity, and I think that's what I admire about him is the way his teams play. I think anytime that you're a coach and other people can say your teams play hard and physical, I think that's a win, and I think his teams do that.”

On what QB Jeff Sims provides for the running game:
“From now until the end of time, running the ball and stopping the run is always a recipe to win football games. If you can successfully run it and you can successfully stop it, you're going to win more games than not. Now, you can't do that at the detriment of being balanced. If a team doesn't want you to run it, you've got a counter. We always want to run the ball and stop the run, but there are times where you have to take what (opponents) give us. There's a balance in the game that you’ve got to create. You’ve just got to be able to run the ball when the numbers are right. If the numbers are right and you can't successfully run the ball, you're in trouble. I think Jeff provided a spark that when the numbers were right, we could run it successfully, which then opened up the first half passing game which was nice.”

On how QB Jeff Sims was successful against Iowa State:
“I thought he threw the ball well. He had a huge third down conversion to (TE) Chamon (Metayer) on a deep over route which extended the drive. On the flea flicker, he threw the ball into the window for a great catch by (WR) Malik (McClain). I thought he threw the ball well. We didn't ask him to do that a lot just because there were some elements in the rain and the defense was playing really well, so we tried to play some complimentary football there and got the win. But I thought he played really well. He did a good job taking what the defense gave him in that football game.”

On DB Xavion Alford:
“Unfortunately, (Xavion Alford) is going to be out for the year. We were trying to get him back, but that's a kid who's been a staple of this program since we got here as a staff. He's one of the heartbeats in the program, so it just pains me that he's not going to be able to make it back. I'll get more specific on that later, but that just sucks for him. He's a great kid, a great competitor. I think whoever chooses that they want him to be part of their team at the next level is going to get a guy that they're very happy with.

On other injury updates:
“Prince (Dorbah) will be back. Tate Romney should be back or working back.”

On the indicators of where the team’s headspace is at coming back from the bye:
“Intensity and physicality at practice. Are we showing up and having an intensity about ourselves to get better with urgency that we must get better if we want to win this football game. I told the guys today, (West Virginia) is going to be a team that shows up and they're going to be physical and they're going to hit you in the face. So if we're not ready for it, watch out.”

On messages this week around Veteran’s Day:
“The Pat Tillman Leadership Council is something that we've adopted here. I think there's nothing bigger for our program than that when it comes to salute to services to carry on his legacy, not just for the past generations but for the future kids to understand what Pat Tillman meant to the program. I think the leadership council is something that's going to allow his story to continually be told, at least in between these walls, and hopefully shared when our guys leave the room.”

On finding a balance with QB Jeff Sims running the ball:
“It’s just a balance if you can run the ball without (the quarterback). We've done that for most of my career, I’ve been able to run the ball without the plus one. Hopefully we can run the ball without him. And, if you can't run the ball without him, is it because of a numbers problem or is it because (the opponent) is winning with less? If they're winning with less, it means the windows aren't going to be open either, so now you're going to have to utilize him… it’s so hard to answer that until you're in the game. I think you have to have a plan and then you have to (adjust). In the last game, we just weren't running the ball very well without him. Hopefully that doesn't happen moving forward as much.”

On how injuries have affected this season:
“It sucks. We didn't have (injuries) last year and now four of our six guys who went to media day are out. That's not fun. That's not ideal. But, nobody cares, you’ve got to find a way. That's something we'll assess after the year. Maybe we’ve got to be more physical in spring and fall. That way games aren't drastically more physical than our practices because we did kind of tail back this year. Those are all things I'm looking at in terms of how to prevent those things from happening.”

 On the team being at two conference losses this far into the season:
“If we were healthy, I’d probably not be thrilled, but (I’m) decently happy with where we’re at. This conference is ruthless. It’s really tough, and we’ve had a really tough conference schedule. When you look at who we’ve played and the rhythm of how we’ve played them—whether it was at home or on the road—we’ve faced a lot of challenges. So with all the injuries, I’m very impressed by our guys’ ability to keep fighting. They’re not just cashing it in. They want to make the most out of this season, and the way you do that is by going to work today, tomorrow and the next day. We still haven’t played a good football game, and that’s the most frustrating part for me as the head coach. I get it’s hard when you have so many guys out and so many young players. A young guy gets knocked backward, commits a penalty on a kickout block—OK, don’t do that again. He fixes it, but then another freshman does it. It’s a constant learning process. When you’re deep into your depth chart, there are so many things that can go wrong. I don’t know if I’ve done a good enough job adapting in some areas to mitigate risk as opposed to  always staying aggressive. I’m learning that sometimes it’s better to limit risk so we don’t have catastrophes. It might not always be ideal, but the negative potential isn’t so high. I’m happy with where we’re at, and we’ve got a lot of season left to play. I hope our guys are rejuvenated and ready to go these last three weeks because we’re facing a team that’s going to hit us in the face this week.”

On if Texas Tech wasn’t a good performance:
“No, I mean, we played well on defense at times, and we moved the ball well on offense at times. We won the turnover battle 1-0, but we didn’t play a complete game. In one of the phases, we didn’t play great. We have yet to put together a game where all three phases of football are clicking. We’ve won on defense in some games and played well on offense in others. Our drive ratio is pretty good, but we didn’t finish in the red zone. We’ve yet to play a game I can watch and say I’m happy with all three phases—and I’ll never be completely happy—but I want to see us play well across the board. That’s the goal as a coach: to play as many games as possible where everyone is playing at an optimal level. It’s obviously challenging with injuries and constant lineup changes. You change centers, then quarterbacks, then your number one wideout, then running backs, defensive ends, and free safeties. Because of that, you end up changing seven guys on special teams. Still, we have to find a way. That’s the goal—to win games but also to play as well as possible. That’s what I’m hunting for.”

On whether he factors in the fact that they have a successful record at home when it comes to substitutions:
“Not at all. Our guys are going to take the field, and I think we’re close to another sellout. Hopefully it will be a full crowd, and they’ll feed off that energy. Then we’ve got to go out and play our best game. I don’t feed too much into that kind of stuff, but I think our guys understand we want to protect our home turf. They know our seniors only have two games left here, and we need to play these last ones as well as possible.”

On how he feels the attention that college football is starting to take on the Big 12 has affected its programs:
“I don’t really pay attention to that. I’m sorry, I just want to be better. I don’t focus on those kinds of things—I just want to play our best football. I want to come out, take care of the football, and establish and win the line of scrimmage. I don’t want a bunch of penalties. I want us to keep our hands inside, release when they’re outside our framework, and move the person in front of us backward. I want to make tackles, tip the ball when it’s thrown in RPO situations, and get an interception off it. I want to sprint down on kickoff and run full speed through the end zone. That’s my focus.”

On the progression of the offensive line after adjusting to injuries:
“I thought they had a good game last week. I thought they played really well. They didn’t allow any sacks and ran the ball effectively, so I’d say that was their best game. We’ve been playing about seven guys on the line, which I think is a positive. Ideally, you want to rotate seven or eight linemen, in my opinion. One of those guys was out, so we were down to around seven. I think we’ve found a bit of a rhythm, but last week (OL Wade Helton) Wade went out for a bit in the middle of the game, so it was the next-man-up mentality. When you talk about playing clean football, all those moving pieces make it challenging, but I was proud of the guys who stepped in and found a way to get the job done.”

On playing in morning games:
“It’s really the same. This kickoff is just an hour different because of the time zone adjustment. Last time it was 10 a.m. our time—now it’s 11—so our schedule will basically be the same. We’ll just wake up an hour later, around seven, and go play football. Our guys are used to getting up early and getting after it. Like I said, hopefully we’ll have a good crowd out there, people tailgating, and an exciting atmosphere to run out and play in.”

On his assessment of the defense:
“I think we’re playing good defense. There are times when we’re giving up explosive plays that hurt us, and we’re getting too many penalties on third downs that extend drives and lead to conversions. But overall, I’ve been happy with how our defense is playing—they’re flying around and competing. I thought last week they answered the bell multiple times, and we’ve got to keep building off that and continue improving as we head into the rest of the season.