Top Takeaways From Kenny Dillingham’s Week 9 Presser
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TEMPE -- In today's episode of the Arizona State Sun Devils Insider Podcast, we take a look at what head coach Kenny Dillingham had to say in his week nine press conference ahead of a key home matchup against the Houston Cougars.
To listen to today's podcast, view below.
Below is a partial transcript of Dillingham's talk with media from a recent availability.
On Injury Situation for ASU
“Yeah, I mean, Zyrus (Fiaseu) is going to be out for the year, season ending surgery. Unfortunately, you know, X (Xavion Alford) is, you know, significant is going to be out for a significant more time. Hopefully, we'll find a way to get him back at the end of the season, but he'll be out for a significant amount of time.
Unfortunately, Ben Coleman is going to be out for the year, which is unfortunate… And you know, there's some other guys I don't want to comment on yet, just because it's Monday, so I don't quite have a strong of a grasp on that. Now, those are the like the new guys are the guys that you know, kind of back and forth. So I'll have more of an update here, you know, tonight for me, Tuesday/Wednesday for y’all.”
On Possibility for Fiaseu Redshirt
“100% Yeah. I mean, he had surgery, so we'll file the waiver, and we'll go from there. So 100% it's a great question, very knowledgeable question.”
On Run Defense Moving Forward
“I told the guys, we've been one of the best run defenses in the country for a year and a half. That's our culture. If we're gonna let one game dictate our culture, right? Like, I don't know, like we got to stay true to what we have proven to do in the last 17 games, or not the 18th or the last 17. In the last 17 games, we've usually won a lot of scrimmage, majority of the majority of the game. We've won a lot of scrimmage, if you can't let one game versus a team that runs a triple option, that did a phenomenal job in that triple option, affect how we play football.”
On Next Man Up Mentality
“Well, just because you know next man up, that doesn't mean you're going to get the equal production. Next man up is not like players are players. They're people. Some have better skill sets than others at certain things. So the term next man up is just the term of, yeah, that's the new guy. Let's Let's rock and roll in terms of, like, how they go about their business, repairing that's where the leaders can really step up. Like, hey, we need you to come up on this day…”
Read more on why the Arizona State men's basketball team will exceed expectations in the 2025-26 season here, and on three major takeaways from the win over Texas Tech here.
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Kevin Hicks is an Arizona State alumni and now serves as the Arizona State Beat Writer On SI.