Kenny Dillingham doubles down on shouldering blame for ASU’s loss despite mentor’s advice

TEMPE — There were a lot of fingers pointed at Kenny Dillingham after Arizona State was run off its own field by Baylor, and rightfully so in some ways.

ASU’s offense was not equipped to handle a dominant Baylor pass rush, and its defense looked out of sorts trying to match up with the opposing rushing attack and the situational efficiency from Baylor quarterback DJ Lagway.

Dillingham was quick to take the fall postgame, even to the dismay of a mentor, which may have empowered some fans to light the torches and pick up the pitchforks.

“I told some guys today, some of our players, ‘We can get mad at you, but like, it’s our job to get you to do it and to get us confident in it.’ So I put that all on myself,” Dillingham said Monday. “I got this text from people this weekend: ‘Hey, don’t always take the blame, push the blame other places.’ Bullcrap.

“And the person who sent that is one of the people I consider my biggest mentors and I have so much respect for the guy, like you have no clue. … Regardless of whose fault it is, it’s my fault because we didn’t play good football. … I take a lot of pride and ownership over that, and I’m going to do whatever I can to try to fix it.”

Among the reaction to the blowout loss were people mocking the eight-figure donors who put their money behind Dillingham and others saying the head coach was losing the Valley’s faith in his ability to sustain success.

Was the loss an awful one? Of course. Was it worthy of a firing? No shot.

It was ASU’s fourth loss by more than 10 points since the beginning of the 2024 season, and two of the previous three were followed up with wins. Last year’s bounce-back from a blowout loss at Utah with a win over then-top-10 Texas Tech stands out among them.

“You’re going to see significant improvement. You will see significant improvement,” Dillingham insisted.

Players notice when a coach takes the heat off them on the public stage, but they’re as responsible as anyone for picking up the pieces in the following days. So how have the Sun Devils responded?

“We have voluntary workouts on Sunday. I don’t know for sure if everybody was here ’cause we can’t take roll, but I think I saw everybody in this building yesterday,” Dillingham said. “That’s what you want in a team. … We got hit in the face. Everybody’s got to point the finger at themselves and everybody’s got to figure out what they individually can improve upon.”

The reaction has been similarly positive from the recruits who were in attendance as well, as On3’s Brandon Huffman detailed a sense of appreciation for Dillingham’s honesty and the high standard to which he holds the program.

Only time will tell whether that response carries into the week of practice before hosting Hawaii on Saturday and how well it correlates to game success, as the head coach felt like the practices prior to the Baylor loss were indeed up to par.

Even if the team looks the part against Hawaii, it will likely take further evidence of a turned corner for dismayed fans to get fully back in. No. 11 Texas Tech awaits the Sun Devils when they resume conference play the following week.

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