Kenny Dillingham on loss to Utah: 'They beat us as a whole program'

Utes pummel Sun Devils in all three phases of the game for 42-10 win from Rice-Eccles Stadium

Arizona State Sun Devils head coach Kenny Dillingham and his team suffered their first 30-point loss since November 2023 in 42-10 loss to Utah Utes. | Jacob Reiner-Imagn Images

Arizona State has rarely been outclassed on the field during Kenny Dillingham's three seasons as its head coach.

However, a road trip to take on Utah without his starting quarterback available made for the perfect storm — both literally and figuratively.

As heavy rainfall drenched Rice-Eccles Stadium, the Utes leaned on their stout run game to overpower the Sun Devils from start to finish, pummeling the visitors in the trenches with a dynamic rushing attack that was spearheaded by Devon Dampier.

The junior quarterback carried the ball 10 times for 120 yards and scored three of his team's six touchdowns with his legs, powering Utah to a 42-10 victory over Arizona State on Saturday.

"They just out-coached us, out-played us and absolutely whooped our butt," Dillingham said after the game. "I mean, it's the first time we've really gotten whooped like that in a long time."

Indeed, the Sun Devils hadn't sustained a blowout loss of that magnitude since Dillingham's first year at the helm, when they lost three of their last four games of the 2023 campaign by an average margin of 41.3 points (including a 55-3 defeat to the Utes). Arizona State was on the other side of that coin for much of the 2024 season, with only two losses in the regular season by a combined 18 points.

But without Sam Leavitt under center, the Sun Devils couldn't establish much of a rhythm offensively against the Utes, and the defense couldn't stop the run game on the other side. Those two deficiencies led to Arizona State's first loss in league play in nearly a full calendar year, snapping an eight-game winning streak while breaking Utah's five-game home skid against Big 12 opponents.

Here's more from Dillingham's postgame press conference.

On what made Utah's offense so difficult to defend

"Their triple option; they put in a big O-lineman as their tight end, and they say, 'we're going to move you the other direction.' And they moved us the other direction. Then we have to tackle them; they did a really good job tackling. And then they do a good job schematically. They read our three technique on a play that scored a touchdown. They haven't shown to do that. It was called midline, and that's a coaching touchdown."

"Good scheme by them, they got us. That's going to happen. They did some really good things. I mean, they beat us as a whole program."

On whether the blocked field goal was a turning point in the game

"Yeah, it was a turning point, 100%. I mean, we're about to go down eight [points]. We're about to kick the ball off; one score game if we do that, and kick the ball off, hopefully get a stop, maybe not. Even if we don't, we're only down two possessions going into the half from that perspective."

"So yeah, that was absolutely catastrophic change in the game that really flipped everything."

On what he saw from Utah's O-line

"Forty-two rushes, 276 yards — that's pretty good. When coach Whittingham says that's the best O-line he's had, I mean, that tells you all you need to know. And firsthand, I mean, I haven't played them all; but, man, that was a good one, and this scheme suits them, with the triple and the plus one runs."

"They're a hard team to stop. And I was just really, really impressed with how they played. And you got to give them a lot of credit. I mean, that's a really, really good football team."

On what surprised him most about the outcome

"It was a lot of missed tackles on the defensive side of the ball — that was what surprised me. We haven't been a team that's missed a lot of tackles, so I don't know why we missed a lot of tackles, and you got to give credit to them for breaking tackles, too. But we just missed a lot of tackles. I think part of it was the triple option stuff. You got to be fitted perfectly, so maybe, we had too many calls going into the game potentially, and guys weren't playing as fast or as comfortable as they have. I don't know. I'm just kind of throwing thoughts out there as to why, but that's definitely been something that we've been good at, is blocking and tackling in the last year and a half here."

"That's been a strength, and to just be dominated like that on both sides of the ball and special teams; I mean, they jumped our guard/ snapper to block a kick too. So in all three phases, just to get out-physicaled like that, I gotta look at myself to see what have I done different, which is allowing that to happen."