‘They just fired off the ball’: What Kenny Dillingham said after Utah ran all over Arizona State

It was a frustrating night for Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham and his Sun Devils.

Utah controlled the line of scrimmage against one of the nation’s best defenses at stopping the run, and as a result the Utes rolled past No. 21 Arizona State Saturday night.

It had Dillingham crediting his opposition.

“They just outcoached us, outplayed us, absolutely whooped our butt, and it’s the first time we’ve really gotten whooped like that in a long time,” Dillingham said.

The third-year ASU coach lamented the fact that Utah scored touchdowns on six of its first seven possessions.

The Utes only punted once, and their only other drive of the night that didn’t finish with points came at the end, when Utah simply ran out the clock.

“I think they just fired off the ball. I mean, I wish there was a better way to put it. We got to go back to the fundamentals of defeating blocks and tackling,” Dillingham said.

Devon Dampier powered that rushing attack for the Utes, running for a season-high 120 yards on 10 carries and scoring three touchdowns on the ground.

His first two pushed Utah out to a quick 14-0 lead, and the Sun Devils, who were giving up just 78.2 rushing yards per game going into the night, never recovered.

“Anytime you have a quarterback go for 12 yards a carry, 10 rushes for 120 yards, and those aren’t scrambles, those are the electric runs. I mean, that’s the plus-one that you get in the triple option game, right?” Dillingham said.

“If you look at the running backs, they ran the ball well, but it wasn’t nearly as drastic as the quarterback and the quarterback in the plus-one run. We just couldn’t tackle, and they were giving us a lot of schematic issues with the motions and the shifts and putting them extra O-linemen on the field.”

All totaled, Utah put up 276 rushing yards and 412 yards of total offense.

“They just ran the ball right at us. I think they had … at least 150 plus rushing yards in the first half. I mean, we couldn’t stop them,” Dillingham said.

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The Utes had 183 of those rushing yards in that first half.

While Arizona State was dealing with its own injuries — including one to starting quarterback Sam Leavitt — Dillingham didn’t use that as an excuse.

He called out the domination he saw, particularly from Utah’s offensive line.

“Yeah, 42 rushes, 276 yards. Pretty good. You know, when (Utah) coach (Kyle) Whittingham says the best o-line he’s had, I mean, that tells you all you need to know,” Dillingham said.

“And firsthand, I mean I haven’t played them all, but man, that was a good one and this game suits them, with the triple and the plus-one runs. They’re hard to stop. I was just really, really impressed with how they played, and you’ve got to give them a lot of credit. I mean, that’s a really, really good football team.”

Now, for Dillingham and the Sun Devils, the hope is that one bad loss doesn’t compound to other issues. Arizona State hosts No. 9 Texas Tech this coming Saturday.

“Like I said, glad it’s only worth one game. The challenge is, can you flush it enough to make it only worth one game?,” he said.