The fans’ predictions were right. Kenny Dillingham and the Arizona State Sun Devils’ plan to simulate the cowbells culture of Mississippi State turned out to be a big flop. After securing a 38-19 win in their season opener against North Arizona, Dillingham’s boys lost a nail biter to the Mississippi State Bulldogs 24-20. Do you remember how Dillingham sounded all confident? “Cowbells, baby. It’s going to be fun,” the head coach sounded all pumped up. But maybe the cowbell’s noise was too much for them to take. What breaks the fans’ hearts more is how Dillingham’s last blitz play backfired. But the head coach is ready to defend his squad from any unnecessary criticism.  

On September 8, Sun Devils insider Jakob Brooks posted a clip of Dillingham speaking to the media on X. The caption read, “Kenny Dillingham is keeping calm following ASU’s loss to Mississippi State, and won’t let “the noise” cloud his squad.” What did Dillingham have to say about their feat against Mississippi State? “If we let one or two of these plays affect how we played in the second half, right? I mean, that’s not a sign of a good football team. Good football teams take the actual substance of that football game and the substance was we played really, really good football in the second half.”

Jeff Lebby’s squad managed to go up 10-0 at the tail end of the first quarter. Then in the second half, the Bulldogs held a 17-3 advantage as Dillingham’s quarterback Sam Leavitt looked rattled throughout the second quarter. Then things started to turn for the better.

The second half began with a touchdown drive. Kanye Udoh scored the touchdown from six yards out. Somehow, their luck did not favor them in the end. Dillingham now wants to learn from the mistakes.

The head coach shared, “Let’s just clean those one or two plays up and go play another football game. I’d say I have the exact same conversations after if we make one more play and win, and if we make one less play and lose. I think overreacting is one of the reasons why teams that are really, really good can go on downward spirals.” Turns out that one wrong play became too costly for Dillingham’s Sun Devils.

Dillingham’s take on his risky call and how it backfired

Arizona State drove 95 yards in 15 plays over nearly nine minutes, only for Nic Mitchell to stuff Udoh at the 1-yard line with the game tied. Dillingham went for an 18-yard field goal, counting on his defense to preserve a Week 2 win. But No. 12 ASU’s defense faltered, allowing a late touchdown, gifting the victory to the Bulldogs. Now, what does the head coach have to say about last-minute blunders? 

“3rd and 8, 40 seconds, no timeouts, one sack wins the game… It’s harder to play a game on the road in OT in that environment… You’re playing to win. So if you have a call that wins the game, you call it. We called it. It didn’t work. You lose… Were we expecting it to give up a touchdown? Definitely not. We were actually calling it for them to take a shot… When it doesn’t work, it sucks. It’s not nearly as fun as when it works,” said Dillingham.

While the head coach is not putting the blame on his boys, his quarterback has been called out by analyst David Pollack. “They looked unorganized. Sam Leavitt looked like he was pressing to me. It looked like he was pressing, and at one point, he was like, ‘All right, scr-w this.’ Like, just I’m going to do this and then make some mistakes,” Pollack commented.

Leavitt threw for 82 passing yards and two interceptions on 10-for-22 passing, with one touchdown. Then came a reality check. Before this, his career passing rate had never fallen under 50%. While there must be too much on Dillingham’s plate, the blunder may be haunting him in his dreams.

“I guarantee you he’s getting on the airplane thinking, ‘Why didn’t I go for it there?’…..I mean, I get I understood why he didn’t. Their defense had dominated. Mississippi State’s offense had not done much in the second half. The defense had dominated, but I still really thought that he was considering it, and I bet you now he wish he had,” said Dave Flemming. Kenny Dillingham’s defensive plan backfiring must be filling him with deep regret. Let’s see how the Sun Devils recover from that trauma.