Arizona State special teams ‘juiced’ and ‘amped’ following miscues against Texas Tech

Critical mistakes on special teams let Texas Tech back into the game last week, so Arizona State focused on improvement before hosting Houston.

BY ERIC MATSUMOTO

Oct 22, 2025, 7:43 PM Updated: Oct 23, 2025, 11:28 am

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Arizona State’s 26-22 win over Texas Tech didn’t come without difficulties. Special teams miscues that coach Kenny Dillingham called “embarrassingly bad” played key roles in two Red Raiders scores in the fourth quarter.

In the days since, Dillingham and the Sun Devils have been focused on improving that phase of the game at practice. The result has been a unit with high energy that is ready to compete.

“I think our special teams periods have been juiced,” Dillingham said Wednesday. “They’ve been amped.”

The focus is similar to how the Sun Devils prioritized defending against explosive plays and physicality following their Week 2 and Week 7 losses, respectively.

While there have only been two days of practice since the game, Arizona State did see results each of the past times they’ve focused on a particular part of their game in practice.

The effort to stop explosive plays resulted in Texas State not having a single play of 30 or more yards in Week 3, and ASU’s desire for more physicality helped its defense hold Texas Tech, the No. 1 team in yards per game, to only 276 in Week 8.

“(Are) these two days enough to be successful?” Dillingham said. “I don’t know. But I know that we couldn’t have worked harder. We couldn’t have done more. So, from that perspective I’m excited to see (our special teams) unit play.”

Arizona State’s special teams will be put the test right away in their Week 9 matchup against Houston. Cougars returner Mekhi Mews has two career punt return touchdowns and has already had a game with more than 100 kick return yards this season — 116 on five returns against Oregon State on Sept. 27.

The matchup between ASU (5-2, 3-1 Big 12) and Houston (6-1, 3-1 Big 12) will kick off Saturday at 5 p.m. MST on 98.7. The game can be seen on ESPN2.