Kenny Dillingham backs ASU’s OL play, ‘stuck in a weird rut’ with rotating Wade Helton

TEMPE — Arizona State’s offensive line has been a primary concern for many this season, but the Sun Devils have still been an effective rushing team behind it.

ASU ranks 11th out of 68 Power Four teams in rushing yards per game (216.6) and 20th in yards per carry (5.2) through five games.

Raleek Brown, who has been the primary ball carrier since Kyson Brown’s ankle injury against Mississippi State, is fifth in Power Four with 5o6 rushing yards and and fourth among Power Four backs with at least 60 carries (6.6 on 77 rushes).

“That’s pretty good for the O-line,” coach Kenny Dillingham said Monday. “We’re just not — in those must-run scenarios — we’re just not being productive. It’s not one position group. It’s an accumulation of things that aren’t working in that scenario.

“I don’t think it’s just the offensive line. (The production) all stems from the offensive line.”

The rushing production is good, but there have still been the problems at the goal line or in pass protection.

Whether he’s being forced to or whether the grass is open in front of him and he’s looking to make a play, Sam Leavitt’s 22 scrambles are the third most among Power Four quarterbacks.

Leavitt’s been as effective as any quarterback in the country — his 280 scramble yards are 54 more than anyone else’s, per PFF — but he and the coaching staff know it puts him at risk when he does.

Wade Helton inserted into Arizona State OL vs. TCU

One tweak the unit made during Friday’s 27-24 win over TCU was Wade Helton coming off the bench to replace Jimeto Obigbo, a Texas State transfer who played nearly all the left guard snaps this season to that point.

Obigbo was called for holding when he was late covering a twist on a big play downfield to Jordyn Tyson in the first quarter, and Helton, the redshirt-freshman transfer from Iowa State, replaced him the next drive.

kenny dillingham's assessment of where the offensive line is at and where wade helton fits in after 72 snaps at left guard: pic.twitter.com/SojXoK4iuz

— Damon Allred (@iamdamonallred) September 29, 2025

The switch paid off, as ASU reached at least the TCU 30-yard line on nine of the 10 drives Helton played after two punts on two drives prior.

At the same time Helton was inserted, Jalen Klemm replaced left tackle Josh Atkins. However, Klemm received just seven snaps before Atkins was back in compared to Helton’s 72 to finish the game.

Dillingham said it was part of the plan to get seven linemen rotated in, as that’s the typical mode of operation he prefers, but it wasn’t accomplished in the first few weeks.

“I thought our guys were getting tired,” the coach said. “We’ve played over 80 snaps back-to-back games on offense because of the control we’ve been able to create. So we needed to get those guys on the field more to be fresher later.”

Because Helton is one of the players in the rotation, his positional versatility gets ASU “stuck in a weird rut,” Dillingham said.

“You can see Wade at some center, you know, it’s harder to move guys in and out of center than it is in and out of guard,” he said. “We’re just trying to get the best guys on the field.

“(Ben Coleman is) playing really well right now at center, so it’s like, man, do you mess up your center, but you want to get more guys rotating. … Wade’s probably more of a center, but he’s good at guard and we need him in, but then do you want to change centers?”

ASU will have some time to sort through decisions over its first bye week of the season before playing at Utah on Oct. 11.

“We haven’t really settled on a solution,” Dillingham said of whether Helton will continue in place of Obigbo.

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