Kenny Dillingham: Cutter Boley will face ‘big test’ vs. top-10 Texas Tech

While Cutter Boley won the starting job for Arizona State out of camp, the young signal caller hasn’t had a very consistent start to his Sun Devils career.

Now, the quarterback will face his toughest test yet in No. 10 Texas Tech on the road on Saturday, and head coach Kenny Dillingham said his discipline with the football will be an important aspect to watch.

“I’ve been pleased with how Cutter has played. Knock on wood,” Dillingham told Arizona Sports’ Bickley & Marotta on Friday. “This will be a big test for him. He’s got to take care of the football versus a team who — one of their identities is taking away the football.

“I think this is the ultimate game of: Are you disciplined in taking care of it?”

 

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Boley started the year completing 21 of 27 passes for 387 yards and six touchdowns against Morgan State, setting the school record for passing yards in a Sun Devil debut.

Since then, the Kentucky transfer has six passing touchdowns and three interceptions in four games, averaging 210.5 passing yards per game. In ASU’s two losses, Boley has as many turnovers as he does touchdowns.

How does Kenny Dillingham plan to keep ASU’s offense in rhythm vs. Texas Tech?

It’s no secret that the Sun Devils offense has looked explosive and dangerous at times and then can’t get anything going at other times.

Against Kansas, Boley connected with Reed Harris for a touchdown with 20 seconds left in the first half. ASU had 102 total yards in the first half prior to that, but took a 10-7 lead into the break thanks to the big play. The Sun Devils offense accounted for just 10 points in the game outside of that play.

Against Baylor, the Sun Devils trailed 24-13 at halftime before being outscored 31-6 in the second half.

Then last week against Hawaii, ASU went into halftime with a comfortable 17-6 lead but was only able to outscore the Rainbow Warriors 13-6 in the second half.

Dillingham said his staff has noticed the lulls in offensive production have come when that unit hasn’t been on the field for a while, pointing to the Sun Devils’ opening possession of the second half against Hawaii. Boley had Omarion Miller wide open, but a drop started the possession instead of a positive play and it killed the drive.

“We’ve got to do a better job of keeping those guys in rhythm. For some reason, our second halves we’re just coming out too flat,” Dillingham said. “So we’re going to do some things in between series that other programs do in terms of three centers snapping to quarterbacks, playing catch and we’re going to do some things to try to keep our guys out of those lulls and those gaps.

“‘Cause those lulls have happened — we’ve studied it — when we haven’t played in 10 minutes or more. So, we’re trying to stay in a rhythm when we haven’t been on the field in 10 minutes or more.”

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