Arizona State Head Coach Kenny Dillingham:
On handling success and playing on the road:
“We’re playing on the road against a really good opponent. This team has two losses by four points, total. Otherwise they’d be undefeated and a top fifteen team in the country…which is crazy to think about but that’s the sport. But that’s how close it is for them to be undefeated, so we’ve got a great challenge ahead of us. It’s a special weekend for them, it's homecoming weekend for them, so it's going to be loud. It’s at nine a.m. our time so that's a challenge, so we’ve got a lot of challenges ahead of us and it's all about us and we’ve got to stay focused on the work and the prep before we get there.”
On running back Cameron Skattebo’s increase in explosive runs:
“They’re catastrophically different. [Cam Skattebo] is a different player than last year. He’s not the same player, he’s dropped 10 to 15 pounds, he’s in such better shape, he clocked 21.8 [miles per hour] in the game last week which is really good. Last year, if he ever hit 20 it was awesome; more than likely he was in the 19’s and now he’s on the verge of hitting 22 in week 6 in the fourth quarter. And then on top of that, the explosive runs, we’re better up front. Our guys are giving better effort. Explosive plays are directly correlated with perimeter blocking and effort at the same time, so I think it's just a combination of all of that. And then with DeCarlos [Brooks] playing more in the first half, I think [Skattebo] has been fresh in the fourth quarter of games, which is when most of these explosive runs have been rattled off. When teams are a little more tired or fatigued from us running the ball earlier, he still has seven to eight carries left in him at a pretty high level and he takes advantage of it.”
On his excitement level on the field when the fans rushed:
“I’m an emotional person, I get excited. Like be yourself and that’s my personality that’s who I am, so people were excited, people were cheering around me so I’m going to be excited and cheer with them and enjoy it. It’s hard to win in college football, you better enjoy them and you better be able to rebalance yourself to get right back to work. But you better enjoy the moments, I mean, what’s the point of living if you don’t ever have fun and you never enjoy the success when you put in work and that’s kind of what I told the guys in the locker room after the game as well.”
On getting to celebrate the win with the team:
“Yeah, it’s awesome. The process is always more important than the result. We’re process driven. Success to us is being the very best you can be all the time at whatever you’re doing. That’s how we define it. But, I always tell guys, life and games are filled with moments. You either win the moment when you pick the ball off like Caleb [McCullough] and you win the game and then you get to celebrate a moment or you miss that moment and then you don’t celebrate because you lose the game. And it’s so close, but if you get distracted with [personal success] based on a few moments then you’re going to wind up losing a lot more than you should win. I think that’s what people mean when they say you have to stay the course and you can’t be results driven, because you have to enjoy the moments. I firmly believe that, but you also have to be honest with yourself and say, ‘We’re ten plays away from being 1-5.’ If you have those real conversations that if these moments would have gone a different direction, we could have a whole different season. But, for us I think that’s the key. Enjoy the moments, embrace the moments, but don’t get distracted by the moments and you’ve got to get back to work.”
On what people are saying about running back Cameron Skattebo:
“People are fired up about him, how hard he plays and the plays he’s making specifically in the fourth quarter of games. Cam [Skattebo] knows I’m going to be his hardest critic and the person who is hard on him the most of anybody so I don’t really tell him all the good things people say, but people are saying a lot of good things. And it’s a testament to him, how much work he’s put in to put his body in a position to go do what he’s doing. So, the people who think he’s flipping a switch right now and then going out and playing well, you didn’t see the work that he put in and the time and the commitment that he made to not only change his body, change his physical build, but he also changed his mindset. It's a lot harder to change his mindset when you’ve been doing something at a high level like he had for so long, so it's a testament to him. All the success is on him and he’s making unbelievable plays out there.”
On defensive success so far this season:
“Some turnovers are lucky and then some are just because you continue to work and work and punch the ball out and we’re around the ball and giving effort. I don’t think those are lucky ones. Sometimes the quarterback throws you the ball. To be honest I think those are the lucky ones. I think the ones that are hard are the ones where you knock a ball out or the ball is loose and your effort was the reason you fell on it. I think those are the ones that you can create through effort and intensity. But Caleb [McCullough] did a great job of reading eyes in the game and both were in zone coverage and he’s a quarterback-eyes guy and he’s a veteran and he made two great plays … and same with Keith [Abney].”
On getting Top 25 votes for the first time this season:
“I really don't care. The only thing that could possibly make me care is if recruits may care. Other than that, I really don’t care at all. I don’t even talk about winning with our guys or records ever. Never have, never will. I don’t go into a meeting and say, ‘oh we’re 5-1 and this is now so much more of a difficult task trying to get to six wins and a bowl.’ We’ll never talk about results. We always talk about the process of how to be successful, and if you continue to do that you’re going to continue to have fun moments. If you get lost in the moments, your fun moments are going to disappear and the bad moments are going to show up more. So let’s just stay focused on us and stay focused on the process.”
On wanting to be a program like Utah:
“I think for us it just shows that we're in the right direction. When I always say Utah is a standard, what I mean is their top to bottom consistency to sustain success and sustain a high level program is impressive. That's the part when I say they're the model. It's not, oh, you can't beat a Utah team. It’s how do you consistently be a team that's always in the upper echelon and consistently be a team who wins five or six games at home every year because the crowd is so loud. Teams have to go on silent cadence every single play and you have to be on silent cadence when you're in those stadiums. There's a direct relationship between that and winning. How do you create sustainability with your coaching staff and your assistants? They've created that and that's what's created their sustainability. So it's not Utah as the team, it's Utah as the program that they've built. And I definitely think it shows the direction that our team is heading. But we have a long way to go just in general before we can be that program. That's years away of stability.”
On what he sees in Cincinnati:
“Coach [Scott] Satterfield does a really good job offensively. He's always done a really good job offensively…The quarterback [Brendan Sorsby] is playing arguably as good as any quarterback in our league right now. His efficiency is through the roof. He's locating the ball and he's big so they can run him in the red zone and they can run him on third down. So they do a really good job and then defensively, obviously, their defensive coordinator [Tyson Veidt] came from Iowa State. I actually met and studied with them about four years ago and studied with him specifically because we played him when I was in Memphis back in 2018. We played them in a bowl game and they whipped our butt…Now, in year one, you can see a lot of the identity of his toughness and physicality…They're going to be violent and they're going to be physical. Kudos to him because he's got those guys playing hard.”
On Justin Wodtly and Chamon Metayer returning to Cincinnati and if there have been conversations about their insights:
“For me, it's not really the more conversations there are, it’s can you emotionally handle going back home to play? Just do your job. This isn't about you, this is about us and I'll eventually have that conversation if I think it's needed. But both of those guys couldn't be happier…People don't like kids leaving their program, and sometimes they spill milk. Both of those kids have been nothing but unbelievable workers. Unbelievable people, super intelligent and a joy to have in the building. Impact players on game day. So I couldn't be more fired up that both of those guys are on our team and are representing ASU football.”
On preparing for a 9 a.m. MST kickoff on Saturday:
“If you look at the win percentage right now in college football for traveling between three time zones, it’s very, very, very low. If you just looked at who's traveling between three time zones and you bet on the other team, you're going to win the majority of the time. It's such a challenge especially for college athletes who maybe don't go to bed when they should like a pro athlete does when he's preparing to do that. So we're bumping everything up an hour all week. So on Tuesday, everything's going to be an hour earlier. On Wednesday, everything's an hour earlier. When we get there on Thursday, everything's an hour and a half or an hour and 45 minutes earlier. So we're trying to get their clock changed starting tomorrow, which means instead of waking up at five, I get to wake up at four. So that's exciting. But other than that, we're really trying to negate that early time frame by getting their body clock started on Tuesday, not just when we get there early on Thursday.”
On defensive depth and wide receiver depth:
“I definitely feel like the defensive line and the linebacker depth has been awesome as well as safety depth even though you can't really rotate safeties as much. But the D-line and the linebacker depth has been huge for us. We've almost lost one D-lineman for one game or at least a portion of a game. I think everybody but Elijah [O’Neal[ for the most part has been out at some point and we haven't skipped a beat. That's a testament to the depth, and then linebacker has been in the same boat. Tate Romney has been out, [Jordan] Crook's been out, and you just saw Keyshaun [Elliott] out. We’ve had a variety of people out and we haven't skipped a beat. I don’t think we have as much depth at the wideout position. We've had a few people banged up, plus Elijhah Badger leaving in the summer and us choosing to redshirt him Malik McClain. So we definitely don't have as much depth at that position currently. Hopefully we get better at that.”
On having players hyping up the crowd while on offense:
“We’re in our team meeting today in our four minute drill and he’s up there behind hyping the crowd up and I’m like, ‘what are you doing?’ We want them to be quiet. We don’t want them to yell. It goes back to wanting the dog who bites, not the dog who barks, and let me try to tame him. But, don’t let me try to teach aggressiveness. That’s too hard. It’s too hard to teach people how to be passionate and how to love it. That’s difficult. It’s way easier to teach a kid how to tame down and how to say no. So, yeah. I would like it to be quiet when we’re on offense.”
On his conversations with Graham Rossini and the confidence he has with his plan:
“I take people for their word, to a fault maybe. I’ve been burned quite a few times just because I naturally trust people. I know if I say something to somebody it’s going to happen. So, if someone says something to me, I expect it to be the same thing. I’m building a house right now and they said it was going to be done in July. They told me today it’s still not going to be done until the middle of December. That bothers me because if I tell you my word I expect it to get done. Even though that’s how housing works it’s still frustrating. The same thing in this aspect is if somebody tells you that they’re going to do something, you give them the benefit of the doubt that they’re going to get it done and you’re going to trust them because they’ve done nothing to not do that in return. I’m excited for the next few weeks to see the university and see them make moves and commit to the program. Getting towards the end of the season, the staff is the most important part. The staff is what makes it go. The staff and the players. We have to make sure we get those two things taken care of. The staff and the players moving forward to create that consistency and programs like you talk about.”
On the team’s four pillars contributing to success:
“Smart- I think you have to play smart football. You have to know when to go down when you have a lead, like we did versus Mississippi State. You have to know that it’s third down and teams are going to try to get you to jump offsides on defense. You have to know the rules. You have to know to push somebody into the ball, like we did with Zyrus [Fiaseu] on the punt return team two weeks ago that was close to a fumble. Smart football wins. Most teams lose games, they don’t win them. They lose them. Tough- is not just physical, but it’s mental. It’s the ability to respond. Earlier in the year we talked about the toughness to respond to failure, which is what we’re used to responding to but then it’s even harder to respond to success. Now we’re getting to that point where we have to grow from that aspect. The ball is the game. If you have the ball, if you turnover the ball, if you take care of the ball. The ball is the game. It’s self explanatory. The team- is how hard you’re going to play and what are you willing to sacrifice for the team? We talked about last week playing Utah, they limit possessions. Nobody puts up big numbers usually against Utah. If you have zero catches in the third quarter are you going to be down or are you going to be like, ‘let’s go it’s a tie game.” Part of the style of play they play with, and usually leading the country in time of possession, they get the mental side of kids out of their game because they’re so worried about their own individual statistics and what they’ve accomplished in the game that it takes kids out of their element and out of their game. We talked about having to be willing to sacrifice this week, and I think we had a lot of guys who did that.”
On Steve Nash talking to the team:
“Steve Nash spoke to the team this morning. I wanted the guy to come and speak to the team. Listening to me all of the time gets monotonous. So, to come talk to somebody else about leadership and the process [was important]. He was a process guy. I remember him and his pregame shootarounds, which he talked to our guys about. Then, going to the bench and putting the heat pack on his back. I remember the things that he did in his process to be able to play at the level he did for so long. I think it was important for our guys. He’s local. We talked about activating the Valley, and that’s one of the legends of the Valley. To come back and speak to the guys about his process and what it takes to be successful and allow our guys to ask some questions, I think our guys were fired up. [Steve] made a shot when he entered the room, so that was pretty cool… It was good for our guys. It humbles you, if you’re feeling good about yourself and people are tweeting about you, then there’s this two-time MVP walking in. Who am I? Humble yourself. Let’s get back to work boys because you have a long way to go. Success is relative. Even though you think you’re successful right now, you’re not even a pimple compared to what some people's success is. So you better humble yourself and get back to work.”
On how it came together having Steve Nash out:
“I have a close friend, Jessica, and she connected me with Steve because I mentioned with her that I wanted to get around Steve and get him connected because he was in the community with our guys. She made a connection about three weeks ago and then we reached out. He said he wanted to come talk, and I said this would be a good day and it was perfect timing. I think his message was perfect and thank you to Jessica for helping connect that because that was really cool for our guys.”
On the linebackers showing up in big moments:
“That’s one of our groups that’s never on lists. Very similar to our O-line group. The two groups that are never on lists in our program are O-line and linebackers. [They’re] never on an academic list. They’re never late. [They’re] always early. They always give effort. I think it’s a testament to Coach Cooper and the leadership in that room because it’s not ironic. It’s not a surprise to me when they make good plays because that group puts in the work.”
On feeling more of a buzz around the program:
“You definitely feel it, and it’s awesome and that’s definitely why you want to play Thursday and Friday games. You just hope the opposing team doesn’t have a bye [week] before you do it. But you do hope to play those games because it puts you on a national stage. Normally there is not a lot of competitive energy, you both play early. Normally it’s even advantage and you get a national stage to do that. I don’t know the exact saying, but you fall away faster than you climb… All these cool tweets— fumble the ball once Skat and see what happens. It’s like us lose a game, Kenny, and see what happens. That’s the nature of the world that we’re in. It’s all, ‘what have you done for me lately?’ People are looking at coaches who have had success over 10’s of years and it’s, ‘oh, look at the mistakes they’re making.’ It’s the nature of the beast. You have to enjoy those [good] moments, and it’s great for the fan base. It’s great for recruiting. You individually as a person have to realize that this is a flash in the pan. You can wake up in five days and the exact opposite will be said about you, so you better not put your name in the twitter search handle because if you build that habit, you’re going to be in trouble.”
On how the Tillman Leadership Council has played into the team’s success:
“They’re vital. We meet with those guys once a week. I get a beat on how their bodies feel for practice. I get a beat on which guys they think may need me to come meet with them, chop it up, and make sure that they know that they’re valued. Sometimes people get lost throughout a season and they need to be talked to. Those guys help me with that and help me in terms of setting the tempo with the team. I can say what the standard is, but the standard that I set should always be the minimum expectation. It’s those guys that set the real standard. I think guys like X [Xavior Guillory], Shamari [Simmons], CJ Fite, Leif [Fautanu], I could go on… Sam Leavitt, Trenton Bourguet, Melquon Stovall. All of those guys set a standard in practice and prep in how they work. Those guys are setting a high standard and other people have to reach it. I felt at times last year that our best players didn’t set our highest standards, and when your best players don’t set your highest standards, then you have no chance. This year I think our best players are working the hardest, and they believe. They believe in the process, and they believe what we’re doing is right. Part of that is because they have a say in what we’re doing. That’s the bottom line. Take a little more ownership when you’re the one who wants to do something. When I approve the schedule with you every week, and you’re like, ‘yeah, that looks good’ then it’s on us. It’s not me. We’re in this together. We’re doing this. It’s a different mindset.”
On the growth of Xavior Guillory:
“He’s just more vocal this year. Obviously, you can’t be vocal when you’re on the sidelines, you have to actually play the game. Him as a player, he’s just more comfortable. I think he’s a little faster than he was last year. Last year he was lifting more than he was practicing and playing, so naturally, you get a little bit stiffer. I think he’s gotten looser throughout spring and throughout fall camp. He lost a little bit of weight by design, which is good. He moved from boundary safety to free safety which is a good move for him because he’s got a really good knack for the ball. He’s made a lot of open-field tackles that could have gotten loose for big plays. I think his overall flexibility and mobility is better and his leadership. He’s passionate. He cares a lot and kids feed off that. When you’re a competitor, when you have the game taken away from you and then you respond and fight and crawl to get back to where he is today, and you’re an emotional leader, kids rally behind that.”