Arizona State Head Coach Kenny Dillingham
On if the team’s response after the weather delay in Stillwater will be an indication of the team’s performance against UCF:
“I hope, because we played really well after the break. Our guys like football. So I think that was good for them to figure out how to win on the road. I think that was bothering them that we had played poorly on the road. Kudos to our opponents on the road as well. I think the two teams we’ve lost to are two of the top five teams right now in the Big 12, and we played them at their places. Our first Big 12 road game and then a road game without Sam (Leavitt) is a challenge. So I think we faced some difficult situations there and I think our guys were ready to respond to that challenge. This will be a great challenge this week. Coach (Gus) Malzahn has won a ton of games in his career and UCF made two coordinator changes. One of the guys I worked with was Addison Williams (UCF co-defensive coordinator) who’s phenomenal, and I haven’t worked with the offensive coordinator (Tim Harris Jr.), only his brother Brandon Harris. Those guys played really hard for those two guys, and it was noticeable that they were a different football team last Saturday. So I'm excited to see our guys just get back to work.”
On running back Cameron Skattebo’s work ethic and current status for UCF:
“He's completely changed his work ethic and his mindset. He's always had that dog in him on game day and that competitiveness on game day…We've had some fun conversations and we've had some not fun conversations, but it's out of respect for each other and he's grown and he's the best version of himself right now. He's actually doubtful but questionable for the game this week, so we'll see how that transpires. He's not going to practice this week. He went out at the end of the game there with an undisclosed injury. But whether he plays or not plays in the football game, he's going to make an impact on our football team because he's one of the leaders of the team.”
On how running back Cameron Skattebo sets an example for the team:
“When you have guys who just play really hard and physical, I think everybody has to match that…People emulate what your best players allow to happen on the practice field. He's just done such a phenomenal job setting his own standard for himself to be a way better player than he was last year. To be honest, he's unrecognizable in my eyes from this year to last year. Two or three of those big plays he scored on this last game may not have happened last year. This version does because he takes extra care and because he puts in the work to get his body in the best shape of his life. We're going to do whatever is in the best interest of him, and whatever we can to get him healthy and get him back as soon as possible.”
On running back Kyson Brown’s performance against Oklahoma State and him stepping up against UCF:
“I thought Kyson (Brown) did a phenomenal job breaking tackles on the first touchdown run. He broke a tackle, then ran through another tackle. He ran like a bigger back, which is what I was most pleased with in the game. It was the most touches he's got in the game, the biggest workload he's got and he stayed fresh throughout it. He's extremely hard on himself which is what you want to see. He was the only guy who wasn't celebrating after the game because he let the ball go for a quarter of a second on the goal line. He was just so mad at himself for doing that. And that's what you want your football team to be filled with…We've won the game, he had two touchdowns and he just can't get that one play out of his mind. But that's why he's where he's at, and I'm excited for him and obviously some other guys wanted to step up as well.”
On his pitch for running back Cameron Skattebo to be in the Heisman conversation:
“He's been a big part of a huge change in a program…If you're talking about a guy who's impactful on a team, this is a guy who was arguably the most impactful person on a team that won three games last year. He helped transform a team. Not just on the field with his play, but with the mindset, the work ethic, the physicality and the toughness. He helped transform an organization, and I think that's powerful. I think it's really hard to put that into a statistical category. I think everybody can look at the stats that he puts up, but they don't look at him sprinting down the field on kickoff. They don't look at him sprinting on the screen pass to Melquan Stovall and being the guy in front of Melquan. All of those things add to him being the value to the football team. It’s not just the stats, it's all the other stuff too. I say you combine the stats with the mindset of our football team, and he's one of the people that we take the mindset after. Then you combine that with how far the program has come and I think all that should add to his resume.”
On “Next Man Up” mentality:
"I wish we preached on that. Just be your very best all the time. Whether you're the starter, whether you're the second string, whether you're the third string. Every day, you wake up, you choose to be miserable, you choose to be happy for the most part. You choose to work hard, you choose to be lazy, you choose to get better, you choose to not. Just do all the good things of what I just said over and over again. If you do that, then when your time comes, you're going to be ready for your opportunity and if you don't, then you won't. It's pretty simple. Whether you're the starter or the fourth string guy, just be the very best version of yourself every single day and repeat and repeat and repeat."
On the secondary:
"We played a little bit more man-coverage the last few games. I don't know if that trend is going to continue this week. That's been based on who we played. So this week is a little bit different, changing at quarterback and what they do offensively. So we don't know if that will continue, but those guys have just stepped up and they're really smart guys. Both of those kids you just mentioned (LT Welch and Keith Abney) are two of the smartest football savvy players in our football team. It's amazing how successful people can be when you're smart and you understand splits and you understand routes and you understand when guys lower their pad level. All the fundamentals that go into the game that you would think are normal for people to understand, very few people can actually take that to the field and apply it. You can talk about it in the meeting room, but then being able to apply it when teams are playing fast or a tempo is kudos to those guys and they're both really good players."
On defensive back Laterrence Welch:
"Yeah, (Welch) is one of our energy guys. So anytime one of your energy guys plays really well and gets that opportunity and has success, people feed off of it. So it was great from that perspective and it just showed the work, the work, the work he hasn't complained one time this year, not once. He had some injuries early, he came back, lost his spot, been battling back and our corners have been playing well. He started to get back in the rotation, got his opportunity and played really well. What else could you want? Especially for a guy that brings great energy and he's brought it every single day. That's why I gave him a game ball. It was awesome to see a guy like that really embrace his moment and make the best of it."
On how difficult it is to prepare for UCF’s defense given the changes in play callers:
"Very. Especially when they play a game where the game is basically over at halftime and it's like, ‘Ok, well, what were they trying to actually do in the game?’ You don't know because I only played really a half of football from that perspective so it’s very difficult. You're kind of going in blind to any rhythm of a play caller on both sides of the ball. You hope that they keep some trends the same. You have to be ready for their own flair and you have to dig back into their history and say, ‘Ok, this guy is going to go outside of the comfort zone of the last coordinator, the last play caller. What were his go-to’s that he would be the first thing he put in.’ So you got to do a little bit of digging into the history and I worked with Addison Williams at Auburn with Gus (Malzahn). He actually worked on the offensive side of the ball. He and I worked hand in hand. We were partners in crime over there all the time together. So he's been in the quarterback room before. He's been in my quarterback room before. We've been in it together. We worked on game plans together. We were very close and now he's on the defensive side of the ball. And then we have coach (David) Gibbs who was on their defensive staff who's now on the offensive side of the ball. So it's kind of funny that I kind of took that model from Gus of having a defensive guy on the offensive side of the ball, which is a trend in the NFL now anyways. But, I'm excited. Addison is a phenomenal football coach, I firmly believe that. I think he's a head coach in the making over there. He's phenomenal. His family is awesome. He's a great person. He's a really good coach. He's super intelligent. He's going to have some things for us that we’ve got to be ready for."
On the team’s leadership council:
"Well, first, I didn't choose anybody. It's 100% player picked. Some people don't like that model because they say, ‘Well, you're going to get somebody who's just popular on the council.’ And my rebuttal is if he's popular, he has a voice, then we want that guy believing in the vision, right? You don't just want the teacher's pets being the leaders of your football team because only certain guys are going to respond to those guys. You've got to get a football team and a vote of your team of who they want to lead them and let those guys lead them. I can't pick who's going to lead a team. So, not everybody agrees with that, but that's just my belief."
On most important lessons learned during time with UCF Head Coach Gus Malzahn:
"I think the number one is the leadership council. I felt the leadership council, when I was at Auburn with him, was that I really felt like every time he left that leadership council meeting, you had a much better beat on the football team. Sometimes when you're a head coach, you can kind of lose a beat on your team at times. I thought that the council did a really good job for him at the time saying, “Hey, our guys are beat up. We need to slow it down a little bit.” or “Hey, this kid needs to be loved up.” “Hey, you can't yell at this guy or get on this guy again, like he's going through some things.” I just think that the Council was so big and it may have been done in the past when I was a GA. But, once I got to a point where I could really be on the inter-conversation of how things worked, I’ve never been on a staff that did that and I thought it was really, really good and it's something that I knew I always wanted to do. So I would say that the number one thing I took away was the ability to have a beat on your team by having a leadership council who can really set your standard and really be your voice to really get a shared vision of what you want to look like.
On changing preparation before facing Gus Malzahn:
"It doesn't really [change]. Everybody knows Gus is going to run inside the zone. That's not a secret. That's what they do and he probably does it better arguably than anybody in the country. I was around him coaching it and teaching it, that's what they believe in. I think that's what's made him successful. Other people are going to come in and give him ideas. “Oh, we need to run outside.” “Oh, we need to do this.” “We need to do that.” All these ideas and it was just awesome listening to him saying, “No, this is what we do. We're going to do it, I don't care what you do, it's going to work because our guys know where to fit the run.” If your front side of the zone plays too tight, the ball's going to bounce. Most tight zone teams don't do that. Most tight zone teams have a backside track. His tight zone does not. It can hit anywhere and that's unique. One thing I learned from him is to have an identity for what you want and buy into that. That's something that he's done his entire career. That’s something that I'm trying to create here. It may not be the same identity, but that mindset of people are going to know who we are. I think there's some power to that and I think that's why he's been so successful for so long."
On how positive momentum can contribute to roster retention:
“When it comes to roster retention, I'll be honest, good and bad. The more you win, the more people want your players, the more money they're going to pay them. So we need to fundraise more money. That's just the nature of the beast. The more you lose, the less people want your players, the less they're going to pay them. It’s the nature of the beast. So every time we win, just understand, we need to raise more money to be able to retain our players after the season ends. I will say, I think our players want to be here. I think if our players had their pick on where they want to be, I think this is where they want to be. I asked our leadership council last week who's kind of thinking about what happens in four weeks. They’re like, ‘not many people,’ we're all about right now. I think that's what makes this group exciting and awesome is they want to be here. But at the same token, this is still somewhat of a business from their perspective and the more you win, the more people are going to come calling them and the higher the price warrant is going to be. And us as a fan base, us as Arizona State, the university, everybody has to step up to be ready to, to be ready to push the chips in come December.”
On the upcoming offseason being the last one before the NCAA settles in granting athlete compensation:
“I think that's the exciting part. I've been telling people - at least our donors, for a long time that NIL is not a marathon, it's a race. This is an 18 month race. That's what I said last year and now it's coming to fruition. I kinda got lucky, but it's what I believe is an 18 month race and we're in the last 100 of this 400, like we're right there. If we can just retain our roster. And I think the guys want to be here. They want to be Sun Devils. They're happy here. They're proud to be here. They take some pride in doing what they've done in getting this place back in the right direction - not where we want to be yet, but in the right direction. If we as an alumni, a fan base and institution can back that and support that, I think we can retain the roster through when this new court case closes. And then I think we'll be able to compete with anybody in the country when we get to that point. But, it is a challenge for the next four months and we have to find a way to get these guys where they should be in my opinion, fairly and what they deserve. That's really what I'm going to be focused on here on Thursday nights, Wednesday nights and this off season early, is how do we make sure we retain our roster because people want players who win.”
On how tablets helped the team study film during the delay:
“It was awesome. I mean, it was for both teams…I think it really just came down to the Whataburger we ate. Hopefully Whataburger will give somebody an NIL deal. Too bad we didn't have Sam's wraps in Oklahoma City. We could have bought some Sam's wraps from Cold Beers and Cheeseburgers, but that was too far away to get ordered for the halftime. But maybe next rain delay we can get some of that ordered.”