Whether it's taking over a new team, installing a new offense, dealing with injuries, or meeting your match defensively, there comes a time when even the best offensive play callers struggle with slow first half starts.
So when Kenny Dillingham was asked about a strategy to deal with precisely that during his presser yesterday, my ears perked up.
Coming off a 27-15 loss to Oklahoma State on Saturday, Dillingham and Arizona State struggled for the second straight week in the second half of their most recent game after scoring all 15 of their points in the opening half against the Cowboys, and was asked if there's something they may do different, or a new strategy they may implement moving forward.
Dillingham, who has coordinated offenses at Memphis, Auburn, Florida State and Oregon, shared that he has liked to save some of his top schemes for the second half in the past.
"In the past, sometimes we save some of our top calls for the second half, or kind of held a series."
"Not all the time, but sometimes when I have been on teams that have struggled getting out in the second half, so maybe we will save a series that we really like that we would normally carry in the first half or the third series of the game - where we kind of know we like this formation or this structure - maybe we'll save that for the second half so we kind of know and script out where we're going to as long as they're in their base plan and nothing has shocked us."
Dillingham goes on to share that strategy is a bit tougher to roll out earlier in the season.
"It's hard to do that when you're early in a season, because you haven't seen everything they've shown, because there's a lot more outliers. So you don't want to hold something, because you don't know exactly what you're going to get, like you do when the season progresses, but that could be something that we get to more."
Hear more from Dillingham in the clip.