Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham to conduct kicking experiments

After three straight games without a field goal, Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham’s patience ran out.

“Our kicking game is terrible,” Dillingham said after ASU’s 24-14 loss to Cincinnati on Saturday. “So, if you can kick and you’re in Arizona, email me. We’ll be doing kicking tests on Monday, so go for it.”

When asked if he was serious, Dillingham doubled down.

“I’m very serious. We’ll post it on social media. We’ll have a kicking test on Monday,” he said. “We have to find someone who can make a field goal. That makes it more difficult late in games when it’s obviously a kick scenario. That’s when it gets really tough.”

Sun Devils kicker Ian Hershey, who began his career at Idaho State, badly missed attempts from 48 and 41 yards on the Sun Devils’ final two drives of the game. Hershey is 7 of 12 on field goal attempts this season and 18 of 19 on extra point attempts. Redshirt freshman Carston Keefer missed his only field goal attempt of the season in the opener against Wyoming.

“(Hersey) was playing really well before the game. So, I felt good about that, but you know, that’s what it is,” Dillingham said. “We’ve got to do a better job of getting him in a better mental state to kick. But by the same token, I’ve got to do a job and I’ve got to get players on the field that can perform in those situations as well.”

A few hours after the post-match press conference, Dillingham apologized to X, stating that his comments unnecessarily placed blame on one player.

“I would like to apologize in my post-match press conference, where I talked about our kicking game like I play offense/defense,” he wrote. “However, the kicking game is always directed at one player. I should not have done that and I apologise. This team’s losses will always fall 100% on me.”

Dillingham acknowledged that an open experiment would not necessarily lead to change, in which case the team would stick to the status quo.

“If someone’s ‘good enough,’ welcome to the team and we’ll take it from there,” Dillingham said.

Seeking help from the student body in kicking is not without precedent.

In 2022, Ole Miss added punter Charlie Bullock to the roster, after which coach Lane Kiffin said: “I don’t know much about him. I think he was at a frat house at a keg party or something like that where they got him from.”

In 2008, the late Mike Leach recruited student Matt Williams to the Texas Tech University team after watching him kick a 30-yard field goal during an in-game contest. Williams will remain with the team through the 2010 season.