Kenny Dillingham is facing adversity that he hasn’t seen since his first season at Arizona State.
The Sun Devils are now 2-2 on the season following a humiliating 55-19 defeat to Baylor on Oct. 3. Arizona State is now in the midst of playing nine consecutive poor quarters of football.
Head coach Kenny Dillingham took major accountability for the poor performance on Saturday nght.
This trend became a major theme of the 36-year-old’s Oct. 5 press conference.
Dillingham Again Takes Responsibility for Loss
The fourth-year head coach took as much accountability on Monday as he did on Saturday night.
Dillingham is alluding to how easy it is to take the road of pointing fingers towards players. He isn’t taking that path (Chris Karpman, SunDevilSource).
Arizona State “Will be Better” Moving Forward
Dillingham built off the statement showing accountability by making a bold plea to the Arizona State fanbase (Karpman).
“You’re going to see significant improvement.”
The general sentiment around the fanbase is that the 2026 season is a lost one. Whether the critique lies in Cutter Boley’s performance, a generally shaky offensive line, or an under-performing defense, the general belief remains relatively uniform.
Week six is perhaps coming to Arizona State at the correct time, as 1-4 Hawaii is coming to Tempe this Saturday. While Hawaii isn’t necessarily a pushover, they are a manageable opponent heading into Oct. 17 against Texas Tech.
Dillingham is also alluding to changes being on the horizon, but won’t go into detail as to what the changes will be.
On the surface, there are a small handful of depth chart tweaks that could be in the works. The clearest one is officially starting tackle Champ Westbrooks, who is perhaps the most talented player on the offensive line. Westbrooks is much more ready to take on play-by-play volatility at this stage, and is performing better than Luke Baklenko at this stage.
The other consideration rests in the cornerback room. Daquwan Dunn and Caleb Chester appear ready to take on larger roles while Rodney Bimage Jr. and Ashton Stamps struggle at times.
The trajectory of the next few weeks is uncertain for Arizona State. Whether Dillingham’s fourth season goes off the rails or not is up for debate at the moment, a trio of Big 12 games coming up will ultimately dictate this hypothesis.
In the meantime, Arizona State and Hawaii square off at 7:30 P.M. MST on Saturday night.
Arizona State’s Kenny Dillingham Reaffirms Taking Charge Following Ugly Loss