Kenny Dillingham Elaborates On What Arizona State Needs to Improve

The Sun Devils have to clean up certain areas ahead of week seven against Utah.

Sep 26, 2025; Tempe, Arizona, USA; Arizona State Sun Devils quarterback Sam Leavitt (10) celebrates with head coach Kenny Dillingham after win against TCU Horned Frogs at Mountain America Stadium, Home of the ASU Sun Devils. Mandatory Credit: Jacob Reiner-Imagn Images | Jacob Reiner-Imagn Images

TEMPE -- Arizona State football is off to an undeniably strong start in the 2025 campaign - sitting at 4-1. This is despite a week two loss against Mississippi State and two Big 12 showings that came down to the wire.

The Sun Devil program will take every victory they can get while moving into the heart of the conference schedule, but there are areas of the team that still must be addressed.

Head coach Kenny Dillingham spoke about what the team has to work on ahead of the massive week seven road battle against the Utah Utes following Tuesday's practice.

What Dillingham had to say:

"Finally, score points in the red zone. Prepare for Utah on defense. It's clean up some of our our presentations. Clean up some of our third and long second and long plays, we're giving up too many of those second and catastrophic, third and catastrophic. So I would say that would be probably the primary for us. And then just go back if we're self scouting things to make sure we don't have strong tendencies one way or another, and if we do, we got to break those tendencies."

The major focus of the week for Dillingham is to continue to be able to manage first and second down situations to place the offense into the best situations possible - rather than having to dial up predictable play-calls in long-distance scenarios.

• Part of the battle is finding ways to open up the field for Sam Leavitt - allowing the dump-off or checkdown to be a legitimate option if the first read or two go awry. The Sun Devils have started slow offensively in three of five contests to start the year - while the unit appeared to be hitting a stride in the victory over Texas Christian, there is still room to grow into the elite offense that many believed would be tangibly visible at this point of the season.

First down situations, playing the game script right, avoiding costly yard loss (including penalties), and finding receivers not named Jordyn Tyson are all potentially vital ways to jump-start the offense early in games - the need for that is as high as ever with a pair of games against great defenses right around the corner.

Read more on major takeaways from Arizona State's clutch-time victory over TCU here, and more on why Arizona State fans should be feeling confident about the outlook of the season following the win here.

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