Arizona State Head Coach Kenny Dillingham Previewing Week 8 and Kansas State
Monday, October 19, 2026
On the most surprising parts of the team and what needs to be worked on:
“I'd just say the ability to stop the run and run the ball. It's something we've done really well here the last two years, and we're not stopping the run. We're not running the ball really well. I thought we had a physical camp. Obviously not physical enough. So I think that's the number one thing. When I say that, it includes tackling, blocking, the fundamentals of the game to get you to run the ball and stop the run. We're not doing that right now at a high enough level, and good football teams can stop the run and run the ball. That's something we've kind of hung our hat on, and that's a primary thing that we've struggled with.”
On if the struggle is on the personnel or execution:
“I think there's a lot of things go into stuff like that. I think right now, we're going to talk about where we are today. Not going back in time. I think it's more the execution. Right where we're at right now, it's we've got to be able to execute better. We've got to be able to fit things better. Maybe tweak some things to maybe fit our skill set and our guys a little bit more. Like there's not a ton from that perspective, so it's more just figuring out what our guys are good at and trying to do it more. So we don't allow the explosives, because you look at early in that game, and we have a fourth and one, we have them four yards in the backfield, dead to rights, and that conversion then leads to a 60-yard drive. We get the ball back, we turn it over, pick six. So just that stop alone, our team right now doesn't handle adversity great. We got to learn how to, get hit in the chin and get back up. Right now, we're going to hit the chin and lay down. They're not laying down, and not quitting, We're fighting. These guys do fight, but we're just not playing our best football after we get hit. So we got to learn how to get hit and still play good football, and that's just not happening.”
On fixing mistakes and gameplan for next game:
“Nobody wants to hear this, but there's not as much to fix as people think. It's what we're there for, we're very close. We're there, like I said before they wanted to start the game. Everybody thought it was a stop, and then look at the result of that. There's multiple plays like that, I think we got to get our guys playing with more confidence. I think we got to be a more confident team. We're not playing with a lot of confidence. When you don't play with a lot of confidence, you don't make many plays. I think for us, we got to get our confidence level up as a football team and believe that we can do it. I think that showed up just as much as anything, we’re scared to make a mistake more than just playing football,, especially when things didn't go our way early and the avalanche hit us. So I think we just got to play with freedom and not be scared to make a mistake as much. I think we're just playing scared to make mistakes sometimes.”
On extracting player’s confidence:
“I think there's a combination. You can extract it to an extent, and I think (ASU QB) Mikey (Keene) alluded to it after the game. So I think there's a combination there, and I think the want of this team is there. There's enough guys on the team that they want to feel on a high. It's just a matter of having to make the play to get confidence, and we haven't made those plays yet. thats my opinion, to get confidence, to be a confident football team. So we got to figure out how to get that confidence because, like I said, there are multiple plays in that game where if you just pause the tape and you say, "Who’s going to make this play or not? There's going to be a 10 out of 10 resounding yes, and some of those plays resulted in touchdowns, and behind line of scrimmage, we're going to say resounding yes, and so I think for us we just got to get our guys playing more confident on both sides of the ball, and with the confidence I think you play a little faster. I've been really hard and pressing on these guys to play with passion and energy and to play hard and maybe I've pushed them too hard, like pushed that too hard. That it made them scared to play free, and you have to be a free football player to be good. I'm still trying to figure out how far to push them, how far to lay back, what that balance is with this team. But I know this, like we have six games left. This is college sports, and we have six games left. Let's just show up tomorrow, show up tonight, and let's work really hard, and let's see what happens. Let's do it the next day, and it doesn't guarantee you success, but it's a higher percentage than not showing up and not working, so let's just keep showing up every single day with an attitude and go to work and see what happens. It's amazing what sometimes you can accomplish that nobody thinks is possible. That's my mindset, I'm not going to be down again pissed after the game. Who wouldn't? You lost with your butt kicked. That doesn't change my prep or what I believe is necessary to win football games. Absolutely not. Once our team has momentum, I think we can do something that I thought we could do from the beginning. We just haven't tasted it yet. We got to taste it to get momentum, and we just haven't got it. So we got to find a way to create that momentum, and I got to find a way to create that momentum.
On looking at past teams success when facing adversity:
“100%. You look back at other things you've done to twist or shake up the monotony, to try to make it better. If they don't work, you try something else. But at the same token, there's some level of this is what I believe is the best route, and what you've got. It's not week by week. You got to eventually say, this is what the best thing for our football team is, and let's double down on it. We got six weeks left, so let's double down on that. I thought the shortened practices and the energy level of practice, I thought it was positive. Didn't show it, three plays are made in the first half in this different football game. Nobody wants to talk through that because people are going to take that comment and then contrive it to how can you say three plays equal these amount of points, which is great. I don't care what they think. It's irrelevant. It's the truth. Those three simple plays in the first half of a game could flip a situation last week by 21 points. So we got to fix those three plays, and then there's obviously more plays in there we got to get better at. Those critical moments, we've yet to make the critical play. We started to have one with Raiden's big play, that was a critical flip. Then we had a third and three, where we're right there to sack the quarterback, about as close as you can, and he makes an unbelievable throw over a trap corner to convert and they score. The first drive, fourth and one, we're in the backfield. That's a 10-point play because we're in field goal range. Those two plays are 17 points. So you can't get caught up in the show. You have to keep keeping your mind focused on what is actually happening when you watch the tape.
On what past teams have done that this years team has yet to do:
“The confidence level. I've got to get more confidence in our team. I've got to get our team playing with more confidence. I thought we had that early, that fourth and one, it almost sucked some stuff out. Then the pick six happened, and the energy just got sucked out of the team. You have two absolutely talk about the emotions of the first four minutes of that game for a football team that had a great week of practice, and we haven't handled that emotion. The downward swing of emotion is low this year, and that's where I've gotten to do better as the leader. We could have had a fourth down stop on the opponent's 35 yard line on the road, on a cover zero. The lineman grabbed them and threw them forward, and they converted. That's deflating. We all thought we stopped them. Then they drive the field. We get out of our own end zone. Pick six. I've got to do a better job getting our guys to manage these these emotions in the game where we just get rolling out of control and a negative spiral, you look at that game, and there's a four-play stretch from when they scored a pick six offensively to then the fourth down didn't get. They scored on three out of four plays. Boom, just like that, and that right there is what if what if we controlled that better? Those moments where we're frustrated, if we can just control that better. Which that's easy to say, right? what are you going to do about it, right? The same thing I'm doing about it. There's not much else to do. You just got to make the play. We got to calm each other down, andI got to get our guys to understand those moments are so critical, and if we can do that, we'll be fine.
On if the confidence is player or coach led:
“It's everything. It's community-led. it's everything that they see, everything that I tell them, everything their coach tells them, everything their players tell them. These are 18 and 22-year-olds. The emotion of college football is real. The emotion of the highs and the lows of the same thing I was talking about when I was 25 and 26, I'm listening to external people. There's more layers to it than just what we tell them, that goes into it. For us, it's just the confidence as a football team. The guy next to me is going to make the play. I'm going to make the play. Player, coach, everything led. It's a group thing. It's holistic”.
On how the teams fight should translate to this upcoming week:
“I want to see our guys come out and have the same practice we did last week. We had good practices. We really did. Let's do that again. Let's have another week and good practices, and go out and play a good football game, try to get some momentum in the game. I said, us as a staff maybe got to spark some momentum. Maybe we have to be more. Maybe I need to take the ball. I'm a defer guy. Maybe we need to play from a lead. Maybe I need to take the ball. Maybe we need to be aggressive. Maybe we need to be more aggressive early. There's things we can do as a staff to try to spark some momentum as well, so we don't get into those lulls. Right now we're just falling into those lulls too fast, and we're struggling to get out of it. I want to see the exact same thing I saw from last week. Nobody's going to like to hear that, but that's what I want to see. I want to see us bring it in practice. Look at it last week and do it again, and then just when the play is there to be made, let's make the play, and let's have confidence when we do it. Let's preach confidence in these kids to go play better. I promise you, telling people they're not good does not make them any better. I can promise you that. Teaching somebody how to be better makes them better, but waves of negativity is not going to improve a result, it's proven. Just explaining to our guys what it needs to be to get better, and then trying to get us off to a better start”.
On approaching this week against one of the best rushing offenses in the country:
“I saw a stat that their number one, [averaging] six yards a carry. We got to get ready. We have the ability to stop the run. I really believe that we have that ability to do it. We just have to do it. We just have to execute. We've got to make tackles when the plays are going to be made. We've got to clean up some of the fifths. Coach Klein's one of the best architects of the quarterback run, and this deceptive run game. He does a phenomenal job. He's always done a great job. Obviously, was a great player as well. They definitely create Deceptiveness in their run game and make it very challenging and create explosives. All the misdirection GT counter, the misdirection power read, the wideout added into the counter, the duo plus schemes. He just does a great job creating plus ones, especially with a mobile quarterback who can also throw the football. It's a great challenge for us, and we have to be sound. That's going to be the game. Are we sound, and can we tackle when we get in those positions?”
On what has stopped Avery Johnson in the past
“Two years ago, the same coaching staff for us. Actually their O line coach was their tight ends coach. There's some similarities to what they used to do as well, obviously Coach Klein wasn't there, so different coaching staff on their end, defensively different coaching staff. From our perspective, it's the same staff that played them a few years ago, just a little bit different scheme that we've got to be able to navigate.”
On how much he leans on the leadership council to motivate the team:
“It’s huge. I lean a lot on the leadership council in terms of where we're at as a team, our mindset and things that they want me to do better. They know their team better than anybody. I lean on them a ton. We added Reed Harris to the leadership council. He obviously deserved it. We don't usually do that, but I just felt like he's playing at a level, he's giving effort at a level, and he's prepared at a level that's worthy of that.”
On what is working for (ASU DL) Jalen Thompson:
“He's just consistent. You know what you're going to get in him. He's the definition of consistency. He just has to continue to be consistent, like he's been doing, and I think anytime you play defense, it's about consistency. The difference between def ense and offense is offense can survive off explosives. The only way a defense can survive off explosives is if those explosives are turnovers, and we're not creating those at a high rate, which means we have to be consistent, and we're not consistent right now with our run fits. We're not consistent right now in coverage game, and we just got to get tied in at a higher rate. These last six weeks, we have another half of the season to play. Let's pop the ball. That's how my brain is. We're down 28. I'm kicking an onside kick. Like I don't know how to turn that off and I don't care. ‘Okay, we wasted it. Cool.’ I don’t give a crap. We're going to do everything we can to try to play our best football game over and over again, and we're going to do that again this week.”
On if he feels like the team lost passion and energy after playing Texas Tech.
“Absolutely not. I thought going into the game we had great passion and energy. Like I said, I think we lost it after the first six-minute emotional swings. We went from a fiery ‘get after it’ pretty good spot to ‘what just happened?’, and I don't think we recovered from that well. And then when it rained, it poured. It all happened in 10 total plays and I didn't do a good enough job leading those guys. In that setting, I got to get our guys calmed down and say, ‘let's go play football’ in this short window of time, because that's how those games happen. Small bursts equate to a mass amount of points for both sides of the ball, and now you're trailing by so much, you're playing a whole different football game. That's what's happened the last two weeks: we haven't really played a real football game because we're down by so much early into the game because of these small bursts of times, and we've got to remove these small bursts of times that are just catastrophic. I got to do a better job getting our guys back to balance when I feel like it's starting to fall. I got to be able to calm it down and stop it, or we got to do things strategically to try to play with a lead. Like I said, taking the ball maybe or something to change so these things don't continue to happen.”
On what about (Kansas State QB) Avery Johnson makes him so challenging to defend:
“Obviously he signed there to play for Coach Klein. I was actually recruiting versus him (Coach Klein) for Avery for three years. I think he's playing his best football yet. He's taking care of the football. He's getting the ball down the field. He's playing under control. He's moving the pocket. I think he's getting looser runs to be able to be athletic. He ran for 100 yards last week, so his explosiveness shows up. They make you account for him, which means that he gets accessibility in the passing game down the field. He’s gotten better at his quick game this year. I haven't watched last year in depth, but his feet look really clean right now. So I think his feet are cleaner than maybe they were in years past. There's a lot of things that he's been doing really well.
On which players have taken on larger and vocal leadership roles like those of Cameron Skattebo and Xavion Alford:
“I think there's a lot of guys that are leading in their own way, and everybody's way of leading is different. (QB) Mikey (Keene) is definitely a guy who is more in the mold that you're describing. I definitely think he fits that style more if you're looking for that type of leader.”
On some areas he wants to improve on during the rest of the season:
“For us it’s about how we can coach blocking and tackling better. We got to block better. We got to tackle better. We have to coach the fundamentals of the game better. That's where I look and say, ‘Man, what have we missed that the fundamentals that we've prided ourselves on are not showing up?’ So we got to coach the fundamentals of the game better. We got to coach blocking better. We got to coach tackling better. We got to clean fits better. All the boring stuff. We're not going to call GT counter and everything's going to be okay. That's not how it works. We're not going to call a nickel Cover 2 fire zone and ‘oh wow that was all we were missing’. That's not the solution to these problems. We have to go block. We have to go tackle. We have to run to the football, and we have to make the play when the play is to be made. So I think we have to coach the fundamentals from a ground level better this year because clearly we haven't done that at a high enough rate like we have in years past.
On focusing on Kansas State but not waiting until the end of the year to make decisions:
“We met for a while yesterday as a staff to see where we can improve upon in the future. ‘Where did we fall short in our plan? Whether it's schematically or we want to be more split safety or single high or whether we want to be a tight zone or a wide zone team. What do we want to double down on?’ Combined with some other things, we could have a better plan and look back and say ‘Okay well this this process wasn't as clean, or this didn't turn out how we expected it.’ So I think there's a ton of things that you reflect on. You have to do that in real time, so you don't forget about it. So we reflected on that. We put together those things where we think that next year we would have to be better at, and that was for like three and a half hours as a full staff, and then we said, ‘Okay, now let's go play football. What can we fix today? What can we work on today to try to be better? Do we have to make drastic changes? Absolutely not. Let's target what our guys do well and try to put them in the best position to succeed, because we still have half of a season left.’ We have half of a season left and we haven't played our best football, which I keep saying. Eventually, hopefully, I’ll get to say we played our best football, or we played good football. I haven't got to do that yet. But we are going to continue to work really hard, assess the issues and rock and roll.
On opportunities for offensive linemen and the running game this weekend:
“Those are two areas that we pride ourselves on, running the football and stopping the run. We’ve struggled doing that this year. There’s a lot of layers to that, there's a lot of things that go into that. I think this is a good week obviously they're a four-down team that last week said we’re going to be odd and completely change what they do. Play odd, blitz from all over, so they completely changed their identity of what they do defensively just in this last game. You’re kind of playing two different defenses from that perspective because the defenses aren't similar when they go back and forth like that. Eventually with our guys it just got to click. It’s not going be that people are changing roles or changing spots. The guys are there, let's go get better together and let's go improve upon it. Hopefully we can practice and keep getting better.”