Arizona State Head Coach Kenny Dillingham:
On being Bowl eligible:
Yeah, it's nice. I mean, you'd be lying if you said it doesn't feel good. We never talk about stuff like this, but when you reach a milestone because of putting in the work every day, you gotta cherish it, you gotta embrace it. I told the guys in the locker room, they have changed the culture of this program. In 22 months, the leadership council, the guys who chose to be here, they took a program and completely flipped it from where it was. It has nothing to do with the staff, has nothing to do with the coaches. It has to do with the guys in that locker room. They've just done such an unbelievable job with the work ethic, with the mindset, with the belief. Kudos to those guys, they're special young men in there and they deserve a sell out next week.
On 3rd and 4th down execution:
We got simpler on offense. It was fairly simple on third down this week. And then defense, I think we did a really good job mixing up the calls. I think coach had a good plan and I think the guys executed the plan. We didn't have many max pressures. We just played some coverage this week and that was a good mix up from a self-scout perspective. We wanted to show some max looks and just play some base defense behind it and not have to sell out every time third down.
On what he did during the weather delay:
I wish I could say I did something magical. I didn't talk to the guys for like an hour and a half. We just got away from them. We said “relax, lay down and take a nap. Do what you gotta do.” We got them some food and we got away from him and the coaches just kind of put together a second half game plan based off of the film we were watching. It's those guys, man, these guys love football, these guys love it. These guys. They just love football, they're in there laughing for an hour and a half. Like, what can you guys be laughing about for an hour and a half? I don't have enough funny things to say. That's just the group that we've brought together are just really special kids. It’s exciting because the team got bowl eligible and this team has four games left. They're playing with house money now. The best part about it is 35 of the top 44 guys have an opportunity to return and that's just laying the foundation of where this program is going. This is a place that I think recruits and people will wanna be a part of.
On Kyson Brown getting more of an opportunity:
Awesome. I told him, we're gonna get him more touches, 15 touches later, two touchdowns later. He got those touches and finished some runs like a 200 pound back should. That was the part I was most impressed with. We all know he's fast and can make some explosive plays. But, he's also big and sometimes the bigger faster guys don't finish runs, they wanna be elusive and the fact that he lowered his shoulder and finished some runs there was awesome to see. Especially from a young guy and especially from a kid who just works the way he works. You wanna see guys who put in the work like that succeed, just like L.T. (LaDanian Tomlinson) like you love to see guys like that come in and make plays.
On Sam Leavitt:
He balled out. He balled out. 20/29 304 yards, three touchdowns and one of the craziest little scrambles. I've coached some athletic quarterbacks in my career, between Bo (Nix) and Jordan (Travis) and that was one of the most impressive plays I've seen. Breaking three tackles, and he didn't get a first down, but he got us a situation to go for 4th down which we were good at tonight, which is a positive.
On the Running Back room:
Skat (Cameron Skattebo) is Skat. Nobody can beat Skat from a human perspective or a player perspective and hat's a good thing. It's definitely great to have balance in the room.
On Skattebo and Leavitt’s relationship:
They're both like ultra competitors. They both yell at each other all game. Literally, they're back there having dissertations sometimes back there in the backfield. I’m like, “what are y'all talking about?” Skat’s saying “Hand it to me” Sam’s saying “I'm throwing it”. They're so competitive and that’s what you want. When two of the guys that touch the ball the most for you just want the ball all the time, you're gonna be successful. Those are what those two guys want.
On the team’s development:
Nowadays in college football you don't know, you just gotta take it one day at a time. Over and over again, one season at a time, you gotta enjoy the highs, you gotta hate the lows and you gotta hope you have more highs than lows. I'll say this though and I just said it earlier. Our kids deserve to have a sell out crowd. Our kids deserve that.
On the team’s efficiency against Oklahoma State:
I think we focused on just one play at a time, we focused on us. Let's just go play our game. There was a period of time where we were getting some penalties that were hurting us, which was uncharacteristic and I probably pulled our guys back too much. I was like, “Hey, we gotta play smart or you can't get penalties. We don't need to talk.” We have a team that's aggressive like they love hitting like they love the game of football and I think they played it again. I think they played with that edge again and we're gonna need that edge next week versus a team that just won a game by 40 points. We're gonna have to need that edge next week and we're gonna need it moving forward.
On the Justin Wodtly situation:
I don't know enough to really comment on it. You know, I'll say this, they said that it happened and they're on the field, the officials. So I'm gonna trust that they're only gonna throw a flag if they actually saw something happen. I think our officials have done a really nice job in this league. Obviously I don't like every call, but I really think they've done a pretty good job in this league. If they say they saw it. I'm gonna take their word for it. I mean, I can't see it.
On the locker room culture:
The belief. And I think the belief comes with the work and the sacrifice. When you give things up, when you work really hard, you guys are out in our practices and we practice hard, like spring ball, fall camp. We practice. When you invest not much and you care, I think it just means a little bit more. I think we got the right guys. I think we've really got guys that wanna just win and they like each other. When you have that combination you're gonna have more positive moments like this, than bad moments. It's all about the guys. These guys deserve an unbelievable crowd this next week and then BYU at home, they deserve it. They've earned the right to take that field with a sold out crowd. Just my opinion.
On being Bowl eligible:
Yeah, it's nice. I mean, you'd be lying if you said it doesn't feel good. We never talk about stuff like this, but when you reach a milestone because of putting in the work every day, you gotta cherish it, you gotta embrace it. I told the guys in the locker room, they have changed the culture of this program. In 22 months, the leadership council, the guys who chose to be here, they took a program and completely flipped it from where it was. It has nothing to do with the staff, has nothing to do with the coaches. It has to do with the guys in that locker room. They've just done such an unbelievable job with the work ethic, with the mindset, with the belief. Kudos to those guys, they're special young men in there and they deserve a sell out next week.
On 3rd and 4th down execution:
We got simpler on offense. It was fairly simple on third down this week. And then defense, I think we did a really good job mixing up the calls. I think coach had a good plan and I think the guys executed the plan. We didn't have many max pressures. We just played some coverage this week and that was a good mix up from a self-scout perspective. We wanted to show some max looks and just play some base defense behind it and not have to sell out every time third down.
On what he did during the weather delay:
I wish I could say I did something magical. I didn't talk to the guys for like an hour and a half. We just got away from them. We said “relax, lay down and take a nap. Do what you gotta do.” We got them some food and we got away from him and the coaches just kind of put together a second half game plan based off of the film we were watching. It's those guys, man, these guys love football, these guys love it. These guys. They just love football, they're in there laughing for an hour and a half. Like, what can you guys be laughing about for an hour and a half? I don't have enough funny things to say. That's just the group that we've brought together are just really special kids. It’s exciting because the team got bowl eligible and this team has four games left. They're playing with house money now. The best part about it is 35 of the top 44 guys have an opportunity to return and that's just laying the foundation of where this program is going. This is a place that I think recruits and people will wanna be a part of.
On Kyson Brown getting more of an opportunity:
Awesome. I told him, we're gonna get him more touches, 15 touches later, two touchdowns later. He got those touches and finished some runs like a 200 pound back should. That was the part I was most impressed with. We all know he's fast and can make some explosive plays. But, he's also big and sometimes the bigger faster guys don't finish runs, they wanna be elusive and the fact that he lowered his shoulder and finished some runs there was awesome to see. Especially from a young guy and especially from a kid who just works the way he works. You wanna see guys who put in the work like that succeed, just like L.T. (LaDanian Tomlinson) like you love to see guys like that come in and make plays.
On Sam Leavitt:
He balled out. He balled out. 20/29 304 yards, three touchdowns and one of the craziest little scrambles. I've coached some athletic quarterbacks in my career, between Bo (Nix) and Jordan (Travis) and that was one of the most impressive plays I've seen. Breaking three tackles, and he didn't get a first down, but he got us a situation to go for 4th down which we were good at tonight, which is a positive.
On the Running Back room:
Skat (Cameron Skattebo) is Skat. Nobody can beat Skat from a human perspective or a player perspective and hat's a good thing. It's definitely great to have balance in the room.
On Skattebo and Leavitt’s relationship:
They're both like ultra competitors. They both yell at each other all game. Literally, they're back there having dissertations sometimes back there in the backfield. I’m like, “what are y'all talking about?” Skat’s saying “Hand it to me” Sam’s saying “I'm throwing it”. They're so competitive and that’s what you want. When two of the guys that touch the ball the most for you just want the ball all the time, you're gonna be successful. Those are what those two guys want.
On the team’s development:
Nowadays in college football you don't know, you just gotta take it one day at a time. Over and over again, one season at a time, you gotta enjoy the highs, you gotta hate the lows and you gotta hope you have more highs than lows. I'll say this though and I just said it earlier. Our kids deserve to have a sell out crowd. Our kids deserve that.
On the team’s efficiency against Oklahoma State:
I think we focused on just one play at a time, we focused on us. Let's just go play our game. There was a period of time where we were getting some penalties that were hurting us, which was uncharacteristic and I probably pulled our guys back too much. I was like, “Hey, we gotta play smart or you can't get penalties. We don't need to talk.” We have a team that's aggressive like they love hitting like they love the game of football and I think they played it again. I think they played with that edge again and we're gonna need that edge next week versus a team that just won a game by 40 points. We're gonna have to need that edge next week and we're gonna need it moving forward.
On the Justin Wodtly situation:
I don't know enough to really comment on it. You know, I'll say this, they said that it happened and they're on the field, the officials. So I'm gonna trust that they're only gonna throw a flag if they actually saw something happen. I think our officials have done a really nice job in this league. Obviously I don't like every call, but I really think they've done a pretty good job in this league. If they say they saw it. I'm gonna take their word for it. I mean, I can't see it.
On the locker room culture:
The belief. And I think the belief comes with the work and the sacrifice. When you give things up, when you work really hard, you guys are out in our practices and we practice hard, like spring ball, fall camp. We practice. When you invest not much and you care, I think it just means a little bit more. I think we got the right guys. I think we've really got guys that wanna just win and they like each other. When you have that combination you're gonna have more positive moments like this, than bad moments. It's all about the guys. These guys deserve an unbelievable crowd this next week and then BYU at home, they deserve it. They've earned the right to take that field with a sold out crowd. Just my opinion.