Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham, right, embraces his former player, Jalin Conyers, who now plays for Texas Tech, Saturday in Lubbock, Texas. (Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images)
TEMPE – After a lack of discipline, several errors from special teams and other issues piled up in Arizona State’s loss to Texas Tech in its Big 12 Conference debut, the Sun Devils have a chance to reflect on what went wrong and look ahead and what’s to come.
The Sun Devils entered their first bye week with a 3-1 record after the 30-22 loss in Lubbock, Texas, and have already matched last season’s win total. They had their chances on Saturday but dug a hole too deep to escape.
“You’re two to three plays away from … us being undefeated,” said ASU coach Kenny Dillingham. “That’s every season, for every team, forever.”
Dillingham said that ASU will use the time off for a significant self-scouting process before even thinking about diving into what the Kansas Jayhawks have in store for the Sun Devils on Oct. 5. The scheme-focused coach believes many of the answers to the team’s shortcomings can be solved from within.
Dillingham said that some “stupid mistakes” the Sun Devils made were uncharacteristic of the team.
“But the positive was the guys that made those mistakes were able to regather their composure and go finish,” Dillingham said. “And I don’t know if last year a guy makes a mistake like that, gets a stupid penalty, they could have stayed on the field and regained balance.”
After playing a clean first game against Wyoming, curing which they committed just four penalties, the Sun Devils have had problems keeping the yellow laundry off the field. Dillingham’s unit has accumulated at least eight penalties in each of its last three games.
The Texas Tech contest started with a major error by grad-student kicker Parker Lewis. He booted the ball out of bounds and let an ultra-explosive Red Raiders offense start the game at the 35 yard line.
“I would hope we could not kick it out of bounds in the future,” Dillingham said, chuckling.
The trip to Lubbock allowed the Sun Devils to experience a truly hostile Big 12 road environment for the first time as newcomers to the conference.
And at times on Saturday, the Sun Devils looked uncomfortable in the road atmosphere, which included a Texas Tech fan tradition of throwing tortillas onto the field.
“The home field advantages in this league are real. They are absolutely real,” Dillingham said. “That environment we played in at Tech was a real environment. It was loud, there were cowbells throughout the game, there were tortillas.”
Going forward, Dillingham believes his team will benefit from learning how to respond to raucous stadiums. With games at traditional Big 12 powers No. 20 Oklahoma State and No. 23 Kansas State, the Sun Devils will need to learn fast.
On the flip side of that coin is being able to create that advantage at home.
“If people don’t think that’s an advantage, they’re wrong,” Dillingham said. “If we want to compete in this league, we’re going to need an environment that combats that. We’re going to need an environment that people are like, ‘Oh, we have to go play there.’”
The opening two games in Mountain America Stadium were a nice audition, but not quite at the level of those other Big 12 venues.
There was no panic in the young head coach a couple of days after his team’s first loss. Securing a 3-1 record headed into the bye was not what anyone anticipated going into the season, especially after the Sun Devils were picked to finish last in the Big 12 media poll.
However, the wild conference that is the Big 12 can come at a team fast. And nobody described it better than Dillingham.
“It’s the ultimate league of, ‘Did you see that score?’” he said.