It only takes one game to turn a head coach into a headline, and it’s not always for the right reasons. For Kenny Dillingham, it happened during a game against Brigham Young University, led by Kalani Sitake, last season. Although Arizona State ended up winning the game 28-23, it was the aftermath that made the contest unforgettable. And what the Sun Devils’ head coach did in the last minute also left the fans and analysts scratching their heads.

The Sitake squad was on the verge of making a miraculous comeback after being down 21-3 at halftime. The Cougars’ star QB Jake Retzlaff’s second interception of the game in the final minutes took the scoreline to 28-23. But what happened next was unthinkable as ASU decided to run backwards instead of making it a two-possession game. However, ASU’s QB, Sam Leavitt, chucked the ball on the fourth down as the time ran up and Arizona State’s students rushed the field, thinking that they had won the game. But the review showed that there was still a second left in the game.

It took 13 minutes for officials to usher fans off the field. As the game resumed, the Sun Devils secured the win as Retzlaff’s pass fell a few yards short of the endzone. Dillingham is someone who has always trusted his instincts, and that mindset has earned him both praise and criticism. However, being bold doesn’t always mean being right, and he must’ve felt the same in the last season. His decision to burn the clock in an unusual way instead of running the game almost backfired on him in front of a packed stadium.

Now, nearly a year later, he addressed the infamous ending during the ‘College GameDay’ podcast with Rece Davis and Pete Thamel. During the podcast, Dillingham was asked, “Will you ever do that again? Will you try to run out the clock by running backwards?” And he was completely honest with it, admitting that it was a huge blunder by him.

“Oh, 100%, in the right situation,” the Arizona State head coach said. “Let’s say you’re up one point, you’re on the four-yard line, there’s a minute and 40 seconds left. Do you want to score and go up eight and give them the ball back? No, you want to be able to run out the clock. Where I failed was that we could have taken a two-possession lead, so it wasn’t worth doing what I did. 100% a mistake. Is uh 100% stupid, dumb.”

According to Dillingham, the idea wasn’t the problem, but the timing was. He was trying to play smart football, but now, as he looks back, he realizes that the situation didn’t ask for that kind of risk. “I will never do that again, what we did. Is there a place for what we did at the right moment? Yes. But we were not in that moment to do that. So that was 100% a mistake by me,” he said. With that said, as Dillinghan looks ahead, he’s putting his trust in a guy who’ll be running the show in the upcoming season, their quarterback, Sam Leavitt.

Kenny Dillingham makes a bold claim about Sam Leavitt

The Sun Devils’ head coach also talked about his star quarterback, Sam Leavitt, the same player who played a big role in that BYU game. And despite that final-minute drama, Dillingham has a lot of faith in Leavitt. During the podcast, Rece Davis talked about who can be the top 5 quarterbacks in the upcoming college football season and also asked Dillingham, “Why should your guy be in the list?”

“Oh, he’s a competitor. He makes plays that we don’t call the play for.” The kind of appreciation says a lot. The young QB might not always follow the script, but his on-field decisiveness makes him a contender for the top 5 QB in the 2025 season. “I think anytime that your quarterback makes you look good, you’ve got a chance. So, not only does he make plays when we don’t call a good call, he extends the plays, right? He can make the rhythm play, too. He can make the play in rhythm,” he said.

Dillingham continued to heap praise on Leavitt and brought up his performance against Texas last year. “He can go and scramble. Like the end of the Texas game, even though we didn’t get it done on a huge third and 15 in overtime, he goes and scrambles. It’s reminiscent of Jake Plummer, right? Then he works like a champion. Everybody sees him work like a champion. He prepares like a champion,” he said.

However, for both Kenny Dillingham and Sam Leavitt, the BYU ending memory isn’t going away anytime soon, but they should take it as a lesson. The goal should be simple for the upcoming season: no chaos, only control. And if Dillingham’s recent comments are anything to go by, he has learned from his mistakes and is ready to move forward.