Arizona State head coach Kenny Dillingham addressed his team’s crushing 24-20 defeat at Mississippi State, where the Sun Devils surrendered a late lead on a 58-yard touchdown pass with 1:38 remaining.
The Bulldogs’ Blake Shapen connected with Brenen Thompson for the game-winning score after Arizona State had taken a 20-17 lead on a field goal.
Dillingham pointed to second-down struggles as a key factor in the loss.
“Second downs were killing us in the first half. We were getting a good decent first down and second down, second and long. And we weren’t converting second downs getting us to the third and long…then we gave up a few big plays on defense, but we had our defense on the field too much the first half.”
The coach acknowledged Mississippi State’s explosiveness. “Yeah, [Mississippi State] is a good football team. They’re explosive and they made an explosive play. We had to take away their explosives in the game in the second half. We did that up until the end there.”
Arizona State faced a critical fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line with the score tied 17-17 and 1:38 left on the clock.
Dillingham opted for the field goal to take a three-point lead rather than risk going for the touchdown.
“Straightforward. We want to take a three-point lead. You’ve got to take the lead. You can’t not take the lead there,” he explained.
Absolute chaos in Starkville as the goalposts come down and fans rush the field following Mississippi State’s 24-20 upset over No. 12 Arizona State at home. @SunDevilSource pic.twitter.com/TRT3BBLy4e
— Gabriella Chernoff (@GabbyJChernoff) September 7, 2025
The loss stung, but Dillingham praised the Starkville atmosphere. “Awesome environment. I mean, as good as I’ve been in. The fans were great, the stadium’s great. Everything about it was awesome. It’s what college football is supposed to be about.”
He emphasized his team’s second-half comeback as a building block moving forward.
“We’re one play away from this press conference being an unbelievable comeback. And that’s football though, right? Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. We have to take what we did good and how we played and how we responded, a 21-point run, and we have to build off that, not the one play at the end of the game.”
Arizona State trailed 17-0 before rallying to take the lead late in the fourth quarter.
Dillingham noted his players’ composure during the comeback. “Our guys weren’t nervous. They were very calm. They were like, ‘We’ve been here before. We’re ready for this.'”
“I told them, we talk about facing adversity and responding to failure all season, all camp. Because I know that when you have success, it’s not about everybody telling you how good you are. It’s what happens in the moment that you fail.”
The coach tried to put the defeat in perspective for his team.
“Like I told them, we’re down 17 on the road and we battled back, took the lead, and we’re that close to winning the game. The reality is right, we’re not in conference play yet. Hopefully, we learn from this and get better and better and better.”
Arizona State returns home to face Texas State on Saturday night as they look to bounce back from the heartbreaking road loss.
MORE COLLEGE FOOTBALL NEWS:
