Mike Chiari @@mikechiari Featured Columnist IV October 19, 2024
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Arizona State head football coach Kenny Dillingham said Saturday that he is holding a kicking tryout next week after sophomore kicker Ian Hershey missed a pair of field goals in a 24-14 road loss to Cincinnati.
Dillingham made the announcement during a postgame press conference in which he was critical of his team’s kicking struggles:
The Athletic CFB @TheAthleticCFB
“If you can kick and you’re at Arizona State, email me. … I’m dead serious.”
Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham is looking for some special teams help 👀
🎥 @LaCertosaSports pic.twitter.com/vz7oKsTdEx
“Our kicking game’s atrocious, so if you can kick and you’re at Arizona State, email me,” Dillingham said. “We’re gonna have kicking tryouts on Monday, so bring it on. Kicking tryouts Monday, let’s go. … I’m dead serious. We’re gonna put it out on our social, we’re gonna have a kicking tryout on Monday. We gotta find someone who can make a field goal.”
Dillingham later apologized on social media, writing that the team’s losses “will always 100% fall on myself.”
Coach Dillingham @KennyDillingham
I would like to apologize in my post game press conference I talked about our kicking game like I do offense / defense. However the kicking game is always directed at one player. I should not have done that and I apologize. This team’s losses will always 100% fall on myself.…
With the Sun Devils trailing by 10, they missed field goals on each of their final two offensive drives of Saturday’s game.
Hershey’s first miss was from 48 yards out, and he followed up by misfiring on a 41-yard field goal.
Entering Saturday’s game, Hershey was just 7-for-10 on field goals this season, but the two misses dropped him to an abysmal field goal percentage of 58.3 percent on the year.
Hershey also kicked at Idaho State in 2022, making seven of his 11 field goals. He did not attempt any field goals last season after transferring to ASU.
The Sun Devils also have another kicker in freshman Carston Kieffer who has made four of his five extra point attempts and missed his only field goal attempt this season.
With the loss, Arizona State dropped to 5-2 overall and 2-2 in Big 12 play on the year, but the team is still trending in the right direction.
In 2022, the Sun Devils went 3-9 in Herm Edwards’ final year at the helm, and they followed it up with another 3-9 campaign last season under Dillingham.
Arizona State has already shown immense improvement, and it is just one win away from becoming bowl eligible.
Continued kicking woes could hurt the Sun Devils moving forward, though, and it is clear that Dillingham is willing to go to great lengths in order to stabilize that aspect of the team.
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