Arizona State Head Coach Kenny Dillingham Postgame
Saturday, October 3, 2026
On the disconnect the team had from practice compared to the game:
“The solution is in the fundamental and the fundamental skills. Why are they not hitting and why are we not on the same page. And what are those fundamental skills? Why are the fits? Why are some of the double teams, or why are some of them conversion routes? Why are they not hitting? Why are we not on the same page? And I think it's those things that you've got to look at as a coach and say, okay, yeah. I mean, the scheme is the scheme, but if your guys are not executing the scheme, it's not the guys' problem, it's our problem. Why are we not executing the scheme? So I think that's for me, what I got to go figure out, and I'd be lying if I told you I knew the answer right now because a lot of times I'll leave a game and I'm like, I know, like, man, they got us, like motion from FIB. Got us in our plan. They trapped our nickel and they were throwing us for a zone and they got us. I couldn't tell you that was the thing today. I think it was more the fundamentals of the football game. We didn't do very well, and that starts and ends with me.”

On the message to the fan base:
“If you think anyone is more frustrated than me, you’re wrong. I'm the number one most frustrated person there is, clear number one. I don't think there's somebody probably even close to the level of frustration, but I can try to do something about it, and I think that was my message to the guys. It was an atrocious game and we can either point the finger at who was wrong, or we can all take extreme ownership and try to fix it, and I just challenge them to everybody find what they could have done better in the football game and what they can do better moving forward to get better, and I can almost guarantee you it's nothing drastic. Usually football is, it's nothing drastic.”

On assessing third down defense:
“We couldn't create a pass rush. You can't create a pass rush, and they were getting the ball down the field because you can't create a pass rush, you're not going to be down on a good 3rd down defense. You gotta give them credit, they threw some really nice back shoulders too. (Baylor QB) DJ Lagway threw some really nice footballs on 3rd downs to convert and then they made some plays in one on one situations, but it all starts with the pass rush. We've got to create a better pass rush, and that starts with what we're doing to create a pass rush as a coaching staff. We've got to really evaluate that, what we're doing to create a pass rush, and then you've got a quarterback and that he wasn't impacted early in the game. He got in a good rhythm, and then the wideouts were obviously playing well and they were in rhythm with him.”

On getting the tight ends involved more:
“I think it depends on the week. Depends on the game plan. Depends on what we're trying to accomplish. There were a few more targets there for (ASU TE AJ La). I know we targeted him on a screen. We targeted him on a shallow. So I feel like he had more targets there. But we’ve got to obviously continue to get better on offense in a variety of ways. I thought we took a step on offense today, even though it was ugly, and we still didn't convert in the red zone. And there were also some big time negatives that happened that we didn't make last week, like the turnovers, but there was some growth and some positives in it as well. It's just not good enough, so we have to continue to evaluate that, and that starts with me.”

On not winning the big third down plays:
“It's huge. It's a big momentum shift. Third downs, third and longs are defensive advantage calls. We got them (Baylor) in a lot of them, and they converted a lot of them. Not ideal. That's not good. Third downs, you got to win your advantage downs, right? We got to win third and one, that interception was not ideal. Defense has to win third and six plus at a high rate. We didn't, not ideal. So when you don't win the factors that usually lead to winning and losing, turnover battle, rushing yards, third down conversions, and then red zone scoring. Those are the number one statistics in winning. And when you lose every single one of them, you're not going to win many games.”

On getting the wide receivers more involved with the offense:
“I know (WR) Raiden (Vines-Bright) had four catches, 15 yards, and he had a couple other opportunities. I know there was an end zone ball thrown to him, and a couple other balls targeted to him. The three guys had a good amount of targets. I thought (WR) (Omarion Miller) was targeted more down the field. I thought the game got out of hand, but he was going to be targeted. There was a lot of play action playing in for him to get more targets. Obviously, when you get down by so much, play action isn't going to work anymore. So some of those plans to target him kind of went out the window, which sucked. Just by the flow and the score of the game there in the middle of the third quarter getting out of hand. I thought those guys played pretty well. And like I said, we just got to figure out how to put it all together, and that starts with me.”

On what aspect of the team he is still getting to know:
“Just what gets us to play with an inspired passion? What gets us to play with an edge, with chippiness, with just the feeling that these guys can feel them on the field? I’ve got to figure out what gets us to play like that, and then I got to figure out what's the best recipe for these guys from a schematic standpoint on both sides of the ball to get them to execute right. And this was the first time we faced a team that really threw the ball consistently down the field, and it didn't work out well for us, so we got to figure out what our best coverages are, and what our guys do well. That's what I mean by that. It is a combination of both, and then what do our guys do well, and how do we maximize what they do well.”

On if the team still needs to find its identity:
“I thought we ran inside zones really well today. Play action and pass were good. We got the ball to the guys we wanted to get it to. So I don't know if it's really an identity thing as much as we've just got to be more consistent. I know we're good at certain things, and I think that showed up in the game plan that we were good at certain things. But we did make some tweaks. Obviously you saw the six Offensive linemen out there to try to give us some edge, and I think that was a positive for us. I think it helped us a few times in the running game and in the play-action game. So, from an identity perspective, what are the tweaks we have to make based from an identity, but nothing drastic. We just have to play better football, we're just not doing the fundamentals as good as we need to. We're not blocking and tackling. We're not substituting good enough. We’re not. I'm not doing a good enough job coaching the football team. I've got to coach the football team better.”

Arizona State Junior Quarterback Cutter Boley
On challenges faced against Baylor’s defense:
“We got in our own way tonight. I was sloppy with the ball in the 1st and 2nd half, I made a few poor decisions that put us behind the ball and things like that can’t happen to good teams. I can’t just point out one thing. We had a great week of preparation, and came in feeling really good about our game plan. But they're a good team and they make good plays. We also got in our own way a lot, it's kind of the ups and downs of a season.”

On being on track with pre-season expectations:
“One loss in this conference isn't going to change anything at the end of the year. I wish I could go back to work on Monday and look internally at ourselves. No one can be selfish and we just keep getting better each and every single day as individuals, and grow, one loss in this conference is nothing. We still have everything we want to accomplish ahead of us.

On how the offense performed tonight:
“There's a lot of areas where you have to get better and we have to find our identity and what we want to lean on, what's our bread and butter. So, I think just showing back up to work on Monday and keep getting better, we have to keep growing and keep trying to be the team we want to be.”

Arizona State Junior Linebacker Owen Long
On the team’s overall performance:
“It just obviously wasn't good enough tonight. Not a good feeling right now. I don't know exactly what to say specifically. I have to go back and watch the tape, but including myself and everyone else, we’ve got to find a way to get better. So it starts right after this, tomorrow. Just find a way to get better. We just have to get back to work and find exactly what's going on. But it's on everyone. It's not just one person. Everyone's got to do a little bit better. It’s just feeling the vibe in the locker room already. We just have to find a way to keep getting better.”

On how the team reacted after the tough first:
“We came into halftime with the plan to go win the game, and we felt good about where we were. We had a few stops at the end of the first half. I don't think anybody quit. I don't. I don't think that's the way to put it. There's just a lot of things we have to fix, and we’ve got to find a way to fix it. So we'll get back to work tomorrow and look at it.”

Baylor Head Coach Dave Aranda Postgame:
On what progress he saw from the offensive line and the overall run game:
“I thought they played confident. They played with an edge. I thought that Arizona State was a pretty static front prior to this game, a lot of movement. Every team we're playing was moving, twisting, and stunning. That was the majority of our issues. So to play a team that was more static allowed us to get some confidence. We were able to pick it up better and the confidence helped.”

On the team’s first Big 12 road game win since 2024 season:
“It’s a good win. The guys are excited in that locker room, so we just have to handle success. So that's a whole different thing from handling negative stuff.”

On what the win means for them with a bye next week:
“I keep feeding them the negative stuff because I think that's just that's energy. I think there's so many dudes in there that have just been doubted their whole life. We've got receivers that are undersized that play tough. We got Slug (Traevon Mitchell) who's undersized that plays tough. the whole group is like that. In the past, I probably didn't use the negative stuff enough. I would just kind of absorb it and carry it, but turning it into energy is something that we’re doing and the guys are feeding into it.”

On what (P) Palmer Williams does for the defense: 
“He had some moonshots. We were close as a pin. I think he mis-hit one, and it rolled. That's when you know you're good, when you mis-hit it and it still rolls forward, you get the yardage on the punt. He is a weapon, and he's confident, and he's really feeling it. That gives us the ability to be aggressive when we're backed up, because we know that we can flip the field if it doesn't work out.”

On if his words during halftime motivated the team going into the second half:
“We talk about how the scores are distractions, no matter what the score is. If you're focused on the score, you're not present in the moment. You're at your best when you're present in the moment. So we’ve talked about that from the very beginning. I think prior to this game, we've kind of have not been so great at that. We’ve looked at the score. We've learned from those times because this group right here was very much into the game. I would start to walk over and they would know what I was going to say, and they would say it to me. It's almost like you have to go through that to get to this.”

Baylor Defensive End Ryan Davis
On how it felt getting an interception in his hometown:
“It was surreal. I grew up with a Pat Tillman jersey hanging in my living room, and grew up a huge ASU fan. So to be playing in that stadium, it was nuts. And then to be able to get a pick, God's blessed me.”

Baylor Safety Tyler Turner 
On how the defense approaches a short break off the field:
“ We approach it like anything else. You know that balls to the walls. I don't know if I could say that, but we go hard no matter what. We're just giving effort. That's how we're coached. That's how we're going to play. No matter how many plays that were out, how many plays that were off, it's just going to play hard. It's our goal.”

Baylor Quarterback D.J. Lagway
On how the run game impacted the offense
“I feel like offensively we played complementary football. We ran the ball well. We threw the ball well. We blocked well. We played good on situational downs. It was just all around good football. I'm just blessed to be around amazing guys, amazing coaches. It's just a blessing to be here.”

Baylor Wide Receiver Gavin Freeman
On if Baylor came into this game with something to prove
“Every week we have something to prove. Everybody's always got something to say. We just have to play for ourselves because that's all we're doing. Play for our teammates, and if we do that, we're gonna be really successful. That's the only thing it comes down to at the end of day, playing for each other.”