TEMPE — A 42-10 loss like the one Arizona State suffered at Utah warrants some reflecting, but Kenny Dillingham said it hasn’t caused a change in approach.
“I believe in who we are,” Dillingham said Monday. “I know external people have their own opinions on where we should be and all that, but I have my own opinions as well, and I’m happy with where we’re at.”
He said he hopes the blowout loss was an isolated incident, and based on the Sun Devils’ last 20 games, it was.
ASU (4-2, 2-2) lost by double digits one other time across those 19 games. That was also a game without starting quarterback Sam Leavitt on the road, a 10-point loss at Cincinnati last season.
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“Regardless of who’s playing … the goal is to go play our best football,” Dillingham said. “It doesn’t matter what the expectations are. How do we play our best football? We didn’t do that last week.”
Some of the shortcomings in the Utah loss were the same ones that have bitten the team all year, such as finishing drives on offense. The Sun Devils scored three points across the first three drives — two of which included 34 plays combined — and 10 points on four red zone trips.
Others issues were new and not at all tied to backup quarterback Jeff Sims, such as the 276 rushing yards given up, including 120 to Utah quarterback Devon Dampier, after ASU held teams to 78.2 per game over the first five contests.
More tackling preparation in practice may come as a result, Dillingham said.
He added ASU is “playing with house money compared to last year” because it has a chance to reach 3-1 in conference play after starting 2-2 in 2024. Achieving that would mean Arizona State next week beats a Texas Tech team that’s second nationally in points per game (47.5) and seventh in points allowed per game (12.2).
Arizona State’s 1st half relative to expectations
Depending on what measure of external expectations you like best, ASU has had mixed results with half of 2025 in the books.
The Sun Devils have taken a tumble from their preseason AP ranking of 11th down to out of the poll, back in and back out, but they’re roughly on track for their projected win total of 8.5.
While some projections had ASU headed back to the College Football Playoff, there were also less optimistic examples, such as a nine-writer panel at CBS Sports where as many panelists had ASU outside the conference’s top three as making the title game (two).
The hopes of making that title game now likely hinge on this Saturday at home against Texas Tech, with uncertain statuses for both starting quarterbacks hanging over the week.
“There’s expectations at Arizona State that used to not be here. That is great,” Dillingham said. “Like, I would much rather people be pissed off at being 4-2 than people be singing and parading around the city. Like, this is a great expectation that we’re creating.
“With that comes handling expectations ’cause it’s nearly impossible to consistently reach expectations. It’s very, very difficult to every year hit the expectations set ’cause they should be set so high if you set it correctly.”
Catch ASU-Texas Tech at 1 p.m. MST on Saturday on 98.7 and the Arizona Sports app. It will be televised on FOX.
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