Arizona State’s Kenny Dillingham has created some headlines this year. His candid honesty and humor come out in front of cameras.

Usually, it’s helpful for ASU football.

We’re not sure if the latest instance counts. Dillingham spoke pretty glowingly of the atmosphere at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock, Texas, to start the week of preparation before the Sun Devils’ first official Big 12 game.

It was so complimentary that the head coach’s press conference was twisted by the Red Raiders to act as a voiceover for a Texas Tech hype video.

Red Raider Nation, you have a reputation to uphold.

BE THERE AND BE LOUD.

🎟️ » https://t.co/KOZxCTbv1v pic.twitter.com/W1yelmuq6A

— Texas Tech Football (@TexasTechFB) September 18, 2024

Whoops!

Dillingham was asked Friday on Arizona Sports’ Bickley & Marotta about his words getting layered over some Red Raider hype. It sounded like there’s an inkling of regret.

“Yeah, uh, don’t really have a comment there,” Dillingham said playfully. “It’s a great environment. I guess they liked what I had to say about the environment.

“Hopefully, I didn’t hype their fan base up too much. It was to hype us up! Not them!”

Arizona State's Kenny Dillingham accidentally created a voiceover for a Texas Tech hype video.

"Hopefully, I didn’t hype their fan base up too much," he said.

Listen to Dillingham's full visit with @Bickley_Marotta ahead of ASU's first ever Big 12 game:… pic.twitter.com/hBgp5lmW70

— Arizona Sports (@AZSports) September 20, 2024

How did Kenny Dillingham end up creating a voiceover for the Texas Tech hype video?

Dillingham on Monday was asked a rather innocuous question about Arizona State entering its first conference game as a new member of the Big 12.

He ended up diving into the game day details for the Red Raiders’ home. That includes a tortilla toss, a practice with a few origin stories.

“This will go down in literal history. Very few times in sports do you get to accomplish a first. Like a real first,” Dillingham said Monday. “Not a crazy first. A real first. … It’ll be remembered forever as ASU’s first Big 12 game.

“The crowd there, I’m very excited for the tortillas — I’ve heard that there’s tortillas that get thrown around. I’m excited for it because it’s a challenge, but it’s what college football is supposed to be. We walk out underneath the band, is where I was told our entrance is. A college band on the road, it’s going to be loud. Their fans are diehard fans, it’s a college town. It’s going to be an unbelievable environment to play in. I think that’s the exciting part about joining the Big 12.”

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AZCentral.com published a summary of letters from this week that show suddenly contentious exchanges between the D-backs and county. Maricopa County sent a counteroffer that Diamondbacks CEO and president Derrick Hall in a private reply called “extremely offensive.”

Hall confirmed Thursday to Arizona Sports’ Bickley & Marotta the relationship has taken a sour turn in the past week. In fact, he said he now doesn’t “see a deal in sight” with the current lease expiring in 2027.

“It was definitely the offer, the counterproposal, which is in my words ridiculous,” Hall said of what offended him. “But also the fact that they went public with it. I don’t understand it. For quite some time, I’ve used words like ‘encouraging, optimistic.’ Those words are gone, for sure. And it’s sad.

“I mean, they decided to go public with this rather than to do what we’ve done all along, quietly, privately, respectfully. You go attorney to attorney, it stays confidential. They then send us a response and a counter and make it public and it goes into the media, and that’s just their side of the situation.”

Among the problematic parts of a counteroffer sent to the team is that the county is asking for a D-backs commitment of about $200 million if it wants to unlock zoning for mixed-use developments of restaurants, hotels and retail around the ballpark, Hall said.

D-backs' Derrick Hall 'doesn't see a deal in sight' for Chase Field after a letter from the county.

Derrick Hall's visit with Bickley & Marotta is presented by All Pro Shade Concepts.

Full interview: https://t.co/bdUZ8KG55l pic.twitter.com/u2H5mU2MXX

— Arizona Sports (@AZSports) September 19, 2024

Assistant county manager Zach Schira told AZCentral.com that the offer was “fair” and the county is committed to keeping the team at Chase Field. But the county did not respond to AZCentral.com when asked for a response to the D-backs’ public statements about the counteroffer.

Hall told Arizona Sports that the article shows how difficult the county has been to deal with.

D-backs’ relationship with Maricopa County over Chase Field has an up and down history

The Diamondbacks had reached a gulf with Maricopa County a half-decade ago over who is in charge of the stadium — it is county-owned — but reached a deal that allowed the D-backs to take control of non-baseball events such as concerts. That put the team squarely in charge of keeping Chase Field up to date, the county has maintained.

Up until this week, Hall had said the relationship with the county was in a good place.

Separate discussions for the Diamondbacks about how to fund Chase Field upgrades revolved around a tax recapture similar to how the Arizona Cardinals fund upgrades and maintenance at State Farm Stadium.

But this week, Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jack Sellers’ response and counteroffer to a letter sent by Hall this summer took a different tone.

“I can’t figure out why they want it to be public. It just shows how bad of a proposal it was,” Hall told Bickley & Marotta. “This is a government authority that has proven all along that they do not have the desire nor the ability to put any money into their own building. Not a penny. And you can see it in their proposal.

“Here they are asking us to sign a 50-year extension without any public funding at the time — which we’re trying to seek through tax recollection, which is very realistic — and still asking us nonetheless to not even pursue mixed use, which we have said all along we need with restaurant, hotel, retail around the ballpark. And they say they won’t allow us to even talk about that opportunity and quote-unquote unlock that opportunity and possibility until we’ve put nearly $200 million into the ballpark. Again, they’re not even putting a penny.”

Hall said the timeline to find a solution remains the first month or two of the 2025 calendar year.

The upcoming election before then also comes into play, with the author of the most testy letter to the D-backs, Sellers, having lost his primary, meaning he won’t return to the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors. Two other supervisors didn’t seek reelection, meaning most of the current five-member board won’t be returning.

Still, Hall said Thursday the tone from the county has “taken the wind out of any sails.”

“I don’t see a deal now with the county, at least with this current board composition. I mean, it’s just impossible,” Hall said. “We’ll continue to work with the state and city and see if there’s a way to bail them out with their problems that they’re building.”

Hall said the D-backs will still pursue avenues to keep the team at Chase Field. A Nov. 5 general election stands between his deadline. Finding answers to how the Diamondbacks will fund stadium updates remains a challenge itself.

“We need to know there’s that partnership, that private-public partnership,” he said. “If we can find that by that time (in early 2025), we’ll be fine.”

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The good news is the D-backs have been down this road before. Kelly’s cramping issue crept up in an Arizona win against the Texas Rangers on Wednesday, and team leaders feel confident it won’t stop Kelly from making his next start.

“They had a good regimen last year and I’m sure they’ll get back to it,” CEO and president Derrick Hall told Arizona Sports’ Bickley & Marotta on Thursday. “Now that it’s back on the radar and it’s reared itself again, I’m sure they’ll take every precaution necessary before his next start. It was not an issue at the end of the season — it was one about the same time last year — and it’s one that we have to pay careful attention to.

“I would also say this: If it was the season on the line, postseason on the line, we would have found a way to keep him in there and he would have wanted to stay in there.”

Manager Torey Lovullo said after the 14-4 victory that it was his decision to pull Kelly off the mound. Lovullo expects Kelly will make his next start.

It was Sept. 7, 2023, when Kelly last dealt with cramping issues for the third time that season — all were at Chase Field. It was the same temperature recorded as Wednesday, but the D-backs have admitted the on-field temperature is higher.

A month ago,  fellow Diamondbacks starter Jordan Montgomery called the field level a “jungle” type of atmosphere.

Both that comment and Kelly’s latest cramp have resurfaced questions about Chase Field’s need for upgrades as the D-backs, Hall leading the charge, has spoken publicly about an avenue to find funding for a stadium renovation.

“It makes all of us question what the environment is like there. I would say yesterday it felt really good (elsewhere in Chase Field),” Hall said Thursday. “The field does get warm. It does get very hot because the air doesn’t hit the field. We’ve got to find a way to address that in the future.”

Now, it’s on Kelly and the D-backs training staff to hammer down a plan to avoid cramps in the future.

He will not pitch a three-game series against the Milwaukee Brewer but could line up to throw in a three-game series in Colorado against the Rockies from Monday-Wednesday.

Diamondbacks pitching probables for home series vs. Brewers

Friday – Eduardo Rodriguez

Saturday – Brandon Pfaadt

Sunday – Zac Gallen

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Arizona State Sun Devils head coach Kenny Dillingham is doing his best to fight human nature. His ASU football team enters a road game at Texas State with momentum.

The Sun Devils can prove wins over Wyoming and Mississippi State aren’t fool’s gold by avoiding a loss to Texas State. The Mercury News’ Jon Wilner labeled it a “trap game” for the Sun Devils, a way of complimenting a surprise start.

But Dillingham has his way to twist the narrative into something that can better motivate his team.

“The reality was we opened as a 1-and-a-half-point dog in this football game,” Dillingham told Arizona Sports’ Bickley & Marotta on Wednesday. “So you know, they’re (in) the trap game, not us. We’re the underdog.

“We’re the team that people still think are going to lose. We’re the team that was still picked last (in the Big 12 media poll). We’re the team that played such a bad second half (against MSU). We’re lucky we got off to such a hot start — it had nothing to do with us. We’re still the underdog in this football game.”

Is ASU football actually an underdog vs. Texas State?

For the record, the current line as of Wednesday morning is in favor of ASU at -1.5, according to FanDuel Sportsbook.

“It doesn’t matter how you spin it,” Dillingham said. “It’s our first road game … we played five days ago, we got done playing at 11:30 (p.m.), they got done playing at 6. They don’t have to travel, we do. Everything is stacked against us. And we’re playing a good football team.”

To that last point: The Bobcats beat Lamar, 34-27, then smacked UTSA by a 49-10 final score to open the year with their own momentum.

Long-time college football writer Brett McMurphy named the Sun Belt school as a College Football Playoff team — the 12th seed — in Week 0.

CBS Sports’ Brad Crawford is still holding that thinking. If the Bobcats can drop ASU, there is a legitimate chance they could run the table from there.

Dillingham knows that Texas State is seeing those articles. And he knows Arizona State needs to prepare to see a team fighting for its football life.

“If I’m Texas State, this is my game I have to win and every other game I’m favored,” Dillingham said. “And if I win out after I beat Arizona State, I’m in the playoff. This is a playoff game for them, and we got to treat it like it.”

Familiar faces for the Bobcats

Texas State is led by one-time Arizona quarterback Jordan McCloud, who briefly played for the Wildcats in 2021 before suffering a season-long injury.

During an eventual 1-11 season for Arizona, McCloud made two starts and played in three games total, throwing for 481 yards, two touchdowns and five picks. He played the 2023 season with James Madison after sitting out the 2022 campaign.

With Texas State this year, McCloud has completed 68% of his passes with five touchdowns and two interceptions during his fifth college season and fourth stop.

McCloud is backed up by R.J. Martinez, who threw for 4,598 yards while at Northern Arizona from 2021-22. Martinez played sparingly at Baylor in 2023 before landing with the Bobcats.

The Arizona State connection at Texas State is backup offensive lineman Ezra Dotson-Oyetade. He was the top center prospect in the country for the 2021 high school recruiting class but did not break into the lineups at ASU or his last stop, TCU.

How to watch and listen to ASU vs. Texas State

ASU football visits Texas State on Thursday at 4:30 p.m. MST. The game airs on ESPN 620 AM, 98.7 HD-2 and the Arizona Sports app. Watch on ESPN.

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