Sun Devils, except coach Kenny Dillingham, soaking up London ahead of Union Jack Classic

LONDON – Featuring ornate, architectural marvels and historic sites dating back centuries, this isn’t a city that should be explored in a hotel room – unless you’re Arizona State football coach Kenny Dillingham. 

After a long trip across the pond, the Sun Devils’ head man said that he had spent roughly 48 hours indoors at the team hotel, sequestered in his room like a hermit to prepare for Arizona State’s game at Wembley Stadium against Kansas in the Union Jack Classic on Saturday. Kickoff is at 9 a.m. MST. 

With the sun peeking through gray London skies, Dillingham finally caught a whiff of fresh outside air at ASU’s Tuesday morning practice. Don’t get any ideas. Dillingham said it won’t be happening much this week, at least when it comes to non-team-related activities. 

“I didn’t sleep the first 36 hours I was here,” Dillingham said. “I’ve been locked in a cave.

“My job is to get the best plan in place, and I (have) got to do the same process I do throughout a week. … We’ll go to the Thursday event that we (have) got down there in London, but I don’t plan on doing anything other than being in this hotel.”

While Dillingham isn’t keen to explore the city, he has encouraged his team to enjoy the unique experience of playing in an international game – a historic one at that, considering that it’s the first-ever college football game in London to feature two FBS teams. 

“I told them today, they’re not hostages here,” Dillingham said. “If you want to go do something, go do something. Just make sure we get what we need to get accomplished.”

It’s been a taxing turnaround for Dillingham’s squad. Fresh off a 48-20 loss in College Station to No. 9 Texas A&M on Sept. 12, the Sun Devils flew straight to London for the back half of a roughly week-and-a-half-long stretch on the road. 

The trip presents some obvious logistical hurdles – shipping a football team and its gear thousands of miles away isn’t a straightforward task. Conversely, it provides ASU’s players and staff with a chance to escape from football and create memorable moments as a team.  

“No way would I want our team to fly across the country Week 3 to play this game,” Dillingham said. “But this is an experience. They’re still college athletes and I wasn’t going to rob them of an experience to fly them across the country, go see London, be able to experience things and play in a stadium that’s like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

Veterans such as offensive tackle Jalen Klemm and defensive tackle C.J. Fite have kept busy, visiting local landmarks and trying one of England’s most popular dishes for the first time: fish and chips. 

“We have been taking the last couple of days to kind of acclimate to everything,” Klemm said. “All of us have walked the grounds here and looked at everything. I know that on Thursday we have a boat ride that we’re going to be able to go on and see a lot of the sights. So I know the guys are pretty excited for that.”

For the most part, Dillingham has entrusted his players with the freedom to explore London on their own. Well, at least with a buddy. Or three. 

Behind the program’s pillars – which include, Fite noted being a good person and having safeguards like the buddy system in place – older players such as Fite and Klemm haven’t felt the need to heavily monitor the younger players to prevent them from making poor decisions. 

“Coach told us if you want to go out, you have to have three people with you,” Fite said. “So if somebody wants to make a bad decision, three other people can stop them. There’s certain things that you do, and that you already know, that kind of stop you from making those decisions. But all the guys kind of know already.”

Like any trip abroad, it hasn’t been smooth sailing for everyone. Klemm said his teammate, sophomore offensive lineman Manamo’ui Muti, found himself in a precarious position early in the week: locked in the hotel bathroom. 

“It was pretty funny,” Klemm said. “We went in there and we were knocking on the door and he was like, ‘Hey guys,’ and he was sending us videos from inside.

“Thankfully, he had his phone. I asked him what he would have done if he didn’t have his phone. He was like, ‘I might have had to break the door down.’”

While it seems the Devils are enjoying their time across the pond, they still remain aligned with their uber-focused coach, pledging not to let distractions get in the way of their main goal.

“At the end of the day, we came here to play a football game,” Klemm said. “We got to keep the main thing the main thing.”

This article first appeared on Cronkite News and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.