After being picked to finish 10th in the Pac-12 in the conference’s preseason media poll on Thursday, Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham, tight end Jalin Conyers and cornerback Jordan Clark reacted to the placement at yesterday’s Pac-12 Football Media Day.
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To preface this ranking, the Sun Devils have a first-year head coach and over 50 newcomers, so it is a little hard to place them.
Dillingham was not fazed by ASU’s placement. He said earlier this week that not even he knows how ASU is going to look when the lights actually come on in a game-setting.
“I think it’s fair,” Dillingham said. “If enough people feel that way, I think it’s completely fair. I think we have to go out there and try to be the best version of us we can be. That’s just trying to be successful. How we define success in our program is being the very best at whatever you’re doing all the time. Doesn’t matter if you’re opening doors, you better open that door till everybody walks through it, because that’s how success is defined in our program. For us, it’s not about where people rank us, it’s how can we be successful every single day, then the next day, the next day, the next day. However many wins show up is however many wins show up. I want to see our guys compete and get better every single day at everything they do.”
Most sportsbooks have ASU’s over/under win total set at 4.5.
Clark, now in his fifth year, has learned not to pay attention to the preseason rankings.
“Yeah, I mean, ultimately, I don’t really get into all that stuff,” Clark said. “I think that we’re much better than 10th, but at the end of the day, man, they’re gonna spot the ball, they’re gonna blow the whistle, we’re gonna figure it out. So I don’t really pay attention to all that stuff, I’m just really excited to have the opportunity to play with my teammates here.”
Conyers had a similar mentality to Clark and Dillingham.
“You can put us 12th, you can put us first. I mean, at the end of day, we’re gonna go out there and do what we need to do in order to be successful as a team. I don’t think this is one of those years where it’s a rebuilding year and this and that where coach Dillingham needs a couple years, he’s ready to win now. We’re ready to win now in general. So I think a lot of is just going into season one, knowing what the team has, what the team culture is, and knowing what we are very capable of, so that’s really my biggest thought on that. But, it don’t really matter. Rankings don’t matter at the beginning of season, they only matter at the end.”
We will see how ASU’s season turns out when they step onto the field. As for now, the Sun Devils have a lot more media availabilities and practices in the next month before they begin their season against Southern Utah on Aug. 31, so there will be a lot more content coming.
Stay tuned for even more stories from yesterday’s Pac-12 Football Media Day and be sure to check out all of our videos on our YouTube for behind-the-scenes content, interviews and more.
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Brendan Mau is a college sports insider and general assignment reporter for Burn City Sports. You can follow him on Twitter via @Brendan_Mau
