Arizona State fell on the road at Cincinnati on Saturday, 24-14, in a game that featured two missed fourth-quarter field goals by kicker Ian Hershey that could have cut the 10-point Bearcats lead to a one-score game.
Sun Devils coach Kenny Dillingham was questioned about his lack of aggression on the first field goal try, which took place on a fourth-and-2 from the Cincinnati 30-yard-line with just over six minutes to play. Conventional wisdom would tell you that it might make more sense to go for it on fourth-and-short, rather than try to connect on a 48-yard field goal.
Dillingham took the fair question and ran with it, and by running with it, I mean he called for a kicking tryout on Monday because he believes his place kicking situation is terrible.
"You can be aggressive, but just because you convert doesn't guarantee that you make it one possession," Dillingham explained. "So you would hope to get a kick on one of those, [but] our kicking game's atrocious so if you can kick and you're at Arizona State, email me, right? We're gonna have kicking tryouts on Monday, so bring it on. Kicking tryouts Monday, let's go."
When asked if he was serious, Dillingham deadpanned before expanding further.
"Yeah, I'm dead serious," Dillingham added. "We're gonna put it out on our socials, we're gonna have a kicking tryout Monday. We gotta find somebody who can make a field goal. … It makes it even harder like late in games when it's clearly a kick scenario. That's when it gets really hard, because you're like, 'Ah, it is clearly a kick. You definitely want to take points here, there's no doubt in your mind.'"
Hershey entered Saturday 7-for-10 on the season kicking field goals, but his two fourth-quarter misses loomed large as the Sun Devils attempted to mount their comeback.
Arizona State is now 5–2 on the season, and 2–2 in Big 12 play following the loss.
