Everything Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham said Monday

Arizona State's head coach Kenny Dillingham met with local media in Arizona to talk about his team's week one win against Northern Arizona and also previewed this week's game against Mississippi State in Starkville.

However, what'll catch most people's attention is Dillingham's claim there isn't a hotel that isn't a casino closer than an hour away from Starkville. Perhaps even more blasphemous was his suggestion it'll be hard to find "good food" for some of his finicky eaters.

Here's everything else he said, too:

"That's not even a joke."

Yes, it was a joke, just one that he realized wasn't that funny. Here's a better one:

Why did the Sun Devil cross the road?
Because even the chicken knew there was a hotel around the corner from the stadium.
— Mississippi State On SI (@DawgsonSI) September 1, 2025

Kenny, now that you’ve had more time to watch the film, how do you feel about the game?

Penalties killed us. And just like I thought, we struggled with some of the tags and what they were doing defensively. That’s good football—we don’t see much of that against our own defense, so it was different.

The best part is we get to go fix it this week. We’re going to practice chaos—because that’s what they do. They’re sound, but they thrive on being unconventional. We saw both three-down and four-down fronts in camp, but now I know we need to schedule a couple days in camp against schemes that are just “crazy by nature.” We’ll spend time working on chaos and getting better at it.

How did Ben Coleman handle his first game at center? And what’s his status, along with others who might be out?

Ben snapped well all night—no catastrophic mistakes. For a first start, that’s good. I felt bad for him, though. He’s in his sixth year of college football, and the first time he gets to make mic points and play center, we throw him something we’d never really shown him. So we’ve got to prepare guys better for that in camp. But he’s good to go—no issues there. As for injuries, Watley’s being evaluated. Usually at this point in the week, I don’t know for sure yet. I’ll know by tomorrow. Sometimes things show up Monday that weren’t there right after the game, but so far nothing else has popped up.

With your SEC coaching experience, how would you describe the culture down there and the environment you’ll face this week?

Cowbells, baby. It’s going to be fun. They love their football. They’ll be out there at 9 a.m. for a 6:30 p.m. kickoff. We showed here Saturday that we love football too. I think I saw we had 105–106% capacity. Don’t know if that’s accurate, but it was online so I’ll say it. Either way, this place loves football, and so do they. It’ll be a great environment for their first home game.

Looking back at the film, do you feel like you should’ve leaned on the run game more to combat the chaos you mentioned?

Yeah, I told Coach Arroyo I wanted to throw it around a little bit, and that was our plan. We did early and had some success, but we also had two big passing plays called back for penalties—about 140 yards worth. If those count, we’re talking about Sam setting a career record with 420 passing yards. That’s football: one play or one penalty can change the narrative. But yes, 100%, when you face chaos, you need to run into it, not away from it. We faced the same thing at Texas State. That’s on me.

Mississippi State put up almost 500 yards of offense last week, nearly 200 on the ground. How different is this year’s team compared to last year’s?

Completely different. They’ve added over 30 transfers and eight JUCO guys—about 40 veterans. That’s not even counting their high school class. So 65–70% of their team is new. You can already see Coach Lebby’s identity showing up, the passion he brings. They still have some good returners, but this is a very different team.

Why didn’t Jaron Hamilton see much action? Was it blocking, playbook, or something else?

It was more about the flow of the game. The plan was for him to play more, but when Jalen went down, that shifted things. They’re different types of players, so our substitution patterns got thrown off. Nothing intentional—we just need to find more ways to use Jaron when the situation fits.

And was Max OK?

We’re still monitoring him. Players get checked out Sunday and again Monday, and I don’t usually get final reports until later tonight when we finalize the game plan. That’s when I’ll know who’s high probability or low probability for this week.

You complimented Blake Shapen a lot last year, then your defense went after him hard. How are you approaching him now, a year later?

He’s in year two of the system, and you can see he’s more comfortable. The whole team looks more settled. You can’t just run the same plan twice against a good quarterback. If we try to copy-paste last year’s approach, it won’t work. We’ll have to adjust.

Last week you prepared the team for humidity with humidifiers in the dome. Will you tailor practice environments week to week?

We’ll definitely prep for environments—like having cowbells at practice this week—but not humidity every time. That’s too hard on the players physically. At the end of the day, the focus is on us: coaching better, executing better, fixing mistakes. I showed the players my errors, showed them our errors as a group, and now it’s about correcting them and moving forward.

You used a fake punt early and had a few other unique special teams plays. What did you take away from that phase in Week 1?

I thought special teams were explosive overall. They had one big return against us—credit to them, it was a great scheme. They doubled our field-five player, which we hadn’t seen before, and it popped. We’ll be ready for that look now. Other than that, I thought we played really well. We flipped the field, hit a fake punt, blocked a punt. My one big mistake was calling a “backed-up punt” on the minus-five. That gave them extra yardage. Next time, we punted regular and boomed it 60 yards. So that’s on me. But overall, I liked what I saw.

On a follow-up to that, how does Week 1 allow you and your staff to get more comfortable in your scheme and grow into the season?

Every team is different. Even when you return a lot of players, it’s still different. Some guys handle adjustments on game day better than others. Some need to master one thing rather than try to handle everything. Early in the season, you’re still learning what this team does best.

I hate early-season games. I’ve said that before. They’re hard because as a coach you don’t feel like you can prepare your players as well as you can later in the year. There are too many unknowns. That’s why I prefer when you get into the “meat and potatoes” of the season. Early games feel like chasing ghosts—you watch every bit of film, and then the opponent still shows something you’ve never seen. Adjusting on the fly can be exciting, but it’s tough.

Where have you seen Keith Abney grow the most from when you first brought him in? What does he bring to the team now?

Honestly, he’s about 20 pounds heavier. Physically, that’s been the biggest change. He’s always been a hard worker, smart, and savvy. Now his body is bigger, and with more reps, he recognizes offensive formations quicker, which helps him align better. His size, speed, and athleticism have really elevated.

Last year, one of the lasting images from the Mississippi State game was X leaving it all on the field with 260 rushing yards. Going on the road this year without Cam, what have you seen that gives you confidence your guys still have that mentality?

We’ve got to show it in practice first, then bring it to the games. At the end of the day, how badly you want something matters. What you put in is what you’ll get out.

We had a lighter camp because of all the vets we have. So that first game didn’t shock me—it’s partly on me for easing up. But surviving that kind of game hopefully helps us get back to playing with passion. That intensity is key.

You mentioned NAU’s exotic defenses. Sam Levitt graded himself a “B” or “C.” What’s your evaluation?

Other than one play, he had a really good game. He’s hard on himself—he’ll say he played terrible, but that’s the standard you want from a quarterback. He saw looks you don’t usually see and handled it well. Even when pressure got through, he stayed composed. His ability to adapt on game day is one of his biggest strengths.

You stressed communication last week. How important will that be against Mississippi State?

It’s critical. They play so fast that if you don’t get lined up right away, you’re in trouble. You’ve got to know the call, who’s covering the verticals, who’s fitting the run, all of it. If you blow one assignment, it’s a touchdown.

What did you make of the dynamic between Kyson and Relique, with Kanye also mixing in?

I thought all three played well. They ran hard, broke tackles, and gave us positive plays. We probably should’ve leaned more on direct, downhill runs—that’s our identity, and we need to stick with it.

After watching film, how did you feel about communication on the field?

The effort was there, but sometimes it wasn’t correct communication. That’s on me. You can’t expect players to make seven adjustments in one game. If that happens, you didn’t coach well enough.

We need to practice in more chaotic situations. Same thing happened early last season—we didn’t handle it great until a few weeks in. Hopefully we learn faster this time.

The Big 12 went 8–0 this weekend with dominant wins. How do you embrace playing in such a competitive league?

It’s ultra-competitive. Every game can go either way. At other places, you could circle some games as likely wins. Here, you can’t do that. It’s what makes the league both fun and brutal—you never know what’ll happen.

What do you do in practice to prepare for Mississippi State’s tempo?

We’ll run two huddles—one goes, then the other immediately follows. Our defense has to get lined up quickly. We can’t play at that tempo ourselves, but practicing against it forces communication. If you misalign even once, they’ll take advantage and score.

How has your staff’s approach to road games evolved, especially with the logistics that fans might not even think about?

So interesting is now that we play in a lot smaller towns, we play further away from stadiums, our road games. So, we stay about an hour and 20, hour and 15 minutes away from the stadium this week because that's the nearest hotel that's not a casino uh to stay at. Uh, no, that's the truth. That's that some teams stay at the casino. That wasn't even a joke. Uh, but uh it's just the nearest hotel.

Another challenge is food. Some guys are picky eaters, and sometimes the hotel food isn’t great. At Texas Tech last year, about 10 players got sick from the food on game day. We had guys getting IVs because of it. I’ve never even said that before, but it was a big lesson.

Now we make sure to provide backup options—sandwiches, burgers, something familiar—so if a player doesn’t like the main meal, they still have something reliable to eat. You’re talking about pregame and night-before meals, and if they don’t eat well for that long, it matters.

In bigger cities like Seattle, feeding 160 people is easy. In smaller towns, it’s much harder. So we’ve had to adapt, learn, and grow with each experience.