👋 GOOD MORNING

Monday, Dec. 9, 2024 — Happy Monday! I hope you had a nice weekend — though if you’re just getting back into the swing of things following a trip to Arlington, Texas for the Big 12 Championship Game, odds are you’re shaking off a few cobwebs as the workweek gets started.

Worth it.

There’s plenty of good in store for today’s newsletter, so I’ll just quickly gloss over the Cardinals’ disappointing loss to the Seahawks yesterday because it’s looking more and more like the only football team in The Valley that’s destined for the playoffs is located in Tempe.

The Cards have lost three straight — two of those to the Seahawks (ouch!) — and though there are a number of winnable games remaining on their schedule, it feels like even just one more loss all but secures yet another early offseason.

Before we get to the main event, I just want to give the ASU Volleyball team one last shoutout, as their season came to an end after it dropped its NCAA Tournament Second Round matchup to Texas A&M at Desert Financial Arena on Saturday. It’s tough to see it all end after a 30-3 season and a Big 12 title, but the team should hold its head high on everything it accomplished this season. It was truly special to watch.

On to the show!

Dillingham Has Tempe Feeling Devilishly Peachy

Tempe’s prodigal son has led Arizona State to the promised land.

Second-year ASU coach Kenny Dillingham — who graduated from from Arizona State in 2013 and grew up in nearby Scottsdale as an ASU fan — has given the nation no choice but to show respect for the now-playoff bound Sun Devils. The task? Take a perennial underachiever (at best) and elevate it to respectability.

Dillingham said on Sunday he didn’t expect his plan to truly take hold until year three, and by that measure, the young coach and his program are wildly ahead of schedule.

And boy, has it been fun to watch.

Dillingham Goes From Student to Legend

It took just two seasons for the 34-year-old Dillingham to reach legend status in Tempe, though many can argue even that happened well before the Sun Devils’ 45-19 drubbing of Iowa State in the Big 12 Championship Game on Saturday.

It’s tough to pinpoint exactly when, though it feels like Dillingham captured the hearts and minds of Sun Devils all over America right about the time he disappeared into the sea of maroon and gold after students rushed the field following ASU’s “upset” over Utah in October.

In hindsight that was hardly an upset, but Dillingham’s epic postgame interview nonetheless set the stage for a remarkable finish to an unbelievable season.

Does it mean a little bit more to the former ASU student, who now leads a group of student athletes that is one of just four major college football programs with a bye heading into the first-ever expanded College Football Playoff?

“Oh, of course,” Dillingham said on Sunday. “Me being from here, and me being a fan, growing up a fan, it definitely is super exciting to see just the Valley getting excited.”

Excited may be putting it mildly.

The Coach Believes, the Team Believes, and Now the Nation Believes

Dillingham had a brilliant response when he was asked how the team will handle all of the attention after flying relatively under the radar for most — if not all of — the season:

“Hopefully they can get that flushed out of their mind for when we come back Sunday and realize that we’re still probably the worst team in this playoff, according to what everybody believes,” he said with a sly grin. “We still have a chip on our shoulder.”

And that’s one of the biggest reasons everyone has fallen in love with this team, and this coach.

A coach, by the way, who convinced a litany of players to come to a program that ranks 40th nationally (​according to 247sports​) in NIL valuation.

“They’re fired up, wouldn’t you be?” Dillingham said. “Everybody counted you out. All these guys came here and they joined a team that was 3-9 in back-to-back years. They joined the team. All of these guys, other than four guys, are brand new. They picked to join a team that wasn’t good at all, that there was no positive media attention around it.

“A team that had sanctions, and penalties, and everything, and they’ve completely flipped it upside down.”

And so have you, Kenny.

Building a Brand, and the Devil is in the Details

It’s cliché to say Dillingham is just getting started, because in today’s ever-changing college sports climate, the reality is the end may be even closer than the start. Programs like Arizona State have a hard time reaching sustained success because as athletes gain more recognition, they command top dollars, and the Sun Devils aren’t in a position to compete with that.

Yet.

Dillingham sees an opportunity to cultivate a brand and build upon the already popular “Activate The Valley” moniker that he created at his introductory press conference, and he said he hopes to be one of the new “brands” that explodes onto the scene every decade or so.

He compared it to the impact Dabo Swinney has had at Clemson, a team the Sun Devils ironically could face in the Peach Bowl. Another such program — Boise State — started building that very brand at the Fiesta Bowl in 2007, and is a three-seed in this year’s playoff.

It is possible, and ASU has the alumni base and location to punch with the best of them, but it takes a level of commitment that has yet to be seen in Tempe.

Emphasis on the “yet.”

“If we do it right and there’s commitment from the top down, and we’re united, I think there’s an opportunity here for us to be a name in college football,” Dillingham said. “Very similar to what Dabo did at Clemson, in this last 20 year cycle, how he has changed that program into one of the blue bloods.

“I think Arizona State has that ability if done right, and if the commitment is there.”

The stunning success in just his second year as head coach is the first step. Playoff win or not, the Sun Devils are already on the radar.

Next they’re going to try to stay there.

“I think we have a really good building block for next year to sustain this success and not just be a flash in the pan,” Dillingham said. “I think the success we’ve had with the guys who have come here speaks for itself.”

And we’ve all been lucky to witness it.

ICYMI: A message to Sun Devils Fans after an unexpected Big 12 title

🧢 TIP OF THE HAT BY BRANDED BILLS
Goes without saying. Congrats to the Big 12 champion Sun Devils, who have united a town and put the rest of the nation on notice.