Mississippi State Football vs Arizona State: What Kenny Dillingham Said About MSU

The former Oregon, Auburn, Florida State, and Memphis assistant had plenty of praise for Jeff Lebby and his coaching staff

Arizona State head coach Kenny Dillingham calls out to his player against Wyoming at Sun Devil Stadium. / Patrick Breen/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK

Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham met with local media in Arizona on Monday and was naturally asked about his team’s upcoming opponent, Mississippi State.

Here’s everything Dillingham said about the Bulldogs ahead of Saturday night’s game at 9:30 p.m. on ESPN:

On refocusing for Mississippi State:

“We’ve never beaten an SEC school. We’ve never won an SEC game. I think that's one. We have a chance to do something that the school has never done. Two, regardless of people, the same people who are talking about how we played really well, are the same people that picked us dead last. Three, you're never as good as you think you are and you're never as bad as you think you are."

"So, get off your high horse. Success in our program is being the very best at whatever you're currently doing at the time. Let's go be successful again this week. And that's the message, that's the vision and this is a really good football team."

We're about to play Coach Lebby who is one of the best offensive minds in college football. He brought over a special teams coordinator from New Mexico State. That guy was a part of the best season New Mexico State has had in a long time. They brought over a defensive coordinator who was trained by Nick Saban and even though he's never called defense, he's from that pedigree."

"So when you're talking Lebby, who is from the Lane Kiffin tree, an offensive defensive coordinator who is from the defensive Nick Saban tree, and you're talking about a guy who was just at New Mexico State as their other coordinator. You're talking about a really well coached football team in year one that just won by 60 points. I don't care who they play, you beat the Kenny Dillingham’s of Scottsdale Arizona by 60 points, that's impressive. We have a tough team against us.”

On what he’s seen from Blake Shapen and how he’ll scheme on Saturday:

“Obviously that system is super quarterback driven. He came from a drastically different system. So this is a big change for him in terms of the style of play, and the freedom they give their quarterback. They play at such a high tempo, very similar to the Rams with Jared Goff back in their Super Bowl year. They get up on the ball so fast."

"They're going to have 15 seconds to talk to the quarterback, 20 seconds sometimes for Coach (Jeff) Lebby, to play quarterback in his ear. Even though it's game two in the system, they're going to be able to see our defense. They're going to be able to communicate, and have a conversation with Coach Lebby and then Coach Lebby can help get into good plays or not."

"This is the first time I think he's been in the system, where I know, that's this free. And I think you can see how much success he had in this first week because it's free and I think it fits his style. He's a plus athlete. He can make all the throws. So, I think the combination of him and Coach Lebby are why they put up 60-something points.”

On his expectations with a first-year play caller for Mississippi State’s defense:

“All year we prepared for it. Odd weak-side overhang/four down in the off season, because that's the Nick Saban simulated pressure is really popular in that tree. So we were prepared for that. We heard some D lineman went out, so we're like, ‘okay, that fits the odd weak overhang world.’ They have a lot of linebackers, so this makes sense."

And then they come out in their odd five techniques, three high safety, which is the only thing that that coaching tree hasn't been in… To me, I'm not going to get carried away in the one game of film.. I know the identity of the coordinators where they come from, and if you can be an odd five technique team and move a linebacker down to defensive end, when you're in four down, then you can easily be an odd four eye team and make that same linebacker a weak side overhang."

"So we face so much four down in practice with our defense, and our defense blitz is more than green grass that we don't need to see much four down. So, we just have to prep for odd weak overhang, odd three-high safety, mix in some four down looks. But we've been seeing that for a while. Four to five defense, so we've got to really prepare for the odd three-high safety, the odd weak overhang. And I think that's the majority of what we're going to see.”

On finding the balance in game planning for Mississippi State:

“You always have to find the best plan for both… You have to find ways to fit your scheme that best attacks what they do, and every good offensive scheme has ways to attack things naturally."

"You've got to be able to attack them in ways that they know how we're going to attack them. If you're going to do certain things offensively and attack certain ways, they're going to know it. It’s how you do what you do, and then mix in new ways to attack a team that they haven't seen that's a little bit different, because they know how you're going to attack them."

"Most good defensive coordinators will study you enough to know that. It’s how you out-execute your identity plays that you're running versus their scheme, and what you feel like is an advantage that they know you're going to do. What other plays do you add that are a little bit outside your scheme that keep them off balance?"

"If you can keep them off balance with the new things, it distracts them from what you want to do. I think that’s the key to running a good offense is having enough balance from new stuff and old stuff that they know what you want to do, but they know they still have to stop this because you can just run it four plays in a row if they don't. I think that's kind of the cat and mouse game, and I think Coach Arroyo did a really good job of that last week overall.”

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