Arizona State coach throws his kicker under the bus

Sep 9, 2023; Tempe, Arizona, USA; Arizona State Sun Devils head coach Kenny Dillingham against the Oklahoma State Cowboys at Mountain America Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

The Arizona State Sun Devils fell to the Cincinnati Bearcats on Saturday thanks in part to unreliable kicking, and head coach Kenny Dillingham did not mince words about the problem after the game.

Sun Devils kicker Ian Hershey missed two fourth quarter field goals, from 48 and 41 yards, in the team’s 24-14 loss. Making either kick would have allowed Arizona State to at least try to get the ball back and drive for a game-tying touchdown. The misses have been a problem all season for Hershey, who was only 7/10 on the season coming into the game.

Dillingham had certainly seen enough after the performance. In his postgame press conference, he called the team’s kicking game “atrocious,” and said the Sun Devils would be holding open tryouts during the week.

“Our kicking game is atrocious. If you can kick and you’re at Arizona State, email me. We’re going to have kicking tryouts on Monday. Bring it on. Kicking tryouts on Monday. Let’s go,” Dillingham said. “Yeah, I’m dead serious. We’re going to put it out on our social. We got to find somebody who’ll make a field goal. It makes it even harder late in games when it’s clearly a kick scenario.

“We gotta do a better job getting (Hershey) in a better mental state to kick, but by the same token, I gotta do a job and I got to get guys on the field that can perform in those situations as well. We’ll go to work and get better and have a tryout and see if somebody’s good enough. If somebody’s not, you know what, status quo.”

Getting Hershey in a better mental state is going to be even tougher after he hears remarks like that, but Dillingham has clearly made his decision. Whether he finds the sort of kicker he is looking for remains to be seen.

Dillingham has established himself as a show-stealing figure in his second year at Arizona State. Even after Saturday’s game, the Sun Devils are 5-2 and well past their total of three wins from 2023, so they are obviously headed in the right direction.

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