Arizona State has been ravaged by the injury bug this season.
It started with high-profile freshman quarterback Jaden Rashada and the latest unit that has gotten very thin is the big guys up front, particularly on the offensive line.
Still, since taking more control of the offense, Arizona State has fought admirably week in and week out and has been in some tight games, and this past weekend was another example of that.
Washington was a top five team taking on the Sun Devils at home, and Dillingham and Arizona State had the Huskies on the ropes giving them everything they could handle Saturday night until a late snafu.
Late in the game, holding onto a one-point lead, Washington got away with a blatant defensive holding call deep in their own territory.
This was not called a holding. pic.twitter.com/5T9h9oRNqz
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) October 22, 2023
That controversial no-call led to a critical fourth and three on Washington's 12-yard line. Clinging to a one-point lead, Kenny Dillingham and Arizona State opted to not kick the field goal that would have put them up by four in a game where points were at a premium.
Instead they went for it...and the result was an 89-yard pick six for Washington that essentially put the game away with 8-minutes left.
PICKED OFF !!!!@UW_Football takes it 89 yards TO THE HOUSE 😤 pic.twitter.com/fDVtA9LGQa
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) October 22, 2023
After the game, many were left wondering why Dillingham didn't opt to kick the field goal that would have put them up four.
His answer highlighted just how thin they were up front, and he shared how they discussed as a staff heading into the game that losing two lineman would mean they weren't comfortable using the field goal unit.
That's exactly what happened. One lineman went down, and they had a field goal blocked, and then they lost another lineman and their nightmare was realized with arguably the hottest team in college football on the ropes.
“We were down two linemen, and we went in saying ‘if we lost two more linemen, we couldn’t kick field goals’. So, one lineman was risky, and we knew it, so we kicked the one-field goal...and that one got blocked. Then we lost another o-linemen, so it was a ‘no go’ and we couldn’t kick it.”
Anyone can complain, and that's not who Dillingham is - and if he didn't resort to it after being blindsided with a self-imposed bowl ban by the AD that just hired him - he wasn't going to do it in this situation either.
Instead, he got creative with a potential solution, and called on the student body in Tempe for some help.
“I don’t know if there are big bodies at ASU who just go there that want to play field goal for us. If you weigh 330 pounds, and I mean it, reach out to our team...because we need big bodies to put out there on field goal because we’re down a lot of them.”
We've all seen stories of kickers getting tryouts mid-season, but how about the opportunity for some big fellas around campus to earn some time in some Power Five conference action!?