Arizona State head coach Kenny Dillingham left Starkville with heartbreak after a 24–20 loss at Mississippi State. After ASU pulled ahead late in the game, Mississippi State quarterback Blake Shapen connected with Brenen Thompson for a 58-yard game-winning touchdown.
Dillingham was disappointed, but he made it clear his team’s response mattered as much as the result. “Second downs were killing us in the first half. We were getting a good decent first down and second down, second and long. And we weren’t converting second downs getting us to the third and long...then we gave up a few big plays on defense, but we had our defense on the field too much the first half…Yeah, [Mississippi State] is a good football team. They’re explosive and they made an explosive play. We had to take away their explosives in the game in the second half. We did that up until the end there.”
On his decision to kick a go-ahead field goal with 1:38 left in the game, Arizona State faced a 4th and goal from the 1-yard line with the score tied at 17. Dillingham was firm in his explanation. “Straightforward. We want to take a three-point lead. You've got to take the lead. You can’t not take the lead there.”
Absolute chaos in Starkville as the goalposts come down and fans rush the field following Mississippi State's 24-20 upset over No. 12 Arizona State at home. @SunDevilSource pic.twitter.com/TRT3BBLy4e
— Gabriella Chernoff (@GabbyJChernoff) September 7, 2025
Despite the loss, the head coach was impressed by the Starkville setting itself. “Awesome environment. I mean, as good as I’ve been in. The fans were great, the stadium’s great. Everything about it was awesome. It’s what college football is supposed to be about. Unfortunately, we wound up on the other side of it of a really, really, really good football game.”
His team’s second-half rally provided hope. “We’re one play away from this press conference being an unbelievable comeback. And that’s football though, right? Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. We have to take what we did good and how we played and how we responded, a 21-point run, and we have to build off that, not the one play at the end of the game.”
Dillingham pointed to the character of his players. “Our guys weren’t nervous. They were very calm. They were like, ‘We’ve been here before. We’re ready for this.’ I told them, we talk about facing adversity and responding to failure all season, all camp. Because I know that when you have success, it’s not about everybody telling you how good you are. It’s what happens in the moment that you fail...Like I told them, we’re down 17 on the road and we battled back, took the lead, and we’re that close to winning the game. The reality is right, we’re not in conference play yet. Hopefully, we learn from this and get better and better and better.”
Arizona State will look to bounce back next week when they host Texas State on Saturday night.
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