Breezing past Mississippi State and Wyoming to begin the 2024 season, ASU encountered adversity in both early season trips to Texas, with one going their way and the other one not because of their own wrongdoing.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Arizona State went toe-to-toe with Texas State back on Sept. 8 and while a midweek game like on a Thursday was a short turnaround, the Sun Devils battled through a rough first half down 21-7 to pull off a 31-28 win. The ASU defense came up with vital fourth-down stops and mitigated Bobcats quarterback Jordan McClain from producing even more offense than the 265 passing yards he finished with.
Coming back home to Tempe, ASU had an extended amount of time to recuperate, reenergize and analyze what transpired in San Marcos before they traveled to Lubbock, Tex.
Having two additional days to go over the film and practice, Arizona State head coach Kenny Dillingham mentioned that instead of extra time between games having its benefits, it could also be a curse as well.
When they faced Texas Tech, the latter presented itself.
ASU racked up seven first-half penalties – where at least three were extremely unnecessary, the special teams unit kicking the ball out of bounds twice and missing a crucial extra point attempt late in the game and lost track of the Red Raiders receivers who were wide-open for key receptions.
Texas Tech went on to win 30-22 on Saturday, which was the first Big 12 game in the Sun Devils’ history.
Experiencing what it was like to be punished for a flurry of mistakes, Dillingham explained that while the errors themselves were game-altering, he credited how those players quickly pushed the blunders behind them and kept fighting until there was no time left on the clock.
“I know just throughout the season, what I am proud of is our guys don’t quit,” Dillingham said. “Even when we made stupid mistakes which were uncharacteristic of us to do some of the things that were done last week, it is unacceptable but the positive was our guys that made those mistakes were able to regather their composure and go finish.
“I don’t know if last year when a guy makes a mistake like getting a stupid penalty if they stayed on the field and regained balance. You can take a guy off the field and, ‘Calm down, calm down, calm down.’ You can’t do that and yell at them. If you got a competitor, he knows he messed up. If your guy isn’t harder on himself for making a mistake that hurts the team, then he shouldn’t be on the field to begin with. If it doesn’t eat at him that he did something catastrophically bad, then what are you doing playing to begin with? The better question is, ‘Don’t do it again, and can you respond from that situation?’
Looking back at the film, those who made an impact for the wrong reason will pick apart what they did so that they can avoid repeating the mistake going forward. Arizona State has committed 16 penalties and eight each in the past two games in Texas compared to just seven combined against Mississippi State (three) and Wyoming (four).
Knowing how each individual player is wired mentally, Dillingham believes penalties were the ultimate reason the result didn’t go in their favor and wants this to be a lesson for his team going beyond the current bye week.
“Hopefully those guys that had some uncharacteristically stupid penalties don’t have them again and they are learning experiences because we haven’t had those since I have been here,” Dillingham said. “That was really the first week of stupid crap and it was absolutely a huge, huge, huge factor in the football game.”
Jayden Daniels to practice at old stomping grounds before taking on Cardinals
*Get the BEST Phoenix sports insider information, and exclusive content. SIGN UP HEREÂ to unlock our premium content!*
Reporter Alec Cipollini covers ASU Athletics, the Phoenix Mercury and more for Burn City Sports. You can follow him on his X account, @AlecCipollini
