There was excitement in the air for the Sun Devils' return to Mountain America Stadium on Saturday night for Arizona State vs. Baylor .
That excitement didn't last long. First-quarter mistakes put ASU behind the eight ball, trailing 24-13 at halftime, before a second half of doom and despair.
Arizona State had a full system failure in the final two quarters, being outscored 31-6 in the two frames, turning a packed Tempe crowd into a sea of empty bleachers. In a laundry list of corresponding questions, one sticks out the most: "What Happened?"
ASU HC Kenny Dillingham, ASU LB Owen Long and ASU QB Cutter Boley spoke after the game. Here is everything they had to say:
"It just obviously wasn't good enough tonight. Not a good feeling right now. I don't know exactly what to say in specific. I have to go back and watch the tape, but including myself and everyone else, we've got to find a way to get better. So it starts right after this tomorrow. Just find a way to get better."
"We just got to get back to work and find exactly what's going on. But it's on everyone. It's not just one person. Everyone's got to do a little bit better. Like I said, it's feeling the vibe of the way or the locker room already. We just got to find a way to keep getting better. We just gotta gotta keep working, can't get complacent, just get back to work and try to fix that up."
"We had a great week of preparation. Came in feeling really good about our game plan. They're a good team. They made good plays. We also got in our own way a lot. It's kind of the ups and downs of a season. And the cool part about football, we play in seven days. So we've got to find a way to get back to the drawing board and try to fix this up."
"We kind of got in our own way again tonight. I was sloppy with the ball in the first and second half, I made a few poor decisions that really put us behind the eight ball. Things like that can't happen to beat good teams."
"One loss in this conference isn't going to change anything at the end of the year. Go back to work on Monday and look internally at ourselves. No one can be selfish, just keep getting better each and every single day as individuals and grow. One loss in this conference is nothing. We still have everything we want to accomplish ahead of us. A lot of that's on me. I thought the offensive line did a great job tonight. I got to get the ball out of my hands. I got to get it on time to our receivers, backs, whoever that may be, and I got to make good decisions with the football."
"There's a lot of areas where we've got to get better, and we've got to find our identity. What we want to lead on. What's our bread and butter? So I think we show back up to work on Monday and keep getting better. We've got to keep growing and keep trying to be the team we want to be."
"Well, obviously that one sucks. I've got to do a better job getting this team ready to play. We haven't played to our maximum ability yet, and that begins and ends with me, so I'm not doing a very good job this year. I got to figure out the right recipe for this team. I haven't figured it out yet, and I've got to figure it out. I've got to focus on our football team and the recipe behind it because we're not playing up to our caliber and you know I'm a fan here just as much as I am a coach, and I'd be-I am as frustrated as a Sun Devil. I hope more than anybody because I'm also responsible for it. So I will say, that was an unacceptable performance from our football team, an unacceptable performance by me, and it's very disappointing."
"I did (think so). I'm still getting a feel for this team. Every team has different energy. Some teams are very passionate and emotional, right? And then some teams, that's not really their deal. So I'm getting a kind of a better feel for what this team's 'play good' is. But I thought we were fine going into the game. I liked our energy. I liked our focus. I liked our week of practice, and that's the disappointing thing. And that's why I have to, like I said earlier, I've got to figure out why that didn't translate tonight."
"I'm just as mad as you are. I feel your pain, probably times 100. I chose to be here. So, if you think anybody is more frustrated than me, you're wrong. I'm the number-one most frustrated person there is. Clear number one. I don't think there's somebody probably even close to the level of frustration. But I can try to do something about it. And I think that was my message to the guys: it's okay. We had an atrocious game, and we can either point the finger at who is wrong, or we can all take extreme ownership and try to fix it. And I just challenge them to find what they could have done better in the football game, and what they can do better moving forward to get better, and I can almost guarantee you it's nothing drastic. Usually, in football, it's nothing drastic. It's 'if we just did A and B fundamentally better.' How do we coach A and B fundamentally better? How do we all get on the same page? So, to the fan base, I'll just say, I'm with you. Whatever your frustration is, just multiply it by 10, and you have my frustration."
"I mean, the two turnovers. Obviously, one of them wasn't his fault, right? The other one was a bad turnover. He knows that. Like third and one, throwing a shot off. It's not there. Throw it away. Like he knows better. But you know, hopefully, that doesn't happen again. That was his first real interception of the season. We got to get some of the man-to-man throws a little bit more in bounds from that perspective, giving our guys a chance. But you know, I didn't think Cutter was the glaring issue of the football team in any way, shape, or form. I thought there were a lot of positives in this game, so to answer your question, if there was ever a situation where I thought we had to make a change somewhere, we're always going to be able to make a change at any position that makes us better. But do I think that is even close to the realm of possibility right now? Absolutely not."
"There wasn't a bad scheme. It's not like we're out there, and there's no sound scheme. Scheme is good when it's coached and executed correctly. Coaching is not calling quarters. Like anybody could call quarters. Like, congratulations, great. Coaching is getting a group of people to execute the quarters versus the look and versus the game to the best of their ability. It's not the call. Everybody says the easy thing to blame is the play call, the play call, the play call. It's not the play call. It's the execution of the play call. And then people say, "Well, if it's not the play call, is it the players? Absolutely not. It's the coaches, starting with myself, getting our guys to execute at a high enough level that we execute the calls versus the different looks, and we didn't do that. And that is a coaching thing. We got to get our guys to play better. We have a better football team than what we played today. I believe in that locker room. We have some good players in there. So I've got to figure it out."
Dillingham will return to the podium this week for a morning press conference ahead of Week 6 vs. Hawaii.
This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/arizonastate as Everything Kenny Dillingham and Arizona State Said After 55-19 Loss to Baylor in Big 12 Home Opener .
