Kenny Dillingham Discusses Utah, Player Health Updates, More
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TEMPE -- Arizona State head coach Kenny Dillingham spoke with media in his weekly scheduled press conference on Monday - discussing the upcoming Utah matchup, player health, and more.
To watch the full press conference, view below.
Below is a partial transcript of the lengthy conversation between Dillingham and media.
On Preparing for Utah in Bye Week
“We just wanted to get better at what we need to get better at the areas we need to get better at. Hopefully we improve. I think that was the goal of the bye week, and then also get a jump start on Utah, because obviously, they're a really good football team. You know, they're one losses to a top 10 team in the country, and they could have easily won that football game. I mean, it was one possession game in the fourth quarter. They had a touchdown called back for illegal man downfield in the first quarter. That was an irrelevant penalty. It was a flag, but it was irrelevant to the shot play. So it really could have been a tie game in the fourth quarter, versus number 8/9 in the country. So really good football team, and I think we tried to fix our mistakes, and then, you know, get ready.”
On Rebounding From 2023 Loss to Utah
“I mean, it's we definitely pointed out that the last time we played here, it was really bad. And it's a tough environment. I mean, tough environment, there's 50, 60% chance of thunderstorms, rains, rain. We could hit a delay. We have an 815, kickoff that could also be delayed. We may be playing this game at 10 P.M. 10:30, I mean, that's not a far fetched scenario based off the weather report, and it doesn't matter when we play it or where we play it, we're gonna play a really good football team with a great crowd, and we gotta be ready to go play a physical brand of football. We gotta be able to do all the little things, right?”
On Utah QB Devon Dampier
“He's a really, really good football player. He's a tough guy to tackle. Gets the ball fast, and he just does a lot of things well, which is why he won a lot of games at Saguaro High School. So kudos to him. I'm happy for him. I mean, my brother in law coached him, was his quarterback coach, Jason Mohns was his head coach. So even though we're playing him this week, I got a lot of respect for him, his game, how he plays, how he goes about his business, and how he continues to prove people wrong, and that's a chip on his shoulder. So I got nothing but respect for him, and I wish him luck the rest of the way.”
On Potential Returns From Injury
“Other than (Jalen) Moss is back - he’ll be back for the game. Zac Swanson will more than likely be out. And trying to think, you know, X (Alford) will be out for the game. Other than that, not many other guys that have a status change.”
On Finding Ways to Start Games Better
“Yeah, we just got to start faster. We got to have better plans early, and we made an emphasis of it in our team meeting this morning. We got to start practice faster, like we got to have an urgency when we start this time. So we're going to change some things up, not a bunch, but, you know, make little tweaks to try to, you know, create some urgency at the start practice, because it is taking us a while to get into our rhythm. And, you know, we can't fall behind 17 points and expect to win many games.”
Read more about Arizona State basketball coach Bobby Hurley speaking directly to fans ahead of the start of the 2025 season here, and on previewing key individual Utah players ahead of the Sun Devil football game on Saturday here.
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Kevin Hicks is an Arizona State alumni and now serves as the Arizona State Beat Writer On SI.