What Kenny Dillingham said about clock management in bizarre finish to Arizona State-BYU game
It's safe to say the ending of Arizona State's 28-23 victory over BYU was unprecedented.
From the final three plays the Sun Devils elected to run, to the crowd storming the field before the game was over, to Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham lighting up the officials while surrounded by fans — "chaos" is the only word that aptly describes what unfolded over the final "minute" of the game.
Here's how it transpired, according to the time on the game clock:
1:12 to play: With Arizona State leading 28-23, Sun Devils DB Javan Robinson intercepts a pass from Jake Retzlaff and returns it to BYU's 7-yard line.
1:04 to play: On 1st-and-goal, Arizona State RB Cam Skattebo runs for a gain of four yards to the BYU 3-yard line. BYU immediately calls timeout.
58 seconds to play: On 2nd-and-goal from the BYU 3-yard line, Arizona State QB Sam Leavitt runs backwards for a loss of 26 yards to try to kill the clock. BYU calls its final timeout with 52 seconds left.
52 seconds to play: On 3rd-and-goal from the BYU 29-yard line, Leavitt again runs backwards to try to run time off the clock. He goes down at the 39-yard line and the clock runs downs to 7 seconds before ASU takes a delay of game penalty.
7 seconds to play: After taking another delay of game penalty, Leavitt drops back on 4th-and-goal from the BYU 49-yard line and chucks a pass deep down the right sideline. It eventually lands in the stands. The clock on the field hits 00:00. The fans rush the field and start taking down the goalposts.
Arizona State tried to chew the final 58 seconds off the clock but left ONE second left for a BYU Hail Mary pic.twitter.com/o0hXkEPrRe
— Unnecessary Roughness (@UnnecRoughness) November 24, 2024
Official review: Surrounded by fans, and with Dillingham nearby, the officials review the final play before determing Leavitt's pass landed in the stands with one second remaining on the clock. Dillingham is clearly not happy.
About 20 minutes later: After clearing the field and putting the goalposts back up, BYU runs one final play from its own 49-yard line. Retzlaff's Hail Mary pass is caught by Chase Roberts at the 2-yard line, where he is immediately tackled. Game over. Arizona State wins 28-23.
So why did Dillingham elect to kill the clock in that fashion, instead of just scoring and going up 35-23 with 50 seconds to play in the game?
"Yeah, I love going into details on things," Dillingham said after the game. "I'm not gonna go into details on that one. We won the football game, we beat another ranked team in Mountain America Stadium, right? And this is all about the guys. These guys battled, these guys fought, these guys found a way to win. And it doesn't matter. Whatever happened at the end, it happened. You know what? We got to rush the field twice."
Dillingham later elaborated on his thinking, and it was clear he did not agree with how the clock was managed by the officials.
"If you score, they have a minute left. There is a chance that they could score, kick an onside kick and win," Dillingham said. "In reality, there was a point where there was under 12 seconds left to go in the game. We have two plays, right. Each play should take roughly 6 to 7 seconds if you're in a delay scenario. So the first one, we tried to delay and it only took 4.5 seconds ... so then there were seven seconds left and we rolled out, we threw the ball away and it landed. It should take a certain amount of time. Through a lot of reps, through a lot of programs, there's a lot of statistics behind that thought process. We won the game, but .... obviously we all know what happened at the end. It is what it is. Who cares. We won the football game."
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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.