Arizona State Head Coach Kenny Dillingham
On preparing for another Big 12 road game"
“Different beast this week. But you would hope just the confidence of.. (being) 2-2 on the road. So you would hope that we've won a few games now on the road, so hopefully we can go and play well. It's a really good environment, a really good team in November coming off the bye, unfortunately.”
On running back Cameron Skattebo’s status:
“Skatt, he's questionable for the game. I think he's going to try to practice, at least jog through some things, run around a little bit tomorrow. So that's a positive. He was trying to get me to put him in the game at the middle of the third quarter, (he’s) like, ‘I think I'll get suited up.’ No, you're not going to go get suited up, like, not happening. So we'll see what it looks like this week when it's going to be the same situation. Even though if he's cleared, I want to make sure that we're going to get the best version of Cam if he goes out there and he feels good about himself.”
On overall team health at this point of the season:
"In terms of the injuries, I just think we're a deeper football team. A deeper, more talented football team. Like I said last year, you don't fall on each other as much, which means you're on your feet more, which means there's less injuries in practice. There's less injuries on game days because you're not tripping over each other. Usually more athletic people… not one individual, but as a unit. When there's less people on the ground, you don't get injured as much. So it's a simple thing and then when you get injured, like we did last year when it rains, it pours. So now you have more people on the ground, so now more people are getting injured. So it doesn't solve itself. I do think the changes we've made, I don't know if they worked but we're going to keep doing them because it's obviously better. But to say, I know that like the thing we took in and tweaked was the difference. I couldn't tell you, but there obviously is a direct correlation because the team we stole it from had a big, big change and now we're having a big change, so hopefully we can continue on that."
On lineman Kyle Scott's and linebacker Keyshaun Elliott’s health:
"He'll (Kyle Scott) be good this week. He should be good this week and then Keyshaun is questionable. Like Skatt, he'll try to run around a little bit earlier in the week and we'll see how it progresses. Last week when I said questionable to doubtful, none of y'all believe me. Everybody's used to people playing games. They're actually questionable to doubtful. Like there's no games, they're questionable to doubtful. We'll see how the week progresses. But I do feel better about both those two than I did last week, but they're still questionable. They have to go do it, feel comfortable, feel good about it. Otherwise putting them out there isn't doing them justice to themselves. It's my job to protect them from them."
On keys to winning one possession games this season:
“I think it’s just the guys have the belief that they're going to win the game. Like there's not a waiver. Our leaders on defense, people can look at them, they're like, all right, we're going to win the football game. Then you look at who makes the game-winning tackle, It's one of our kids in the leadership council. Another guy that plays hard 24/7. X (Xavion Alford) and (Myles) Rowser out there at the end of the game and then on offense people can look at Sam (Leavitt) and they just have a lot of confidence that Sam's going to make the play when the game's on the line and he's going to get it done. So I think when you have a group of guys, you just have that belief in one another that like whether it's offense or defense, we're going to win. That's positive and we've won games in a lot of different ways this year. This was the first game that we won through playing smart football. We won that advantage you know, we won the nuances of the game, we lost all the other aspects, but we won that. Our motto is smart, tough, the ball, the team. This was the first time that I felt like we won because we are a smart football team."
On Kansas State Quarterback Avery Johnson:
"Avery is a star. He's a star in the making. I recruited Avery, I recruited him at Florida State. I recruited him at Oregon. His mom is one of the nicest ladies. His dad's an awesome dude- one of the biggest Chiefs fans you'll ever meet in your life. He had a garage just filled with Chiefs stuff that they would facetime me from. His sister lived in Vegas for a long time. His brother is an engineer, like they're just a really, really good family. He's a really, really good, smart kid that runs a 4.3 (40-yd dash), he can throw it 50-something yards and is super intelligent. He's got a really, really bright future in football. I was asked at the Big 12 media days, and they asked, what’s one wish from the other coach. I said, don't play him (Johnson) when they play us. So I'm hoping that still happens. Regardless of what happened in the Houston game, that is not a reflection of this football team (Kansas State). This is a really good team. This is a team that was picked to the Big 12 by a lot of people. This is a team that's still at the top half of the Big 12 race playing at home. This is a really good team with a really good quarterback. It's going to be a great challenge."
On challenges involving Kansas State having four designated tight ends
“Their running game is old school. 12 personnel driven, 13 personnel. They're getting in some 14 personnel, they'll put them all on the field. When you do that, you create really good play action, and that's how you get people open is the run and play actions. They do a really good job scheming up play action, pass games specifically in the red area to get those tight ends open. It all starts with the premise that they can run the ball, they can have a quarterback that can control the edge with his athleticism, which means now you have to cover people in one-on-ones, then you have to account for the quarterback pulling the football. You have to get your hats right inside, but you also have to be aware of tight ends leaking in every way, shape, or form that could possibly leak. So they do a really good job as a staff, making you defend the entire football field even in the red area.
On how negative preseason outlooks continue to motivate the team
“I don't know how much. I probably talked about the preseason media poll twice, like maybe three times all off season. Like, if they didn't see it, were they living under a rock? I don't need to state the obvious. Everybody knows we were predicted to suck. How many times am I going to say guys were predicted to suck before they see that we're predicted to suck. It is what it is. It was the ability to not care... Like who cares? Yeah, they think of that... Well, there's a reason most of these guys transfer here just because their last place didn't think they were worth anything anyways. Most of them didn't play at their last school. So they thought we suck too. That was the nature of our team, was a whole bunch of people with chips on their shoulders. So I never thought that the media poll specifically was that fuel to the fire. We recruited guys that were driven internally to be really, really good and that wanted to be good internally and they wanted to push themselves to be better and wanted to be in a place where they could be themselves. I think those kids being comfortable here, being able to be themselves here knowing that they're going to be held to a standard. But they're also going to get their butt kicked in a video game by their coach and have that balance. I think that that balance of having a lot of fun, but working really hard has really put these guys in a position to start believing in one another because of the relationships they're building and I think there's genuine relationships on this football team that will go beyond the season.”
On preparation before games:
"We're trying to figure out the balance of confidence and cockiness. I felt like we were on the verge of that. I asked the team on Thursday, “Are we confident or are we cocky?” because we're right there and I couldn't figure out what it was, but it was bothering me a little bit. I'm like, “Man, we haven't experienced success. Maybe this is how we handle it.” I thought we were just on that verge. We didn't run the ball that well and they ran the ball a little better than most teams have run the ball and kudos to them. I felt like we got to get a little bit back to that underdog and I kind of got us out of that mindset a little bit talking about how we don't lose at home. That's not what we do. It's home, we're going to win the football game, it doesn't matter what happened. And we did, we did all that. We found a way to win, which is awesome, but I felt like I did a poor job managing that. On the field, I think there was a few times that they got us in some zone plays, where they got us, ID-ing outside the box and chasing a few ghosts and we were dead to some linebackers early in the game and we could have potentially solved that with some formations. Defensively, I didn't think we did a good enough job teaching our guys certain formations, like four by one. You're going to get stops or slants. Why are we not pushing heavier into slants and why are we not playing different leverages to take away the third down concepts? So I felt like there are things that I could have done better to get to put our guys in a little bit better situation on the field. On top of that, I feel like I could have changed how we went into the week a little bit better."
On quarterback Sam Leavitt’s Development:
"Probably a little ahead, to be honest, but he's right where I felt like he would be. I don't know how long that first meeting was on his first eight hours, six hours, like legitimately, definitely five, right? But from our meeting, you knew what you're getting, you're not going to say, “Oh man, this dude doesn't love football.” You can't sit in there for five hours if you don't love it. So I knew he was going to have a faster process to develop because of the work ethic. What I didn't know, was how quickly he would be able to see the field and his field vision. His ability to take a look, see it and then spit it back to you and process it mid game or after the game and remember it. I think that's the part that impressed me. He's seeing the field really well for a freshman and he remembers it and he can recall “this is like that game or this is what we talked about four weeks ago.” His ability to recall the plays from prior learning experiences- I think that's helped his growth because you're not teaching him the same thing over and over and over again."
On the wide receiver production:
"We had some opportunities this last week. We've had some opportunities throughout other games where we're really close to getting more people involved. We're trying to get more people involved and we were really close to a big play the other day. There have been a few opportunities with some other guys to have a big play. We're just not quite there yet. Hopefully, maybe this is the week. I keep saying this is the week and I'm hoping I'm right one of these weeks."
On the offensive philosophy:
"(I'm) Definitely a big believer in it for the natural turnover it creates. Every time you score, you give the ball back to the opponent, other than when you score at the end of the half, they don't have enough time to score. That's a natural possession you gained in the game, which to me is a turnover. The first coach that really dove into it heavy, was Coach (Dan) Lanning. The middle eight (minutes) to me is more of a defensive philosophy, because the defense doesn't want to have to go back on the field. Offensive coaches, we are like “Score as fast as possible. There's two minutes left, get a stop, we'll score, we'll get a stop, we'll score twice.” As opposed to the philosophy of it's all about points per possession, which means if we have one possession and they have half of a possession with 30 seconds left, that's more valuable than us having a possession and a half and then having a full possession. When I was with Dan (Lanning) and he harped on it to me, that's where I really started to believe in it. If you look at those games in Oregon, I think we actually led the country the year that I was the office coordinator, in the middle eight and in last drive scoring. It’s a huge difference maker in a game of margins."
On plotting drives late in the first half:
“With five minutes, you're not like, ‘let me not score.’ You're trying to score and that's your mindset. But, there comes a time where you transition that thought throughout a drive, so you just have to be adaptable. When you get the ball with three minutes left, that's one thing. But when you get the ball with five or six minutes left, you're not changing anything unless the situation changes on you mid-drive. And that's just communication between myself, Coach (Marcus) Arroyo and Sam (Leavitt) in terms of the thought process changing. We're now getting into four minutes and we're changing the thought process. So I think that's just communication but it doesn't change our game plans, our calls or things like that very much.”
On the team’s energy levels with three regular season games remaining:
“I hope they feel good. We're playing meaningful games in November, so I hope we feel good…We’re pretty healthy, but the bangs, bruises, twisted ankles, and soreness are real. That's football. We had two byes and this is week 12 of the college football season this year…Guys are not going to feel good, so how do you get them to feel the best they could feel come Saturday? My job is to find the balance of preparing and also getting them to feel the very best they can feel when they take the field on Saturday. And there's a really thin line between the two. If you do too much of one way, then you're not prepared. Too much of the other way, then they don't feel good. You gotta be able to move that line based off of your team and the input of your team and the input of your leaders.”
On what lineman Jacob Rich Kongaika has brought to the team:
“Energy, passion, joy, jokes, pregame leis, he’s brought a lot. Jacob and his family are awesome. Awesome family, awesome kid. The energy he brings is contagious. He multiplies people around him and when he's around, you have to be better. You don't have a choice. There's not another option because he's going to be so energetic and so passionate with so much good energy that you're naturally going to be a better version of yourself when he's next to you. He's done so much for this team. So happy he's here. Him and his family are around a lot, they're supportive and they're awesome people.”
On facing Kansas State’s rushing attack:
“Kansas State will be way more in the Kansas world than we were in the Central Florida world. Both of those teams are really, really good at running the ball. It's a great challenge to be honest. This team was picked to win the Big 12 by a lot of people and for the most part they’ve backed it up other than a few blunders here and there. We're playing them, the team that's picked to win the league, off their bye week in their city. There's a lot of great challenges, and it's the second time we're playing a really challenging team off of a bye week for them. Hopefully our guys can understand that challenge and go rise to it.”
On if the play calling has changed throughout the season to get the ball to Jordyn Tyson more often:
“A little bit, but I also think we're taking what the defense gives us. Different places on the field and different times in the game, we're just taking what the opponent gives us. If they want to leave one-on-ones, then we have to be able to take those. There was a time in the (UCF) game where they doubled Jordyn and they almost had a pick six on the first fourth down that we had near midfield. They did a really good job scheming that up to be honest. So we have to get other guys involved like we did with Jake (Smith) two weeks ago…We had Xavier Guillory going before he tweaked his hamstring a few weeks ago. He was getting in a rhythm and then he tweaked his hamstring, then we have to find a way to get him back in a rhythm. So hopefully we can get some of these guys back into a rhythm here these last three games to kind of get a little bit of pressure off of JT.”
On what makes Hines Ward such an effective recruiter:
“Other than 10,000 yards, 100 touchdowns, and a Super Bowl MVP, he's just a really humble person. You would never know the accomplishments he's had in his career. That's really his secret sauce. Nobody sees him as the first one in the building. He's in the top three every single day. Does he really need to be a top three guy in the building? No, that's how he’s wired. He's honest with the dudes because he doesn't need to lie to them. He's done what they want to do. And he can be honest with them because they have to naturally respect what he's accomplished. He comes in and asks ‘how should I do this or how should that?’ I can't tell you what to do. Everybody's different. How do you recruit? You be yourself. I can't be Hines Ward and Hines Ward can't be me. I can't Coach Arroyo, I can't be Coach Ward, vice versa. The best recruiters are people that are in my opinion, real or people that are really good at faking being real. That's the hardest part about it. But you just have to be yourself. And I think that's the best part about him. He's himself and he's humble. He's accomplished everything that these kids want to accomplish. Why would you not want to go play for that?”
On wearing leis and the presence they have in his office:
“When they gave me the lei, I wear the lei. I have a miniature Pat Tillman statue in my office and I have a collection of them around Pat Tillman in my office. So I put the lei on Pat Tillman. I change into my coaching attire and then go coach a football game. So I have a tradition with it. It's pretty cool. I think right now we have five leis wrapped around Pat Tillman right now in my office on my desk. So it's pretty cool.”
On the team’s mindset going into the last stretch of the season:
“Last week I kind of alluded to that. Last week was the first week where I felt eerie. I didn't want to touch it yet because I didn't know how we’d play with that feeling. It was new to the program since I've been here, but I definitely think our guys right now realize that we have an opportunity. We're back in an underdog role. We're back to being eight-point underdogs and we're back to being counted out. We’re playing a team with a head coach that's won four national championships and one that was picked to finish first in our league on the road. If this isn't a game that's challenging, then I don't know what is…The last game out of the state of Arizona that we're going to play this year is this week. It's the biggest game because it's right now, but it's also the biggest game since it’s the last game out of the state. After this week, we come back home and we're in the state of Arizona for the last two weeks. So we gotta do whatever we gotta do to play our best football game this week, and then come home and stay home.”