ASU’s Dillingham on late-game clock management vs. BYU: ‘Obviously, it worked horribly’

TEMPE — Winning ugly is better than losing, as ASU football has learned this season with a 6-1 record in one-score games, the most such wins in all of FBS.

But when a massive win ends with the Sun Devils turning it over on downs for their final two possessions in the final three minutes and the Cougars having a Hail Mary shot with one second remaining, clearly there’s some work to be done.

“Obviously, it worked horribly,” coach Kenny Dillingham said at his Monday press conference. “I gotta coach that scenario better, I think that’s the biggest takeaway. I didn’t do a good enough job throughout the week, and I haven’t been doing a good enough job throughout the week of those scenarios at the end of the game.”

On ASU’s final drive after a huge interception from Big 12 defensive player of the week Javan Robinson, a goal-to-go scenario became fourth-and-goal from the BYU 49-yard line when Dillingham elected to have Sam Leavitt run backwards twice for 36 yards and take two delay of games to save as much clock as possible.

“I probably would’ve tried to score and taken the risk of fumbling over what we did,” Dillingham said in reflection.

Dillingham said he entered the season planning to dedicate time each Thursday walk-through to situational breakdowns that could help in scenarios like the one against BYU, but he made the decision to cut those in the interest of time. He said they will be part of the walk-throughs going forward.

The coach is still among the youngest in all of college football and by his own admission, he’s still learning, just as the team is still learning how to put away teams after hot starts. A similar near-comeback happened the week prior at Kansas State.

Dillingham’s theory on why? Right as ASU is getting ready to throw a knockout punch, the other team has a response of its own and the Sun Devils are shaken up by it.

“We’ve had two opportunities in two straight weeks with three-possession leads to go up four possessions,” Dillingham said. “How do we find a way to put a team away? We’re winning some games, but we’re still in Year 2, and there’s still a lot of things that we’re learning how to do.

“We’re learning how to win on the road, which we did. We still haven’t learned how to close out, or really step on an opponent when we have some momentum in the second half. We’ve learned how to win at the end of games … but we haven’t learned how to fight back if we get punched in the face after we’ve had success.”

Breaking down how ASU’s final drives stalled out vs. BYU

When ASU got the ball with 8:44 remaining and a 28-23 lead, it did a solid job of knocking some time off the clock, calling nine run plays to two completed passes and no incompletions. It also forced a BYU timeout on the drive.

But after the Sun Devils were inside the red zone, it was a Cam Skattebo run for no gain on third-and-1 before a Leavitt run for no gain on fourth-and-1. It appeared that Leavitt only took it himself after Skattebo ran the wrong direction and missed the handoff, leaving the Cougars with the ball and 2:34 remaining.

Careful to not place blame on any one player, Dillingham said Monday it was unacceptable to be in a three-minute timeout before the fourth down play and not know where the ball was supposed to go.

Dillingham added he had no regrets about the fourth-down decision.

“Definitely not, 100% would do that 10 out of 10 times in those games. Obviously they didn’t work, so that’s not ideal. If I could go back knowing they wouldn’t work, I would definitely change my mind, but not knowing if they would work or not, you 100% go for it,” Dillingham said.

The head coach has said throughout the season he will always go for it on fourth-and-short scenarios, because an inability to get those consistently is indicative of a poor team.

ASU and Arizona will kick off this year’s Territorial Cup at 1:30 p.m. MST on Saturday. Listen to the game on 98.7 FM, the Arizona Sports app or ArizonaSports.com, or watch on FOX.