{"id":901889,"date":"2026-11-01T07:18:25","date_gmt":"2026-11-01T07:18:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/901889\/"},"modified":"2026-11-01T07:18:25","modified_gmt":"2026-11-01T07:18:25","slug":"arizona-state-coach-kenny-dillingham-reflects-on-loss-to-byu-deseret-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/901889\/","title":{"rendered":"Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham reflects on loss to BYU \u2013 Deseret News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Arizona State may have given No. 8 BYU a true Halloween fright, but the Cougars managed to avoid another upset by fending off the Sun Devils late for a 27-20 victory Saturday in Provo.<\/p>\n

It was the first trip to LaVell Edwards Stadium for Kenny Dillingham since taking the helm of Arizona State\u2019s program, and he offered plenty of praise for the afternoon\u2019s atmosphere and environment.<\/p>\n

\u201cKalani (Sitake)\u2019s a great coach. This is a top-10 team in the country with over a 10-game winning streak at home with a sold-out crowd,\u201d Dillingham told reporters postgame. <\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, (BYU fans) were in there doing chants two hours before kickoff. I\u2019ve never seen anything like it. Literally, two hours before kickoff, their student body and their fans are in there practicing chants. It was unbelievable to experience, and you\u2019ve got to give them a lot of credit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Controversy emerged early in Saturday\u2019s action, as BYU\u2019s opening touchdown \u2014 a Bear Bachmeier goal line fumble which was recovered by and advanced into the end zone by Sione Moa \u2014 was awarded following a pair of lengthy replay reviews.<\/p>\n

Dillingham, who was visibly upset on the sideline regarding the touchdown ruling, shed some light on his frustration.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, the rule is, if the ball is fumbled and the whistle blows, the only way to advance it is a clear and imminent advancement. There may be some other fancy words instead of those words, and they reviewed it. They didn\u2019t think it was recovered. Then they reviewed it again. So, needing a double review, I would think that that\u2019s not a clear and imminent advancement if you have to review it twice,\u201d Dillingham said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the second review, after they reviewed it and called it a clear advancement of the ball, I was trying to argue that he does have the right to recover it post-whistle, because that\u2019s not a clear advancement, which means the ball should be on the three.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dillingham continued, \u201cObviously, that wasn\u2019t what happened, and it\u2019s not the officials\u2019 fault. Those officials don\u2019t have a say in that. That\u2019s all back (at the replay center). I was talking to them, but I wasn\u2019t overly yelling because I\u2019m yelling at the messenger.\u201d<\/p>\n

BYU bounced back with a 27-20 win over Arizona State on Saturday afternoon, but it wasn’t easy. Now, the Cougars’ focus turns to Rivalry Week and Utah.<\/p>\n

After trailing 17-3 at halftime, Arizona State rallied for two touchdowns to tie the game entering the fourth quarter. BYU responded with 10 unanswered points, including a 95-yard touchdown drive, to prevent suffering a second consecutive loss.<\/p>\n

Despite coming up short and falling to 4-4 on the season, the Sun Devils put up an admirable fight against BYU, holding the Cougars to just 47 yards rushing, forcing two turnovers and frustrating them for the majority of the contest.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can tell we\u2019re not going to quit as an organization, as a program. You can tell our guys had energy, our guys played with passion tonight. They played hard. They played physical. They played the way that I want us to play. They\u2019re playing ASU football again,\u201d Dillingham said. <\/p>\n

\u201c… I think we just have to continue to build on that these last four weeks of the season, one game at a time. You know, we found that piece of it, but it wasn\u2019t enough to get it done tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Arizona State Sun Devils head coach Kenny Dillingham complains to referees about a call during a game against BYU at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday, October 31, 2026. | Lukas Katilius, Deseret News <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arizona State may have given No. 8 BYU a true Halloween fright, but the Cougars managed to avoid…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":901890,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[399,398,396,397,3125,99],"class_list":["post-901889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-football","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-ncaafootball","tag-news-feed-local","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=901889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/901890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=901889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=901889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=901889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}