Arizona State Head Coach Kenny Dillingham:
Monday Press Conference Previewing Morgan State | Week 1
Thoughts on watching the defense in last couple weeks:
“I would say the overall depth. I feel like it's the most depth we've had, the most size we've had on our defense, whether it's in the back end, total length, or whether it's up front with total weight in size. I would say that was the glaring thing that stood out the most. I feel like we are a bigger team, and then we have more depth of size across the board.That's the number one thing that stood out for me.”

On what he hopes to accomplish with the defense:
“Hopefully, we stop the run. Every good defense starts with stopping the run, and if you can stop the run with less people, you get to cover with more. Which seems so fundamental, but it's the absolute truth, right? If five guys can stop six guys in the box. If five guys can play at six in the core, well, you can be two, high-shell, and you can win a lot of games and never take risks. Play four match like a lot of teams like to do, and turns into two-man, and everything is good. If you can't, then everything becomes single high, and everything's one on ones in the perimeter. You can expose yourself to some explosives or expose yourself to some quick games. So it always starts with stopping the run, so hopefully that size, that depth allows us to stop the run and all those four guys that count as five when teams go versus.”

On the biggest question about the team:
“Playing a real game, who shows up, who completely, hopefully nobody - but sometimes you go haywire.  Some guys play better, there's just there's no such thing as the practice player the game player and all that, but there there are players that make the biggest plays in the biggest moments, and there are guys that that struggle in that, and I want to see our guys go out there and make the biggest play in the biggest moments. I want to see our guys respond to adversity. The two things I'm looking for are when bad things happen, how do we respond? Whether that's mid game and we miss a block, and there's a free guy in our face. What do we do at quarterback? Or whether it's we trip a corner, so when somebody mosses me at the corner, what's that response? And that's what I'm on the hunt for. Those live moments of response and the live moments of now it's a two-minute drill. Who makes the play, right? Who is calm? Who is collected? It’s our entire football team.

On Kenny having a good idea of how the team shapes up and what he might have:
“Yes and no, less now than I did in the past, because in the past you kind of knew what a roster looked like. You knew who you were going against, because they graduated these 12, these were the young guys they signed. We recruited the same young guys; those guys are older. We saw them play a little bit last year. They're now starting. You kind of knew what you were playing early in the year. Early in the year now with so many transfers and so many guys on different teams. You don't know. One year, your team is team level here. It could do amazing things, and the next year, that same team level, other people may have hit on their 40 guys that they added to their roster, and now that is not the same level of success. So I would say it fluctuates more than ever what it takes to be successful, because everybody's changing so much, so it's so hard to predict now.”

On the expectations of the environment at Mountain America Stadium:
“Rocking. It's not even supposed to hit 100 this week. Are you kidding me? It is meant to be, right? I woke up today. I got to my car and it was 82 out. I was a little chilly. I almost put on a sweatshirt, so I expect the environment to be rocking. Now this is year four of pretty good student crowds for us. All of these people that are in the stands now, the students have grown up with a pretty competitive football team now, right? So they should be excited to get back to the stadium and to try to break student attendance records. Fans show up, be loud, support our guys. This is the first time for 40 guys. I want them to know, this is a special place.”

On the hard lessons learned from last season in preparation for this year:
“We had a month to prepare with the guys that we knew were going to play. Any good offense designs around their best players. So when there's unknown around your best players, and they are changing on a Wednesday, Friday and the start of the game, they even change, it makes it very challenging to create a plan built around your new best player or your best players. The Sun Bowl we had a really good grasp of who was going to play. We knew who that was going to be for a month, and we got to develop the best plan for those guys. What we learned is that we have to be able to adapt as fast as possible. But it's definitely a challenging thing if you are a system that's built to get your best players the ball… I've never been a guy to create an ‘oh crap’ plan, because why would you create a plan for ‘oh crap’? That probably means you're not going to win a ton anyway. But I do believe that I have to have more contingencies in a plan when we are very player-driven.”

On bringing back Juco football to the state of Arizona:
“100%. bring it back. That was one of the great advantages of Arizona State and the state of Arizona. There would be multiple Power Five guys that would come out a year. Damarious Randle is the first one that comes to mind. He was a first round pick in the NFL. It was my first year here, and we had Damarius Randall show up… at the end of the day, allowing kids to play football, show up on time, learn, be a part of a community, make friends and continue education, is a positive. I don't know the costs. I don't know all that. But I know from a perspective of bringing football at a junior college level back, it benefits our colleges. It gives kids more opportunities to play football. It builds camaraderie with more kids. It probably keeps more kids in school because they can continue their dream, specifically here. I'm a big supporter of that.”

On what excites him about his offense: 
“I think it has the potential to be explosive. What I want to see is the consistency. If you're one of the most explosive teams in the country, that's great. But if teams know that you're explosive and they know that you can't be efficient, then they're just going to make you go on nine or 10 play drives and know you're going to shoot yourself in the foot. We have a goal: 90% perfect plays. What that means is 90% of the time, everybody does their assignment full speed. If we have one play where eight guys make a mistake, to me, that's a coaching error. We probably didn't rep that enough times. But I want a 90% success rate. 90% of no penalties. 90% of everybody doing it right. And if we can create that, we can be efficient. So now, if you're efficient, teams have to challenge you. If teams have to challenge you, you can use your explosiveness. The efficiency and explosives go hand in hand. So, I want to see us become more efficient, and I'm excited about our explosiveness. 

On what Lyrick Rawls comment about there not being a designated “speech guy” says about the culture of the team:
“I think every team is different. I think every team is its own team, and beat on how they operate. Every team has its own kind of beat on how they operate, and I think this team is just very kind to themselves when it comes about the work, and they hold each other accountable at a really high level. I don't think one way is better than another. I think sometimes having a really vocal guy that people can rally behind is awesome. Other teams don't want that; they don't need that. So I just think every team is different, and every team has its own identity. I'm excited to find out. Hopefully it's what I want it to be, and I'm not going to tell you what I want it to be. But hopefully it's what I want it to be here comes Saturday.”

On CJ Fite’s leadership on the defensive end:
“He's critical for us…Just to see his growth as a player, physically as a human, as a leader, has been awesome. The team has taken on a little bit of his identity. He's a quiet dude, who's got an unbelievable personality who's starting to come out of his shell at times. At the same token, he does everything right. You don't tell him to run to the ball; he runs to it. You don't tell him to show up in the issued gear of the day, or to be five minutes earlier to weigh in, or to do all the minimum expectations, he just does it. I would say the team has really rallied behind CJ as a big leader for them, and they're following him because he's somebody who should be followed, and he's earned that right, and he lives it everyday.”

On what has stood out about (WR) Omarian Miller and his expectations on him and (QB) Cutter Boley:
“My expectations are for them to throw it and catch it a lot to each other, and for him (Miller) to block like Hines Ward used to do, those are my expectations. Win one-on-ones, play catch with each other out on the football field, and have that chemistry for those two. He’s (Miller) been a great kid. We knew the talent we were getting. I remember playing him and saying, ‘Hey, we can't single this dude. If we're rotating the single-high, we better bracket him’... I didn't understand that we were getting a really good person. He cares about his teammates. He's humble. I didn't appreciate the person we were getting. So, I'm happy with who we got as a human being, not just a player.”

On how he gets the transfers to click with each other
“It's the off season. You're not going to get it to click now. If they're trying to get it to click now, it's too late. That's the work they put on all off season and throughout camp. I mean, it can be done. It's just very rare. It's not going to happen across eight guys. There may be one guy that gets to step up at times and create a click, kind of like Malik McClain did a little bit for us last year. I just believe that they put in the work this off season. Unfortunately and fortunately, success takes time and work, there's no shortcut. If they sacrifice enough time, they're going to have a connection. If we didn't sacrifice enough time, we probably won't have a connection.”

On ticket sales for students and overall:
“I know nothing. I know that we’re breaking season ticket records. I know they're expanding because we've sold out of all premium seats, so they're doing construction to make more. I know that ticket sales and the excitement is at an all-time high. I know the renewal rate was over 90% which is unbelievable. I don't know a lot about ticketing, but I was told that was great. I just know that we're trending in a really good direction still. I always said the environments are what make it: the band, the cheerleaders, the fans, and the students. That's what makes it so much different. It can't be something we sometimes have and sometimes don't have. The best teams in the country consistently have that level of intensity about themselves. We’ve had that for the last like 10 home games here, and hopefully we can continue that.”

On Michael Keene being backup quarterback:
“Yes, Mikey has been unbelievable for us. He’s a leader for us with unbelievable intelligence. We felt good about his camp. So. 100%.”

On the strategy with constructing a team due to revenue sharing:
“I'm not going to get too much into this, just because I think there's some strategy behind how you try to build it in terms of thought process…but we want to win at the highest level, and you can't do that by building teams like everybody else. If you build a team like everybody else, you're not going to be able to try to win a margin or to bridge a gap that you may have. So what we're trying to do is a little bit different in our own way and say, if we don't spend as much here we can double down here because they're not being valued. So it's all about us in terms of trying to figure out where we separate ourselves and where us as a staff can try to be a deciding factor in terms of we feel like this staff member can help this position and that's a strength of ours. Let's lean into those strengths of the staff. I'd say it's a full picture approach from our staff, who's coaching each position, what their strengths and weaknesses are, all the way into who we're bringing in. I think it's a full picture approach.”

On making a roster with little or high risk:
“The situation we're in, we can't be wasteful. I think the character evaluation and the type of people we're bringing in is at a premium here. Not only saying risk, but really sticking to who the character of the player is, the type of player he's a good person. He makes good decisions. He loves the ball. Okay, check, check, check. We want those guys. So I'd say now more than ever, it's chasing our type of guy, our type of character guy, and then saying, who's out there? That's our type of guy. Can we build a team with these types of guys? Do we have to tweak our scheme? Because at the end of the day, the culture and the type of people you bring in for us are invaluable. That piece of it. So we have to be able to twist and change our schemes a little bit based on art. What types of guys spit us, and who is on our roster. I would say the number one thing is getting our kind of guy mentally, and a guy for those you had like the luncheon and you guys get to see all of our guys, just super mature, smart, intelligent guys who put in extra work. Let's get as many of those guys as possible, and then build a team from there.”

On accounting for certain styles of play from a player: 
“You have to challenge the staff. I know you want this, but does he fit us more? This kid won't fit, or this kid may not fit, and this kid fits us more culturally, and he's the same player. So I know you don't like to play this type of front, but we better study it because this is the best thing for us this year. Or I know we don't like to play in this personnel grouping, or that's not my background or coach's background. That's the best personnel for us right now. So let's figure out teams and let's study teams that have done this in the past. At the end of the day, the scheming of football is not overly challenging. It's just a matter of if you're willing to live outside your comfort zone or not, and willing to learn. I think it's more, are you willing to adapt around what you got, and are you willing to say players matter more than schemes? Let's acquire the right players, and then let's figure out the scheme later. You have to have an overall philosophy of no-brainers that you want. But after you get, we need this, these over everybody else, what are the best players we can get and let's build around these guys. 

On the greatest strength of the team going into week one:
“I would say the mindset. This team is a very focused team. I always say the more you can only pour in. It's such a boring saying, “what you pour out, is what you pour in.” I feel like this team poured in a lot. I feel that our strength is that we poured in so much. How can you just quit? How can you just give up? That's the response. We're gonna be a team that can take a hit to the chin, and get back up because they poured in so much. And anybody who's ever chased any dream or done anything and has taken a lot of time to try to achieve it knows that when you put more time in, it's hard to quit when you're just part time. Something doesn't go your way, ‘I'm out of here’. But when you're all in, this team has just put so much into that in the tough times, they're going to come together because they just put too much in just to walk away or to concede. They're going to keep fighting.”

On what a QB can handle in week one: 
“What can he handle? So you can learn how many checks they can handle, how good they are at actually seeing protections and real speed. How do they handle late in the shot clock versus early in the shot clock when you can talk to them? How do they handle tempo and live speed? How do they handle a two minute drill when it's real? How are they? So I would say how their composure is what you figure out. You can figure that out in practice and you can try to do it, but a game there’s just a little bit different feel for those quarterbacks. I really just figured out the mental side of it. The physical side, we're gonna get what we get. We know what we're gonna get. We know if they can make this throw. It's just that mental side of it when the picture changes that you haven't practiced, so what do they respond with? I think you will learn that.”

On expectation of depth rotation in the Morgan State game:
“Not even entered my mind. We are trying to win a football game, we are 100% trying to create the best plan for a football team that was picked top five in their league with multiple guys on first and second team all-conference lists. We are focused on creating the best plan possible to be as efficient as possible this week.”

On implementing new personnel throughout the season:
“Hopefully we can be in a lot of groupings, hopefully we can throw 1120, 2122, 3213. The more things you throw at a team, you have to simplify because you're going to match groupings, and if you match groupings, you can't have 17 calls or seven calls versus five different groupings that you have to match, or four different groupings depending on how you do it. If we can be a team that plays in multiple groupings, hopefully we can shrink call sheets on defense. If teams don't match personnel, well then now that's the challenge for us. Play a little dude and we're in 13, can we block you? Simple as that, and if we can block you, then you're gonna have to go big. I like to just say it's basketball on grass. At the end of the day, we get five dudes that we get to kind of change who they are. No different than basketball. We go big and they stay small, and we're not punishing them in the paint, that's a problem. We better not be big anymore because we're playing big, and we still can't score in the paint. That's a problem, right? We're going back to small ball. We're playing big, they're playing small and we're dominating in the paint, we're gonna stay there till they adjust now. That's the game that we try to play with personnel groupings, just trying to play basketball on grass. Every team is different because every team's little guy can play, some people may have a nickel who can do both, some people may have a nickel who can't. That's the fun part about game planning, scheming and adjusting throughout a game, getting a feel for the matchups because it's a players' league, not a coach's league. The players are the ones who win it.” 

On hidden gems his receivers room:
“Any of those guys in that room that I mentioned, they can all create an explosive play any moment, all those guys. I don't know if there's one I could call out specifically that would be a hidden gem.”
 
On his first game as Head Coach and weathering a monsoon storm four years ago today:
“I tried to forget it. They gave me the game ball, and I'm like, why? We played horrible. We played in a haboob. We had kids doing homework at midnight for class tomorrow, and then we went out and played football. I remember thinking, holy cow, could it start any worse? That was my takeaway from the first game, this was not on my bingo card of how this stage in my coaching career would begin, but here we are. So that's what I remember, thinking I can't believe this happened and is happening. That and the touchdown to (WR) Troy Omeire when he’s in the dust.”