Kenny Dillingham broke out an age-old adage when discussing the travel hurdles his Arizona State team cleared to travel to Orlando, Florida, to thrash Central Florida 26-13 in Big 12 play on Saturday, Nov. 14.
“Excuses are like buttholes,” Dillingham told reporters in his postgame news conference. “Everybody has them and they all stink. And that’s what tonight would have been. Like, it's just an excuse. At the end of the day you're going to take the field, for 60 minutes, and play a football game.
"You're either going to get it done or you're not. Nobody's going to care what the circumstance was, because nobody cares about circumstances. They care about results.”
stoppage
Dillingham's comments came after a nationwide ground stoppage by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that affected many college football teams' ability to travel to their Week 11 games. That included the Sun Devils, whose cross-country flight out of Tempe, Arizona, to Orlando was delayed till Nov. 14, the same day as the game.
The Sun Devils and Knights' game, originally scheduled for 3:30 p.m. ET, was moved back two hours to 5:30 p.m. ET. Making things more difficult for Dillingham and Co. is the fact the team had to catch a 6 a.m. flight to Orlando.
Dillingham lauded his team's ability to not only handle the adverse travel conditions, but also for their personal responsibility for streamlining the travel process.
"We let 105 college kids stay in their own room the night before a game, and everybody was in their seats at 5:54 in the morning. Early. Talk about a good sign. And when I saw that happened, I was like, 'OK. It's Friday night in Tempe. It's the most unique thing that could happen. And we got everybody, (every) person six minutes early, ready to rock, at 5:54 a.m. Zero complaints from our football team."
Quarterback Jake Fette completed 21 of 36 passes for 196 yards while the Sun Devils rushed 42 times for 165 yards and two scores, including 25 rushes for 111 yards and a score from Cardae Mack. The defense held UCF to 311 total yards, including just 54 rushing.
With the win, Arizona State advanced to 6-4 and 4-3 in Big 12 play. The Sun Devils' next game is scheduled to take place at home vs. Oklahoma State on Nov. 21 at 10:15 p.m. ET.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Arizona State football endured travel chaos. Kenny Dillingham's NSFW response says it all
