Kenny Dillingham sees improvements in ASU’s passion and energy, but plans to make more ‘drastic changes’

TEMPE — No one will try to argue that the levels of competition were all that close, but the version of Arizona State football that showed up to face Hawaii played with a lot more passion and energy than the one that lost to Baylor by 36 points the week before.

ASU (3-2, 1-1 in Big 12) is still working toward hitting its stride in its approach to the game, as that’s been a characteristic advantage of Kenny Dillingham-coached teams in the previous two seasons.

“I have so much belief in this football team that we are better than what we’re playing,” Dillingham said Monday. “And I’m going to continue to say that regardless of what happens until I think we’re playing to the level I think we can play at. … I think we played better. We didn’t play good, but we played better than we did the game prior, which wasn’t very difficult.

“So that’s progress, and hopefully we come up this week and we’re going to make some changes, some pretty drastic changes to how we practice.”

Dillingham wouldn’t describe what those changes would look like ahead of implementing them, but they were based on recapturing how fun a sport like football should be.

The head coach gave up play-calling duties to offensive coordinator Marcus Arroyo so he could focus more on getting that out of the team, but he said the response from the players hasn’t quite been to his liking so far.

There’s a handful of freshmen who have effectively embodied that passion and energy, namely running back Cardae Mack, defensive lineman Julian Hugo and offensive lineman Filiva’a “Suka” Lokotui.

Mack had 154 rushing yards (the most by an ASU freshman since 2005) and his first two college touchdowns in the win, Hugo had two sacks and Lokotui played well in limited action at right tackle after being first implemented at tight end to supplement the blocking.

suka lokotui: half man, half brace. unbreakable.

kenny dillingham shared a story about how the asu o-lineman, a standout from the past two weeks, flipped an unideal circumstance into something more positive.

dillingham used that as an example for the team. pic.twitter.com/WVF74cxqIf

— Damon Allred (@iamdamonallred) October 12, 2026

“There’s older guys that do it too,” Dillingham said. “But I don’t expect to play with the same level of passion and physicality as the average team. Like, that’s not what I want our football team to be. I want our football team, when people turn on the tape, the opposing coach describes the passion and energy.”

Kyson Brown, Makua Pule, C.J. Fite and Martell Hughes were the first veterans who the head coach described as also playing with passion.

Dillingham emphasized multiple times the idea that Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire isn’t showing his team ASU’s film from the Baylor and Hawaii games; he’s showing them old tape.

“He’s lying to himself. … He may do that to motivate his guys. It’s not what the tape shows,” Dillingham said. “We are our tape, and right now, our identity is not that. We can be that, but that’s not who we are right now.”

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