A sixth game for Arizona State means a sixth head coach who is preparing to take on the Sun Devils.
Texas Tech head football coach Joey McGuire took the podium this week, preparing to host ASU for the first time since 2024, when Tech took down ASU.
This time around, the Red Raiders are ranked. The last time they were ranked and played the Devils? ASU came away with the victory, pulling off the upset in Tempe.
Now, this weekend, it will be the rubber match in this three-game series between ASU HC Kenny Dillingham and McGuire.
Here is everything the reigning Big 12 champion coach said about Arizona State:
Overall Thoughts On ASU, Dillingham
"Big fan of Kenny's. Man, he does a great job. If you look at the last two games that we've played, we're 1-1 against Arizona State. Both of them have come down to the wire. They've been really physical games, so we're expecting that. We're expecting a really physical game against Arizona State again. Opportunity to go 1-0 and stay undefeated in Big 12 play. That's our goal: to stay undefeated,"
McGuire's Thoughts on ASU QB Cutter Boley
"He's a big quarterback, big arm. I mean, six-five, man. He does a really good job. They're a big play-action team, and he does a really good job on hard fakes. We always talk about the safeties not putting their nose where it doesn't belong. A lot of times, those hard fakes, pull those safeties down, and he's doing a good job with that. He's got two, he's got more than two, but he's got two big-time receivers (Reed Harris and Omarion Miller). I think one of them is leading the conference (Harris), both of them are projected NFL guys, and so we've got to do a good job. He does a really good job of getting them the ball, and I think you know that 10-to-19 yard range. He's one of the best quarterbacks in the country statistically, I'm sure what they're talking about is kind of what we're talking about. You've got to be better with a deep ball and create more explosive plays. But he's really effective when you're talking about that 10-yard, that intermediate route, he's been really effective this year."
McGuire's Thoughts on ASU's Defense
"They got a lot of new guys. Year one and year two, playing those guys, they had a lot of returners. They had a lot of guys that we're familiar with, and this year, they've got some kids from Texas, but the (C.J.) Fite kid, that's a Texas kid, East Texas kid, defensive tackle. He's back, and he's really kind of their leader. But they're very physical, and it's going to be interesting because it seemed like, against Baylor, there were times that...I don't know their game planning. I thought they did an elite job last year against us. Against us, I thought their game plan on the offensive side of the ball, defensive side of the ball, was elite. Thought it was one of the best tackling teams that we've played since I've been here. When they played Baylor, they seemed to be really complicated, and they kind of got lost in some stuff, and then you turn around and play Hawaii, and it looked like they simplified some stuff to just let their guys go play. So I think they're going to be really aggressive, and they're going to move up front. But their defense coordinator does a great job. He's been a tough guy to play against."
Reflecting On Last Year's Loss in Tempe
"That was one thing I challenged the coaches on yesterday, because we didn't do that (finding a way to win) last year. We found a way to come back, but we didn't find a way to win the game. We took the lead, and they beat us in a two-minute drill. We lost the game, so I think that's something that we've got. I do feel like that our coaching staff definitely will have a chip on their shoulder as far as coming into this game because, quite frankly, I told them, and I believe this, I thought they outcoached us last year, so we've got to do a really good job this week of having an elite game plan to put our guys in a good position and then just go 1-0."
A Respect, And Rivalry, For Arizona State
"I get a lot of jabs, and I love these jabs because I'm very proud to be a Texas high school coach. But you know what? On that Arizona State staff, they got a bunch of high school coaches. They've got a bunch of dudes that have won at a really high level in high school, and to me, whenever you have guys like that, they can play with whoever they have. That's the thing. They're not sitting there waiting for, you know, ever how many first-round draft picks to walk through the building. This is what we have. We've got to go play at a really high level to win games with what we have. So I think that they adapt really well."
"Kenny has a really good culture, you could tell that those guys play really hard for him. He's very connected with his players. They do a good job recruiting with that, and then he's got some veteran coaches that have been in a lot of different places, high school and college, at different places. So I think that is what they benefit from, and then I do think they play really hard, you know, and their coaches do a good job of coaching fundamental football, and that's what showed up last year.
"Mack (Offensive Coordinator Mack Leftwich), he already knows this, but I think we put too much last year around the quarterback run game, and you know, got away from J'Koby (RB J'Koby Williams and Cam (RB Cam Dickey, and you know, this week we're not going to get away from Jacoby and Q (RB Quinten Joyner), and if Ace (RB Ashton Rowden) is in there, we're gonna we're gonna make sure those running backs are the ones that are touching the ball in the run game. I think we probably put too much on Will (QB Will Hammond) last year, being a real young guy, and I think it really goes back to probably what he did against Utah, where we felt like we could do that again. I know Will's going to be fired up, because this is the one start that he had last year that he got beat in, and so I know he's going to be excited to get a little redemption."
Hammond and McGuire will look for revenge this Saturday when the No. 10 Texas Tech Red Raiders and Arizona State Sun Devils face off at 2:30 p.m. EST.
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