Kenny Dillingham says he almost broke his hand trying to get more passion out of ASU

TEMPE — Passion and energy are key characteristics to how Kenny Dillingham wants to model his Arizona State football teams, but they’ve been sorely missed for significant stretches of this season.

As the head coach has tried to find the balance between how far to squeeze that out of players, he said he put his hand on the line… literally.

“I’ve been on these guys the last few weeks,” Dillingham said after Saturday’s 28-17 win over Kansas State. “I thought I broke my hand the other day a couple weeks ago. … I think I was creating more stress with my passion and energy than I was creating passion and energy.”

He said he punched a wall while trying to make a point.

“I wasn’t happy,” Dillingham recalled. “We were talking about levels of when you face adversity, you can run … from your situation. You can lower your expectation from your situation. Or you can double down on the work and double down on just being the best you can be every day.

“But the last one is actually the hardest one because it doesn’t guarantee that you still aren’t facing adversity.”

Dillingham motioned like he was gesturing at the “hardest one” laid out on a list, with aggression in how he was pounding home the point.

“I can only do this. I can’t lower the standard. I can’t run. Like, I don’t know how to do that. So that’s the frustration is I don’t know how to do anything but right here,” the head coach said with two knocks on the table in a space between “right” and “here” to signal he was self-censoring colorful language.

“Use your imagination on the words that were said in that part, but it was just one of those ‘guys, there’s no shortcut here. Work works. Keep working regardless of what the outside noise tells you.'”

Kenny Dillingham sticks up for Cutter Boley after ASU fans boo quarterback

ASU appeared to turn the page on any sort of quarterback controversy when it named Mikey Keene the starter after he took over for Cutter Boley for the second half at Texas Tech.

However, Keene getting injured as a Kansas State defender rolled into him late in the first half on Saturday threw a wrench into that perceived stability. Boley was thrown back into game action the very next week after he was benched.

ASU fans, many of whom were calling for freshman Jake Fette even before Keene was moved into the starting role, showered Boley with boos as soon as he was announced as the new quarterback.

“I’m just always going to defend our players,” Dillingham said. “My players are first. Like, don’t boo. My players are first, like, I protect my players. That’s to my core. So, it’s me and my team versus everybody who’s against us. Everybody. Like that’s how I view it.”

After ASU’s offense totaled 27 yards across 14 plays with Boley at quarterback, Fette got his opportunity and provided a spark, beginning with a seven-play, 71-yard touchdown drive. ASU scored another touchdown on Fette’s third drive, which also spanned seven plays.

Credit where it’s due: Boley showed up as a supportive teammate to congratulate Fette, who had the game ball in hand, after pocketing the win.

Dillingham said he anticipates Fette starting when ASU faces BYU in Provo on Halloween.

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