What Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham said about Oklahoma State matchup
The Arizona State football team heads to Stillwater, Oklahoma, this week with a chance to become bowl eligible for the first time since 2021.
It would be a significant step forward for Kenny Dillingham's program, especially considering the Sun Devils went 3-9 last season and were picked to finish last in the Big 12.
Dillingham said redshirt freshman quarterback Sam Leavitt "should be back" behind center for Arizona State (5-2, 2-2) on Saturday. Here are the highlights of Dillingham's press conference ahead of Saturday's Big 12 matchup with Oklahoma State (3-5, 0-5).
Dillingham on Leavitt's availability after suffering a rib injury in the win over Utah on Oct. 11:
"Sam should be back, but it's still 60-40, 70-30 that he'll play this week," Dilingham said on Monday. "It's one of those, we've got to see him practice and stuff like that. But he's cleared to play. He wants to play. He's excited about playing. He's been putting in a lot of work to play. He's been cleared for three weeks. For us, we're protectinng Sam and his competitivenes from Sam and his competitiveness."
Dillingham on Oklahoma State's program:
"This is a team that has won seven games for, I think, 20 years in a row. And it's their homecoming. We're going to get their very, very best. Coach Gundy has been doing this for a long time at one of the highest levels amongst anybody in college football. ... It's the second away week in a row where it's a team's homecoming, which means we're going to get the best crowd that they have all year and the most motivated those players are going to be."
Dillingham on Oklahoma State running back Ollie Gordon:
"You've got to eliminate explosive plays. ... They always have bigger backs. ... The style of play, when you spread a team out and have a bigger back, runs go for 4, 5, 18. ... It makes it a challenge because you have to tackle this gigantic dude who's one of the best backs in college football with one dude sometimes."
Dillingham on Oklahoma State quarterback Alan Bowman:
"Last week I think he threw for over 300 yards, high completion percentage. He's a veteran that completes a high percentage of his balls over time that you're probably not going to spook with much. And that's due to seven years of college football, and the new age of college football. ... This is a veteran that won the job last year. He's won the job at a prior school. He's thrown for 500 yards in a game before. This is somebody who is definitely capable of putting up big numbers."
Dillingham on analytics and clock management in college football:
"When you coach offense you're constantly worried about the clock. ... In terms of game clock and game management, I love rules, I'm a little bit of a nerd so I study rules. I study how rules affect if you go out of bounds with 2:45 left you shouldn't use a timeout because if you use a timeout they have to set the ball. So you're only really gaining 38 seconds instead of 40 seconds on your timeout usage. ... There's so many little nuances of college football that are different than the NFL, because the stoppage rules with first downs and out of bounds, that it's actually a little bit more difficult to work the clock in four-minute and two-minute drills. So you've just gotta know the rules and really the referee mechanics of how the ball is gonna get spotted and how the clock is gonna roll based off that."
Dillingham on managing emotional swings on the road:
"You've just gotta manage your team. You've got to get to know the team. Right now we're having big waves of negative on the road. ... How can we manage the emotions of the game? ... Our team is struggling handling emotional swings on the road. .... If we can just manage this downward spiral on the road, limit it and get out of it, we play really good football."
Dillingham on how the mindset of this year's team is different than 2023:
"I'd say the buy-in of the team. When you watch our team play, I thought we played hard last year, but I think we play with confidence this year. The buy-in and the confidence of how we play, even when we're down, I don't really think people think we're going to lose. That's a very difficult thing to build. ... Our guys have that confidence about them. I think right now we have a team, because of our staff, that has kind of made those guys believe in what we're doing. The staff and the leadership council, they believe in the direction we're going, they believe in the style of play."
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Ben Sherman has been covering the sports world for most of his journalism career, including 17 years with The Oregonian/OregonLive. One of his favorite memories was covering the 1999 Fiesta Bowl - the first BCS National Championship Game - at Sun Devil Stadium.