What Kenny Dillingham said after Arizona State's loss to Cincinnati
Kenny Dillingham knew what a challenge it would be traveling three time zones and playing a 9 a.m. MST game against a very good Cincinnati team.
But he's not using the long road trip as an excuse for Arizona State's 24-14 loss on Saturday.
"I think our guys had a lot of energy this morning," said Dillingham. "There's this stat that teams lose 75 percent of their games traveling three time zones, but I think our guys were ready to play. I'm not going to use that as an excuse. We got our butt kicked. It's gonna happen. It's football. Very few teams go undefeated."
Cincinnati (5-2, 3-1) quarterback Brendan Sorsby threw for 206 yards and rushed for 26 yards and two touchdowns to pace an offense that built a 24-7 halftime lead and held on for a pivotal Big 12 victory.
Arizona State (5-2, 2-2) quarterback Jeff Sims, who was starting in place of the injured Sam Leavitt, threw for 155 yards and rushed for 53 more. Cam Skattebo led the Sun Devils ground game once again, carrying the ball 17 times for 75 yards and two touchdowns. Wide receiver Jordyn Tyson had another strong game with 6 catches for 108 yards.
Arizona State has a bye week to get healthy and prepare for a road game at Oklahoma State on Nov. 2.
Here's what Dillingham said after Arizona State's loss:
Dillingham on Arizona State's kicking woes:
"Our kicking game's atrocious," Dillingham said in his postgame press conference. "If you can kick and you're at Arizona State, email me. We're going to have kicking tryouts on Monday. So, bring it on. Kicking tryouts Monday, let's go.
"Yeah, I'm dead serious. We're going to put it out on our social. We're going to have a kicking tryout on Monday. We've gotta find somebody who can make a field goal."
Dillingham on how quarterback Jeff Sims played:
"His first start, he didn't turn the ball over. Like always he would like to have a few throws back. Probably the Skatt throw and the scramble. Probably would like to throw a couple of those balls in rhythm there in the first half."
"We've got to play better around him. We've got to play better as a football team. We've got to coach better. All around we didn't play great as a football team."
"I don't think this game was about who played the quarterback position. I think this game was about our guys playing their guys ... I thought they did a better job coaching. I thought I got outcoached. ... The key moments in the game, we didn't make. When you don't make the key moments in the game, you lose games."
Dillingham on ASU's offensive struggles in the first half:
"You have to be aggressive in shots [against Cincinnati's defense]. We weren't extending enough drives to be aggressive. When you don't convert third downs ... you don't convert the fourth downs, you get stalled out. We didn't have enough plays or sustain enough drives to really try to get the shot game going."
Dillingham on ASU's second-half effort:
"We came out in the second half and I'm proud of our guys because we played really well. We were a kick away, a 3rd-and-2 on defense away ... our guys battled and that's what I appreciate from our guys, is we were right there. We didn't get it done, but they battled, they fought and they competed."
"Kudos to Cincinnati. They beat us today. They outcoached us. They outplayed us. They did everything to win that football game.
Dillingham on the road ahead:
"I think I know who our team is for the most part. We gotta just get healthy and get ready and progress and kind of remake ourselves a little bit schematically going into the last five games."
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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.