Dillingham impressed with Rashada’s growth, confident in freshman starter

TEMPE, Ariz. — Arizona State football collapsed on Saturday night against Oklahoma State, 27-15. Another week with a great first half, and then a second half where everything went wrong.

Kenny Dillingham speaks on the loss

Head coach Kenny Dillingham said that everybody is quick to point out one guy when things go wrong. It is easy to pick the quarterback, but teams are a unit, and units aren’t reliant on one player. All the parts of the team have to come together and do their part to make a successful unit.

Despite a rough game for true freshman quarterback Jaden Rashada, Dillingham is boiling with praise for the young starter. There were many things that went wrong for the Sun Devils on Saturday, but the play at quarterback was not near the top.

“Jaden has done a phenomenal job. You watch him play the football games, he has one turnover in two games,” Dillingham said. “He steps up in the pocket, gets hit in the face, delivers throws.” According to Dillingham, Rashada isn’t the problem.

Arizona State’s struggles running the football

A potential reason for the offensive struggles in the second half? The lack of the run game.

“Running the ball is essential to having a vertical play action game,” Dillingham said. “So you need horses up front to run the ball, to bring the safeties down.”

On ASU’s second snap of the night, graduate student offensive lineman Emmit Bohle went down injured. The Sun Devils were already down two other offensive linemen, graduate student Ben Coleman and junior Isaia Glass.

Now with multiple starters along the offensive line out for long periods of time and others still questionable, ASU is decimated by injuries up front. An unstable offensive line makes it difficult to have a stable run game. That is essential in helping out a young quarterback.

“If you can’t run the ball at the highest level the way you’d want, then you have to find ways to tweak and adapt to find different ways to be successful on first and second down,” said Dillingham.

Second-half struggles continue

ASU failed to get anything going in the second half for the second straight week, going scoreless on only 115 yards. The Sun Devils have yet to score a touchdown in the second half this season and total just three points on 206 yards. Meanwhile, they have scored 36 points on 536 yards in the first half this season.

“Maybe we’ll save a series that we really like that we would carry in the first half or maybe the third series of the game where we know kind of this formation of this structure,” Dillingham said. “Maybe we’ll save that for the second half, so you know, its scripted, what we’re going to do.”

On the Sun Devils opening drive of the second half, they moved the ball well but got stopped on third and one and then a fourth and one. Dillingham said that simply they have to convert those downs and distances. If they had converted, he believed the second half would have turned out differently.

“Is not moving the ball frustrating? Yes…Would it be frustrating if I was a fan? Yes,” Dillingham said. “I think anybody who has vested interest in the games are all in the same boat here.”

What’s the solution?

The frustration with the lack of ball movement is obvious, but Dillingham will continue to trust his process, keying in on effort and getting the best out of his players.

“We’re going to adapt some things, were going to be a little different, especially with some injuries, but at the same token, we’re going to trust our process,” Dillingham said. “The process isn’t the X’s and O’s or the game plan. The process is the standards that are set for the effort, the discipline in your program, the types of people you recruit, and what you want your program to look like in three to four years.”

Dillingham looks to learn from the best

Dillingham had a conversation with vetted Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy. Gundy shared some of his wisdom and the approach he has that has earned him two Big-12 Coach of the Year awards along with a Paul “Bear” Bryant Award.

“I don’t want people to think the process means we’re not trying to win, we are trying to win, we are going to do everything we can to win football games,” Dillingham said. “What he says is you can’t sacrifice what you believe in to try to win. There’s a difference there, and I think that’s what I took from the conversation.”

Dillingham has been impressed with the effort and grit of this team, and that’s the one variable that’s not coachable. He’ll go back to the drawing board with the team, point out the mistakes made, himself included, and together they’ll find the solutions, getting better every day.

“I hate losing, I don’t sleep, I was up until 4 am, I watched the game three times before I closed my eyes for 45 minutes,” Dillingham said. “I don’t sleep if I lose, I just can’t do it.”

Dillingham still has faith in Rashada

Arizona State plays Fresno State next. Dillingham did say transfer quarterback Drew Pyne should be healthy and available but has no plans of making a quarterback change.

I don’t believe in using multiple quarterbacks unless there is an advantage of some sort,” Dillingham said. “I just think it gets people out of rhythm.”

Rashada has impressed Dillingham so far, moving around in the pocket, extending plays, and commanding the offense. Rashada is a very young quarterback and the only way to learn and get better is with practice and playing time.

“We have 99 problems but that ain’t one,” Dillingham said.

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