‘How do you respond?’ Kenny Dillingham bullish on coming back from Mississippi State loss

Arizona State football stormed back from a 17-point deficit on Saturday against Mississippi State only to have a late defensive breakdown give the game away. Coach Kenny Dillingham said postgame his team “responded well to that adversity” — a big point hole — but is quickly learning “a new version of adversity.”

It’s called a loss.

“When you have success, it’s not about everybody telling you how good you are,” Dillingham told reporters. “It’s about what happens in the moment that you fail, and you’re not supposed to fail, and how do you respond?

“I thought our guys responded well. We responded well to that adversity. Now we have a new version of adversity: it’s the loss. In-game adversity is different than the adversity of the loss.”

After a 17-play drive that covered 95 yards and led to multiple red zone opportunities, ASU could only muster three points on a Jesus Gomez kick, but nonetheless took a 20-17 lead with 1:38 remaining in the fourth quarter.

ASU was 6-2 in one-score games last season, including the Peach Bowl loss to Texas, and Dillingham said there was no hesitation to get the points on the board.

“That’s the nature of football. You play these really, really good football games,” Dillingham said. “Last year, we won a lot of them. Unfortunate to come out on the other side of one of these.”

Quarterback Sam Leavitt, who had his worst performance in a Sun Devils uniform with 82 yards and two interceptions on 10-of-22 passing, completed his only throw on the drive with preseason All-American receiver Jordyn Tyson picking up 12 yards on a critical third-and-7.

But 33 rushes and five previous passes all second half was writing on the wall: ASU had shut down its Heisman hopeful in Week 2.

Dillingham said Leavitt “couldn’t get in a rhythm,” and that falls on him.

“You can’t play quarterback if you’re not in rhythm,” Dillingham said. “It’s really hard to say, ‘Save us on third down,’ right? So, we got to be better there.”

Unsuccessful passing on early downs — Dillingham singled out second down in particular — led to way too many third-and-forever yardages and a 3-14 conversion rate.

Respond by taking inventory, not with emotion

The AP polls and College Football Playoff brackets will inevitably look poorly upon this loss against an improved team, but nonetheless one that went 0-8 in SEC play in 2024.

Leavitt, much like Texas signal caller Arch Manning in Week 1, will have his Heisman favor take a dip.

That may be the external reality, but Dillingham said his team has to avoid an “emotional response.”

Instead, it’s time to take inventory.

“Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose,” the coach said. “We have to take what we did good and how we played and how we responded … and we have to build off that, and not the one play at the end of the game.

“Yeah, it’s going to affect our win-loss column, but it can’t affect our future games.”

A possible turning point for the remainder of a long season was likely even found in the halftime locker room in Starkville.

“We were ready to go,” Dillingham said. “Our guys weren’t nervous. They were very calm. They were like, ‘We’ve been here before. We’re ready for this.’ We talk about adversity, responding to failure all season.”

Next week’s opponent, Texas State (2-0), is like Mississippi State in that ASU played them at the same time last season.

And if that contest, albeit a home one this time around, is anything like 2024 where the Sun Devils outlasted the Bobcats 31-28, Dillingham and Co. better be ready to respond right away.

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