ASU’s Dillingham ‘serious’ about kicking tryouts​

After three straight games without a made field goal, Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham has run out of patience.

“Our kicking game’s atrocious,” Dillingham said after ASU’s 24-14 loss to Cincinnati on Saturday. “So, if you can kick and you’re at Arizona State, email me. We’re going to have kicking tryouts on Monday, so bring it on.”

Asked if he was serious, Dillingham doubled down.

“I’m dead serious. We’re going to put it out on our social. We’re going to have a kicking tryout on Monday,” he said. “We got to find somebody who can make a field goal. It makes it even harder late in games when it’s clearly a kick scenario. That’s when it gets really hard.”

Sun Devils kicker Ian Hershey, who began his career at Idaho State, badly missed attempts from 48 and 41 yards on the Sun Devils’ final two drives of the game. Hershey is 7-of-12 on field goal attempts this season and 18-of-19 on extra point attempts. Redshirt freshman Carston Kieffer missed his only field goal attempt this season in the opener against Wyoming.

“[Hersey] was kicking good pregame. So, I felt good about it, but you know, it is what it is,” Dillingham said. “We got to do a better job getting him in a better mental state to kick. But at the same token, I got to do a job and I got to get guys on the field that can perform in those situations as well.”

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A few hours after the postgame news conference, Dillingham apologized on X, indicating his comments needlessly put the blame on one player.

“I would like to apologize in my postgame press conference I talked about our kicking game like I do offense / defense,” he wrote. “However the kicking game is always directed at one player. I should not have done that and I apologize. This team’s losses will always 100% fall on myself.”

Dillingham acknowledged an open tryout won’t necessarily lead to a change, in which case the team will stick with the status quo.

“If somebody is [good enough], then, you know, welcome to the team and we’ll rock and roll from there,” Dillingham said.

Looking to the student body for help in the kicking game isn’t without precedent.

In 2022, Ole Miss added punter Charlie Pollock to the roster, after which coach Lane Kiffin, said, “I don’t know a whole lot about him. I think he was down at the frat house at a keg party or something where they got him from.”

In 2008, the late Mike Leach recruited student Matt Williams to the team at Texas Tech after watching him kick a 30-yard field goal during an in-game contest. Williams would remain with the team through the 2010 season.