Arizona State Head Coach Kenny Dillingham Postgame Press Conference
Saturday, August 30, 2025
Opening statement
“We won a football game, which is a positive. You got to be able to show up, stop short yardage runs. That was not a positive, and we can't have 12 penalties for 93 yards that cost us probably an additional 170 yards, 150 yards of total yardage. So when you look at it all, if you just removed the penalties, it is 200 yards different right now and we got to get that cleaned up. That starts with me. I'm the end all be all when it comes to stuff like that. We've had officials at every practice. We haven't had that amount of holding calls in all of camp that we had tonight, and we got to get that cleaned up.”

On Sam Leavitt’s performance
“Sam's hard on himself. Sam's going to be his hardest critic. That's just who Sam is. He's never going to be satisfied, but he had a really good football game. He had some really good checks early, getting us into the right plays, extended plays, and some unbelievable throws into the pressures that we were struggling picking up. So I thought he played well and I think he's only going to continue to play better as the season progresses.”

On the running back core throughout the game
“You saw some explosive plays, one of them got called back, but that's what we saw in camp. We are looking for a couple of those plays that don't get called back and like I said, the dynamic of this game is different, right? That's the best part about this game. A few things go in a different direction and it's a whole different feeling and a whole different game, right? But I like where that room is at.”

On Jordyn Tyson’s first game back after injury
"He's grown up as a person. He has drastically grown up as a person, and I couldn't be more proud of him. He studies ball at a high rate, he comes up and gets extra, he takes care of his body. He's a true pro, so I'm very blessed that I get to coach him because he's a special player and a special person.”

On how the special teams units performed
“We gave up that one big kick return right to the field. They pinned us there. Other than that, we played well. We had a few punts that flipped the field, you know. I had a play we called back on that punt on the 56-yard line, it probably should have called a normal punt. That's why the coverage unit wasn't great on the punt there in the 2nd quarter. But other than that, I thought our special was quite great. We had a blocked punt, had a fake pump converted, so I thought they were plus positive in the football game when it's all said and done.”

On what he thought on NAU’s ‘exotic’ defensive schemes
“Anytime that I don't think we play up to our performance, it's on me. At the end of the day, I feel everything that happens in this program falls on me. So if I feel like we're not operating at an optimum level, that's my fault, and I have to find ways to fix that. Regardless of whether it's a special-teams issue, an effort issue or they just had a really good plan against us and we didn’t fix it as quickly as I would have liked, whenever we don't play as well as I want, I put it on myself because I believe that's where the responsibility should be.” 

On how some of the communication issues can be ironed out on defense
“We’ve got to hone in on it all. I told the guys, one of our emphases after our spring scrimmage at camp was holding outside the framework of our body. Even though we weren't getting it called a lot in practice, I could feel it, and I made holding an emphasis. Obviously, we didn't place a big enough emphasis on that. I didn't place a big enough emphasis to get it fixed — we as a staff didn't place a big enough emphasis to get it fixed. Anytime there's consistently the same problem, you can't look at other people. You’ve got to say, ‘OK, multiple people are doing the same thing; it's not a them problem, it's a me problem,’ and we've got to look at how we're coaching it and how we're drilling it to try to get it fixed."

Arizona State Quarterback Sam Leavitt Postgame Press Conference:
Saturday, August 30, 2025
Opening statement
“We did some good things, we have to go back and address the holdings and take better care of the ball, and on my end as well. With the accountability that we have as a team, I'm not worried about it. We're going to come back and go to work and figure out all the little things. I'm excited to go back to work.”

On developing his running abilities
“I know that I can run, and the biggest thing was just not taking off too predetermined from last year. I felt like that was one thing I extended well while pushing the ball down the field, which is one thing I really wanted to work on. I was proud of myself for that.”

On communicating with the offensive substitutions
“We got a bunch of depth in all of our rooms, so I'm not too worried about it.  When a new guy comes in and gets acclimated to the game. It's their first reps, so it’s about dialing them in, whether it's protections or what the play calls are, my voice, things along those lines. (OL) Wade (Helton) came into the game and did a really good job.” 

On Jordyn Tyson’s second touchdown catch
“I was pretty shocked he got that. That was a hell of a catch, probably one of the best catches I've seen in a while live, props to him for that.” 

On the importance of fan and student attendance
"We need that, and thinking about the games last year, the juice of the crowd changes the momentum of things and makes it harder for the other team to get the play call and the snap. It impacts everything, and congrats to Coach Dillingham for getting it to jump like that. It was pretty cool to come out here for game one against NAU and see that.”

On what grade he would give himself and the offense
“I'll say for myself a C+, maybe a B-. Offensively, I'd say like a B.”

Arizona State Wide Receiver Jordyn Tyson
Saturday, August 30, 2025
On his second touchdown catch of the night
“I actually worked on that catch. I feel like I mastered that catch when I was a kid and I never had the opportunity to really do it on the field until now. So just me and my trainer, worked on ball skills.”

On the versatility of moving around different spots on the field as a receiver
“To be honest I was short when I was a freshman and as a sophomore, so I played in the slot and I was always in the slot. So now I got taller and now I played outside and slot and just worked on the outside thing. It kind of went hand-in-hand like that.”

Arizona State Linebacker Jordan Crook
Saturday, August 30, 2025
On accessing the defensive performance tonight
“I think it was a solid performance but not to our standard just to be honest. I feel like we have a lot more to show. There were too many penalties but it was good to see everybody coming out there flying around. In my opinion, I think everybody else on the defense knows that is not our standard.”

On the biggest lessons they can take from tonight and apply to next week
“The same thing we have been honing in on. Just communication. Just being in the right place at the right time. Just making sure calls getting relayed and things like that.”