Dillingham was obviously displeased with the offense, but did not want to blame injuries. He was extremely happy with the defensive effort, as they only allowed 15 points off turnovers.
“I’ve never in my career been involved in a game like that,” Dillingham said.
His injury has been lingering since high school, and it was aggravated last game
— Burn City Sports (@BurnCitySports) September 17, 2023
Arizona State had a chance to score its first points of the game at the end, but he offensive line was hit so hard with injuries that Dillingham let the clock run out.
Starting right guard Joey Ramos was “rolled up on” with only a few plays to go and right tackle Max Iheanchor was injured tonight as well, Dillingham said.
Iheanchor was starting in place of Emmit Bohle, who suffered a season-ending injury last week. Starting left tackle Isaia Glass and key reserve OL Cade Briggs did not dress for the second straight week. Cal transfer OL Ben Coleman has been injured since before spring practices. Backup right guard Aaron Frost has dressed but not played yet, as he is still recovering from an ACL injury.
“We’re so banged up at the o-line that if we had one more injury we couldn’t practice,” Dillingham said. “That’s just the reality of how it is, we wouldn’t have a scout team to practice. We really couldn’t take a chance to do anything that would cause an injury at this point.
“I wanted to score, but my better, smarter side told me like, ‘It’s okay. Let’s get out of this game.'”
Despite these injuries, Dillingham does not want to use them as excuses and guaranteed the offense will be better next week.
“The mood around the team is next man up,” Dillingham said. “You gotta play football. If anybody’s mood isn’t that, that’ll get corrected, and then we’ll fix that internally.”
#ArizonaState coach Kenny Dillingham was proud of how his team continued to keep playing and showing effort. “Who cares?” about the situation that the team is in with all of the injuries.
— Burn City Sports (@BurnCitySports) September 17, 2023
The Sun Devils will take on USC and reigning Heisman trophy winner Caleb Williams next week at Mountain America Stadium with kickoff scheduled for 7:30 p.m. MST.
Arizona State blown out by Fresno State at home for second straight loss
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Brendan Mau is a Phoenix Suns insider and college sports reporter for Burn City Sports. You can follow him on X via @Brendan_Mau
