Arizona State Head Coach Kenny Dillingham Weekly Press Conference
Monday, November 17, 2025
Previewing Week 13 and Colorado:

On the performance against West Virginia: 
“Earlier in the game too many mistakes, the first drive and a half we didn’t make it on the first play. That can’t happen, we can’t do that. Us as a staff got to be better at that so that doesn’t happen. We obviously had those drives in the middle of the game, second quarter. To start the third quarter we get the ball on the minus inch and we go 65 yards. That's a heck of a drive from the minused inch, it doesn’t equate to points but it's a heck of a drive. Then we fumble a fourth and inches, it’s like crap, and that was our drive in the third quarter. Then we move the ball down the field two other times, two of our other three drives kick field goals and stalled out. It wasn’t like we were going three and out, one big TFL on a zone read that was pulled and he got behind the sticks. Our productivity on early downs is not our problem, it's just we can’t finish drives. If you look at all of our stats, because that’s why stats are useless, we're productive moving the football. We don’t score and that’s a problem. This week it was fourth and inches and we can’t convert. Whenever we played Iowa State it was holding when we tried to score, it’s a different thing every week which is the unfortunate part. But we are moving the ball which is usually the hardest thing to do, so hopefully we can figure this out.”

On Kyson Brown coming back potentially:
“He’s going to start back to his running progression this week. Where he is actually running back to try to get back to play. What that means for the game, I don’t know yet. We have to see that progression and what it looks like. Not 70 percent running but starting to run, not what you see on the sidelines sometimes when he gets excited, but truly moving to play the game. We will see what that looks like, it's up to the game. I want to make sure that we progress him back at the speed best for him to be 100 percent, whenever that happens.”

On watching (WR) Jordyn Tyson before transferring to Arizona State:
“I didn’t watch the tape, I saw him (WR Jordyn Tyson) live for a little bit. When I was at Oregon we played them and he’s just so twitchy. His acceleration was like, oh my gosh that dude can separate. That always stuck with me was his ability to separate. You saw that and you have seen that here is his special ability to separate.”

On what (HC) Kenny Dillingham tells his players about online social media hate:
“Nothing. Other than tell them that this random person can say whatever he wants, and he may not even be a person. If you look at that stuff and you want to look at that stuff, great. You just got to be ready for the negative because it's never good enough. The world wants to see you fail, 90 percent of people want to see you fail. It’s never good enough. Everybody should be fired, everybody sucks, nothing is ever good enough. You win games, you still lost them according to some people. You play great at a position, you still suck because of the one play that's on social media. I try to teach the guys to not get trapped in that and to stay focused on how do we get better and singularly focused on that. Hopefully we don't get as distracted by the other.”

On the university supporting the football program:
“I had a meeting on Friday with some people with the school and some people associated with Sun Devil Athletics. I left that meeting knowing that the university is going to be very, very supportive of the football program. That we are going to have the back of the university to be a competitive and successful program. I try to say the truth, so if I say something and that truth changes or I want it out there that the university, the president and the athletic department is backing football. I think that’s important. I don’t know if I’ve ever come out and publicly said that. I’ve always said that I want to be better, better, better. They are supporting us. We’re still missing in the local business and the big donor base. Our casual fans, unbelievable. Sold out every game, that's unbelievable. The sold out crowds, it’s loud, people on the radio are talking about us. We are activating the 99 percent, it's awesome. This year has been remarkable from that perspective. The university is now doubling down, they’re in. We’re still missing, it's such a vital piece, is the city. The businesses in the city and the big time high donor base, that’s where we’re still searching to get connected here in some way shape or form. I haven’t done a good enough job creating that connection yet. From a fan perspective, from 99 percent of people, we are in an unbelievable direction and the university is 100 percent behind it.

On the direction the program is going and how he handles it:
“It’s a lot. I don't sleep as much, but you just gotta keep going. There's not much downtime. You don't just get to sit there and relax very often. You’ve got to solve problems. Obviously I'd love to do more football, but when you're building something, you’ve got to build it with the most important things and the things that can actually stand the test of time. My job is to build a program, not a team. And then my and our coach's job is to coach the team, but I'm trying to build a program. I kind of have two jobs at the same time. I'm building a program while also coaching a team, and there is a fine balance there.”

On what support from local businesses can do for ASU football:
“There are local businesses here that I truly believe have elevated their platform by naming food items after our players. There's an opportunity for real NIL here where our players are being branded, your company is seeing support, the community wants to support you because you're supporting the athlete and we can do that at such a high scale… If you're a local company or a new business and you want to engage a community, what better way to get your brand out there than utilizing our players? Everybody thinks this is a race to (a big NIL deal). No. We have a city behind us … and I think that's the last piece of this thing. I'm never satisfied. I want to keep pushing, but I do want to say, the university has been very supportive and the fan base has been unbelievably supportive. Now it becomes how we can work together where the local businesses and successful people in the valley want to see us succeed because our success leads to more success in local business. We're a revenue generator for the city, so if you're a local business and you have nothing to do with Arizona State, our success can help your business and our success helps the city that you live in. We've taken steps in really activating the valley. I think that's the final piece.”

On overlooked players stepping up:
“It's awesome to watch guys step up when they get their opportunity and that's the unique part. Usually, when you have a lot of injuries to key players, close games don't go your way. Well, somehow close games are going our way because our players are so connected still in those moments. To see those new guys step in and step up is pretty cool to watch.”

On the winter transfer portal window:
“I don't know yet. I'll tell you if I like it or not. I know it's going to be chaotic. I do like the fact that you have time to figure out what you need in the portal. So, you're making sure your guys want to stay here and putting all your time and effort into your own team first in December. Then you can say, ‘Ok, these are the needs that we have,’ and you can educate your team and have real, honest conversations with your guys about the future, so everybody can make the best decision for themselves. That's going to be in January and it is going to be very chaotic in college football.”

On enrollment challenges with the new transfer portal window:
“I assume the school is going to be really supportive to help us get guys in late. (ASU Assistant Athletics Director, Courtney Skipper) does an unbelievable job for us. His family's worked in football their entire lives, and he does a really good job helping get guys into school even if they're a couple days late to the semester. We also have three types of semesters (at ASU). So if we couldn't get a guy in for a certain semester, we could always try to get somebody in later. Hopefully we get guys in fast, but the school, the size of the school, and the resources the school has definitely helps us get guys in.”

On evaluating players in the transfer process:
“It’s hard to do a ton in advance because it's nearly impossible to be able to go through every single college football team at all levels and say that we've evaluated everybody and we have them ranked. In the NFL you have 32 teams and you can have evaluations for everybody on all the rosters with your entire department. It's not the same in college. In college, it's a mad dash to evaluate people and to call people to get information. It's a combination of if you have enough connections that you can trust to lean on just as much as your evaluations. It's the people in your building calling the people you trust and them telling you the truth about somebody, not just selling you a bag of goods. I think there's going to be a huge wave of (players) that announce (entering the transfer portal), so you can at least start watching film. Can't contact them, but you can at least watch tape.”

On keys to performances of the offensive and defensive lines:
“Football games are won at the line of scrimmage, it's simple. We've practiced a little more physically, I think our defensive line has done a good job in stopping the run for most of the year. We've had a couple games where there's been some schemes and runs that have given us problems. But when it's man versus man, I think we have done a solid job for the most part. Offensively, it was good to see the offensive line play well, I thought it was their best game in pass protection by far. We're firing the ball a bit better, our ability to set and pass protect are critical in the game.”

On if there’s a strategy he uses for players to stay at ASU:
“Not really, I'm very big on what the players want, I want people who want to be here. The people that don't want to be here shouldn't be here, this isn't a hostage situation and I don't ever want that. I want our culture to be guys who chose to be here, not tricked to be here. I don't get into all that with the guys, I'll give them the facts, the questions that they are asking me, but I'm never going to sell them in one direction or another. If they ask for my opinion, I’ll give them that and give them an honest one. I won’t give my opinion unless they ask. My job is to help these guys succeed, the last thing that I want is to trick a kid to stay here because even though in the temporary it sounds good, we will lose in the end because that’s how cultures get broken. I want guys who want to be here, graduate from here, and be a legend here. I want guys who are vested in this place and want to be a part of it.”

On what makes Colorado a challenge and facing another freshman quarterback:
“They play hard, their defensive line is good, they get off the ball. Their quarterback (Julian Lewis), he’s a guy that I recruited for a little bit, I offered him at Oregon, he’s a really good player. You can tell, he can locate the ball well, especially vertically down the field, which showed up in his game against West Virginia. I think this is a team that plays hard and it shows up. They’ve had games that didn’t go great, games where they’ve beaten good teams. We’re no different, we can’t just be good an entire game, it’s definitely a team that is dangerous.”

On what he thinks head coach Deion Sanders has done for Colorado:
“It’s pretty cool if you’re looking at it from his perspective. He’s won 300% more games this year than the year before he took over, that’s pretty good. Life’s about relativity, like when he took over that program, they’re 300% better. Sometimes you have to put things in perspective, and I think he’s done a great job there, people are talking about Colorado, recruits want to go there. They’ve won a higher percentage of games with him than before him. He’s battled a bunch and it shows the type of person he is. He’s a fighter and a winner, that’s shown up at Colorado since he’s been there.”

On the influence linebacker Keyshaun Elliott brings to the defense:
“He got engaged the other day, we should all thank his fiancé, she was a big reason he chose to come here. He’s done such a phenomenal job, you talk about an A+ kid and player. He is everything you want in a football player that represents Arizona State. He’s playing at a super high level right now.”

On what he’s learned from playing against all the Big 12 teams:
“It’s tough because everybody is so different, there are so many different play styles in this league. In other leagues, play styles are similar, it’s almost like you get a similar picture every week and the challenge is how you change how you attack that team. In this league, everybody is so different, we haven’t played a team that’s had the same defense or philosophy in back-to-back weeks. It’s going from how do you attack this team to how you attack a different defense. I think about the last three weeks, we’ve faced three completely different defenses. My takeaway from this league is that there are stretches across the country that are wide enough that there are many different philosophies and each region in how to win and you can see it all, which makes it more difficult and it’s something that I’m going to look in how we are going to change our offense and in the offseason that will help get us be better prepared because we can’t possibly practice against everything that we see in this league. So what are we going to do offensively that has more simple answers potentially as we move forward in this league that I’m learning.”

On if there’s frustration from not executing on all three phases:
“I don’t consider ourselves fortunate because every game is hard to win, and we’re winning. A lot of people would like to win close games, but I don’t think it’s by luck — I’ll say that. I think it’s through the work, relationships, and culture here that we’re winning close games. But it’s still very aggravating not to play a good football game. I don’t know if we’ve played one good football game this year. We’re 7-3, and we’ve had all the injuries and everything has happened, but I don’t know if we’ve played one good game in all three phases. That just bothers the crap out of me because my goal every week is to play a good game in all three phases, and I don’t think we’ve done that yet I keep challenging the guys and the staff: ‘This is the week we’ve got to put it all together and play one clean game.’ I thought it was going to be last week. We drove 65 yards — it was a 12-point game, 22-10 — and we were about to convert on a 99-yard drive to start the third quarter and score a touchdown. I thought, ‘OK, this is our game.’ But nope, we fumbled, they scored, and it all unraveled. So I’m very frustrated by that, but I’m happy with where we’re at. You can be frustrated with the result but happy with the process, and that’s where I’m at.”

On what he’s seen from the veterans on the defense:
“Different guys are stepping up in different games. I thought Wodtly (DL Justin Wodtly) had an unbelievable game last week — his physicality has shown up at the edge spot. I think it’s different guys making plays every week. That’s usually what good teams do; we just have to get the whole team making plays in the same game. Instead of a different guy having a great game, we need 12 guys having really good games on both sides of the ball.”

On what he sees out of his guys at practice that he wants others to know:
“They bring it, and they love ball. I think a lot of scouts have seen our guys. We have multiple scouts here almost every day looking at both sides of the ball. I think they’ve seen our guys, but the passion they have for football is something you can’t always see. They love football, and they love competing. That’s what excites me most about this team — they love football. I know it sounds boring, but it’s fun to coach people who like football.” 

On how players like Keith Abney have served as a role model to other recruits:
“We have three categories for who we want to recruit: be a good person, make good decisions, and have fun working harder than anyone in the country. Those are the goals, and that’s how we recruit. He’s a really good person, he makes smart decisions, and he has more fun working hard than anyone in the country. He’s always smiling. Our goals for the football team are smart, tough, the ball, the team. He’s smart, he’s tough, he attacks the ball, and he’s all about the team. What Keith does is provide proof of concept that smart guys win and smart guys are successful. We’ve got, I think, nine in Barrett, and I think after this signing class we’re going to get near the 15 mark. By the fourth or fifth signing class, I’d be shocked if we’re not at 20 or in the 20s range, which is about 20% of our team in Barrett. That doesn’t mean a guy not in Barrett isn’t smart — some really smart guys choose not to go into Barrett, so don’t take that the wrong way. I like guys who are intelligent and who care a lot, and I think a lot of those people who get into Barrett care a lot.”

On what he’s done to better prepare his team for close game situations:
“I try to watch all the situations every single week. I try to go through the analytics of the end game for two to three moves, like chess — kicking the extra point or deciding when to go for two. You talk about the end game, but it started when we went up by 12, not 11. If we’re only up at 11 and they score at the end, they’re up two, they kick an extra point, and they’re up three. So on our last drive, we’re down three, not one. That all started when we went for two and converted, which caused them to go for two. All the end game starts at the beginning of the game in some ways. Then you have to be able to communicate when you get to the end of the game. We communicate a lot with our players and staff in terms of situations, what their offense or defense will think or do, and we show them clips. We try to get our guys really wired into situational football. Some people say I overdo it and that I’m doing too much for them to process. My thing is I’d rather overdo it, and if one person takes something from it, that’s worth it. I just hope we don’t confuse the other guys, but if that one person learns something from us, it could help us. Then we have players that win. At the end of the day, the players go out there and win the game, not the coach. They go out, execute, study, learn, and get ready for those situations — they go out there and get it done.”