Kenny Dillingham Discusses Special Teams Play in Practice

TEMPE -- The Arizona State Sun Devils sport the number 24 ranking in the nation heading into a battle with the 6-1 Houston Cougars this Saturday at Mountain America Stadium.

While there are many areas of the team that appear to be well-oiled machines heading into the matchup, the special teams group needed to show marked improvement - at least per head coach Kenny Dillingham following the 26-22 victory over Texas Tech last Saturday.

"Yeah, special teams atrocious," said Dillingham in his post-game press conference. "Probably address that at a later date as I watch the tape. Unacceptable or blank, unacceptable field goals, unbelievable. Made them all great job by Jesus (Gomez), but, yeah, unacceptable, inexcusable. I'm going to get it fixed."

What Went Wrong on Saturday

While Gomez made all four field goals and both extra points en route to winning another Big 12 Special Teams Player of the Week award, the punt coverage was subpar - specifically in the fourth quarter.

Punter Kanyon Floyd has been listed on the injury report in recent weeks, but played in the game Saturday - netting two punts inside the 20 yard line - which granted a long field for the Sun Devil defense to operate from. The two punts that didn't go according to plan resulted in Texas Tech having short fields to work with offensively - which led to the two late touchdown drives that gave the Red Raiders the lead.

The tackling, coverage, and other factors have been an emphasis in practice this week - with Dillingham being more pleased with how things have gone this week to this point compared to what was seen in-game.

"Yeah, I think our special teams experience have been juice. They've been amped. You know, you wish that you could just, like, flip a switch and be good at something. So does that mean hard work does not translate to success? Hard work gives you the best opportunity to be successful. So I think this week, the way that we worked on special teams is going to give us the best opportunity to be successful. Is these two days enough to be successful. I don't know, right, but I know that we couldn't have worked harder. We couldn't have done more. So from that perspective, I'm excited to see that unit play."

Charlie Ragle's special teams unit will be challenged with a Houston group that is very sound and adept at avoiding mistakes - it will be fascinating to see what transpires over the course of the game on Saturday evening.

Read more on why the Arizona State men's basketball team will exceed expectations in the 2025-26 season here, and on three major takeaways from the win over Texas Tech here.