Following a loss to Houston on Saturday that snapped a 10-game home winning streak, Arizona State football head coach Kenny Dillingham said he was proud of the expectations that fans placed on the program during that span.

“It’s great to set an expectation to win every home game and that’s how it should be. You’re not going to, but that should be the expectation, and that’s the expectation I have too,” Dillingham said postgame.

“It was upsetting that we couldn’t get it done for the fans tonight. They’ve been great, and the crowds have been great.”

ASU’s home-winning streak began with a win against Wyoming in the 2024 season opener. During the span, the Sun Devils rattled off four victories against AP Top 25 teams, including a win against then No. 7 Texas Tech last week. ASU’s longest home winning streak in program history was 14 wins that took place between 1980 and 1982.

“It was a good run. Ten games in a row here with great environments. We’ve really built a great environment, and unfortunately we couldn’t get it done tonight,” Dillingham said.

The loss also marked quarterback Sam Leavitt‘s first loss at Mountain America Stadium, who left Saturday’s game twice due to injury. ASU’s loss was plagued by mistakes, including 12 penalties for 76 yards which frustrated the home crowd during the third quarter that saw some fans throw bottles and other items onto the field.

Dillingham frustrated over ASU’s loss

With the loss, ASU (5-3, 3-2 Big 12) dropped its second conference game of the season. With BYU and Cincinnati being undefeated in conference play, the Sun Devils face a tough hill to climb and will likely need some help for a chance at reaching the Big 12 Championship game in December.

Dillingham said he was pretty frustrated after the loss on Saturday but noted that the Sun Devils had the same conference record at this point last season and he is confident in the team’s ability to get back on track.

“I was pretty mad in the locker room. But at the end it’s like ‘listen, we are in the same spot as we were last year. We just got to get better and everybody’s got to look themselves in the mirror and we got to go improve and that’s all you can do,’” Dillingham said.

“It’s frustrating. You hate losing and you hate losing at home. It was a really good run of winning at home and now we got to start another run the next time we come home.”

ASU’s next game

ASU will head to Jack Trice Stadium to face Iowa State (5-3, 2-3 Big 12) on Saturday. Kickoff time is at 10 a.m. and can be seen on TNT.