Highlighting Kenny Dillingham's Monday Press Conference

While he did say he would have handled the defensive coverage differently on the game-winning touchdown scored by Mississippi State, he did defend the process behind trying to send the house at Bulldog QB Blake Shapen in the effort of securing a sack and effectively ending the game.

The third-year coach also self-criticized when it came to the game that redshirt sophomore Sam Leavitt had - stating that his performance did not dictate the second half gameplan, and that he has to do a better job to put the 20-year old in better positions to ease into games.

Belief in Leavitt Still Exists

Leavitt's career-worst game of 10-22 passing for 82 yards and two interceptions has been a major point of contention within the Sun Devil fanbase.

Dillingham and the coaching staff still vehemently believes in Leavitt's ability to elevate the offense. He Alluded to the fact that he needs to find a balance between setting the talented QB up for the big play and setting up the safe play.

At the end of the day no words were left minced. "I wouldn't trade him for any other quarterback in the country. That's the quarterback I want to coach."

Dillingham Discusses Meaning of Playing Texas Teams, Recruiting in State

A question surrounding the program playing four of their next five games against Texas schools and what that means to the coaches in terms of building the pipeline was asked.

Dillingham was incredibly clear in stressing the importance of excelling in those games, as programs such as Texas Tech and Baylor are typically in the running for the same crop of players.

The Sun Devils have made the "Texas to Tempe" pipeline a serious point of emphasis under Dillingham, as players such as Fite, Smith, and Xavion Alford hail from the state, as does All-American candidate Jordyn Tyson.

Bryan Carrington has truly taken the mantle of Texas expert to heart as well - the Houston grad has built up an incredible track record over the last two seasons as both a coach and a recruiter.

Arizona State's battles against Texas State, Baylor, Texas Christian, and Texas Tech have much potential to be very consequential moving forward.

Dillingham Praises Defensive Stars

The press conference was wrapped up when Dillingham was asked about the duo of EDGE Clayton Smith and LB Keyshaun Elliot - the two combined for four of six tackles for loss.

The praise of the two was sizable.

"I mean, Clayton's gained 15 pounds. You could see it. He got to bull rush some, which wasn't really in his arsenal last year, and squeeze the pocket. He brought a good twist game there at the end of the first half... and then Keyshaun's pound-for-pound the strongest - he always wins our iron man award... to see both of those guys have success is huge and I think it was one of our better games at impacting the quarterback before..."

C.J. Fite, Jacob Rich Kongaika, and Rodney Bimage are other Sun Devils that deserve much credit for the typically strong effort, save for the three long touchdowns allowed. Overall, the Arizona State defense under Brian Ward has potential to be the best unit in Tempe in years - if the group fine-tunes some weaknessess and truly leans into the depth within the roster.

Read more on major takeaways from Arizona State's week two loss here, and on taking a dive into coach Dillingham's comments after the game here.