Now that the trip to London is over, Arizona State football coach Kenny Dillingham says he would do it all over again. But he'd like some changes.
TheSun Devils (2-1) returned home on Sunday, Sept. 20, fresh off a 24-17 win over Kansas at iconic Wembley Stadium in the first college football game played in the country.
It was a rewarding venture for Dillingham's squad, which will have a week off to regroup from the overseas trip.
"I think our players had an unbelievable experience, and we won a football game," Dillingham said. "At the end of the day, winning is hard. And I want to win. That's really all I care about. End game stats are for losers. I'm trying to find ways to win football games, and we won a football game.
"We gave our guys an unbelievable
experience. I was fired up about it. I would do another thing like that if it presented itself. I would hope there would be some changes in terms of the scheduling and the structure. I'd be tired again, but I don't care; it is what it is. There are challenges to it, but as long as there is an equal competitive challenge, it doesn't matter. I think it's a great experience for the guys."
The inequities Dillingham referred to were in the scheduling. The week before the foreign game, which also served as the Big 12 opener for both schools, Kansas played at home against Missouri on Friday, Sept. 11.
Meanwhile, ASU played on Saturday, Sept. 12, at Texas A&M. So, things were not equal. Because ASU was already on the road, the Sun Devils flew straight from Texas to London, which made for a 10-day road trip spanning two continents.
Dillingham knows that tweaks will be made in the future. The conference has a contract for the game that runs through 2030. The participants for the 2027 game have not yet been announced, but commissioner Brett Yormark said that will come in the next "one or two months."
Dillingham provided an interesting analogy.
"It's what is best for the student-athlete and the student-athlete experience, and there's no doubt taking a kid overseas and giving them that experience is a positive effect on his life," he said. "There's zero doubt. I don't think anybody can argue that. Is that the best for our football season? The answer is no. To say anything otherwise would be asinine, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't do it.
"You can have a baby and love your child and not be happy that he wakes you up at 12:30 at the same time. That's possible. That's allowed, but you're like dang. You still want your child. It can be both."
Dillingham said it was a learning experience for him too.
"I think I would do a better job of managing it myself, managing the hours," he said. "And I would do a better job of managing me on a trip the next time we did it."
Next up for ASU is an Oct. 3 game against Baylor at 7:30 p.m. MST at Mountain America Stadium. It will be the first of nine straight weeks the Sun Devils will play.
Dillingham gave the team three days off, but it will be back on the field on Sept. 23. The practice will be lighter than usual as the team adjusts back to the time, temperature and routine in Tempe. He said it is also to maintain a level of conditioning.
"Unlike a normal bye where we get a lot of work in, on the football field we'd correct a lot of issues; this is more let's get back to a normal status post the trip," he said. "It does take time to get back. I can't bring these guys back with their body clocks all messed up, and say, ' Let's go have a 22-period practice.' That's not smart."
Long earns another honor
A day after being named Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week, ASU junior linebacker Owen Long has earned another accolade.
Long has been named the Bronko Nagurski National Defensive Player of the Week.
Long finished with 12 tackles, an interception, a forced fumble, and a fumble recovery. It was his first career interception, second forced fumble, and third fumble recovery. He now has 11 games with 10+ tackles in his career, though that was his first in an ASU uniform.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona State football coach Kenny Dillingham would do another foreign trip
