Kenny Dillingham and the Arizona State Sun Devils were one 4th-and-13 stop away from playing Ohio State in the Goodyear Cotton Bowl for a spot in the national title game.
Unfortunately, that would-be stop ended up being a 28-yard touchdown strike for Texas, which sent the game into double-overtime.
During the postgame press conference, Dillingham took “100%” responsibility for the loss, pointing to that particular play in the first overtime sequence that eventually cost his team the game.
On that play, Arizona State showed a “Cover 0” look, which means there are no safeties deep and a blitz is coming. Seeing that, Quinn Ewers checked to “Max Pro,” which means all offensive players inside the box were to stay in and pass protect for the quarterback.
At that moment, Dillingham couldn’t check out of the look, so he had to let it ride. Unfortunately, Texas ended up taking advantage of the opportunity and extended the game.
In the days following the Sun Devils’ gut-wrenching loss, ASU safety Xavion Alford has been taking a lot of flak from fans for getting beat deep on the play.
Seeing that, Coach Dillingham stepped up to the plate for his player and went to bat once again, reiterating what he said postgame in a post on X.
“I want to reiterate my postgame comments about the 4th down call, I called,” Dilllingham wrote. “I wanted to bring essentially 0 blitz that plays out like cov 4, our safety [Xavion Alford] is taught to catch intermediate routes bc the ball should come out fast. He did exactly what we coached. That play is 100% on me not him, and I want to make that 100% clear. We would not have been in this position without “X” he was one of the instrumental pieces to this season and program!”
In that particular call, Alford would be responsible for “intermediate” routes like curls, slants, outs, etc. One of Steve Sarkisian’s favorite routes to hit over the middle of the field is an in-cut, or dig, and would’ve been a likely route to see on a long passing down like this one.
For Dillingham to not only defend his players at the podium, but to also have their back during the social media era, too, is pretty awesome. No wonder players want to come to Tempe to play for him.
Luckily for Alford, and the rest of the Sun Devils’ program, it sounds like Dillingham will be around for a while after signing a contract extension before the Peach Bowl.
