Mr. Brightside: Kenny Dillingham is the positive force ASU football needed to emerge from the darkness

Kenny Dillingham has a litany of challenges ahead of him as the Arizona State Sun Devils football coach. 

• His program is still under NCAA sanctions that included four years probation, scholarship reductions and recruiting restrictions for violations that occurred during Herm Edwards’ tenure as coach.
• When it departed the Pac-12, ASU ranked second to last among conference teams in recruitment spending for all men’s sports, per the most recent U.S. Department of Education’s Equity in Athletics database.
• A Big-12 preseason media poll picked the Sun Devils to finish last in the 16-team conference.
• The 2024 schedule features six road games, two non-conference opponents that combined for 17 wins and two bowl victories last season, plus SEC opponent Mississippi State.
• The first Big-12 conference schedule features five preseason ranked opponents (No. 12 Utah, No. 17 Oklahoma State, No. 18 Kansas State, No. 21 Arizona and No. 22 Kansas) with three of those games on the road.
• Only three players remain from the 2022 team and one of those (graduate defensive lineman Anthonie Cooper, ACL) is out for the season.
• There are questions at quarterback, questions at both offensive tackle spots, and questions about the punting and kicking games.

It may feel as if Dillingham is commanding a platoon in a war zone rife with enemy brigades, but when you have just emerged from the wasteland that was Dillingham’s first season on the job, the perspective changes.

“I don’t think about things like that anyway,” Dillingham said after a Saturday night scrimmage at Mountain America Stadium. “I just think about the situation we’re in and whatever situation you’re in, it is what it is, so let’s go!”

That’s Dillingham in a nutshell. He is Mr. Brightside; the breath of fresh air that Sun Devil football so badly needed to emerge from one of the darkest periods in the program’s history.

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When Dillingham took over for Edwards last season, the school had just joined the Big-12, the NCAA was about to slap the program with sanctions, and Dillingham was dealing with the latest chapter in the Jaden Rashada drama series. The Sun Devils had games with USC, Oregon and Washington, nearly 30 players had transferred out of the program, and athletic director Ray Anderson was under fire to resign — which he eventually did in November.

ASU’s 3-9 record was no surprise.

“I knew what I was getting myself into when I got here so what excuse can I make?” Dillingham asked. “We have a plan to get this program to where I believe it can go, and that’s to be a championship contender in the Big-12 year in and year out. We’re en route to that plan. It doesn’t always happen as fast as people want, but the key is to not get distracted by what other people in the microwave society want.

“Screw the microwave society. Just stay focused on what you know works and what you’ve seen work in this exact same type of rebuild before that I was just in [at Florida State]. Stay focused on what matters, and not the outside noise.”

Dillingham is an easy man for whom to root; a local guy who began his coaching career at his alma mater after he tore his ACL during his senior year at Scottsdale Chaparral High School. He slowly worked his way up the college ranks, starting as an offensive assistant at ASU (2014-15). He was a GA, the QBs and tight ends coach, and then the offensive coordinator under former ASU OC Mike Norvell at Memphis; and then the OC at Florida State (also under Norvell), Auburn and Oregon.

“When I was growing up in this profession, I was told I would never coach college football,” he said. “I was told, ‘You didn’t play. You have no connections. It’s not going to happen.’ I just told people, ‘Well, I am going to coach college football and this is what I’m going to accomplish.’ 

“I used to walk around this facility [then Sun Devil Stadium] when I was a GA and people would say, ‘How you doin’?’ I’d say, ‘Living the dream,’ and they’d say, ‘No, you’re not. You’re a graduate assistant. You’re not living the dream.’ I always thought that mindset was messed up. If you’re in college football, you are living the dream and I think that attitude means I’m going to put more into this than you are.

“If you don’t have that mindset, I’m going to surpass you. I don’t care if you’re the position coach right now. It doesn’t matter to me. I will pass you up because I’m going to show up every day like I am living the dream and I’m blessed to be here. You can’t get distracted by having to get coffee and all the other stuff that sucks about the job. Just do your job as good as possible, keep that outlook and you’re gonna get to where you want to go, even if it takes time.”

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Patience is what Dillingham is preaching, both to an easily distracted roster of young, fresh faces, and to a fan base that has not witnessed double-digit victories in a decade.

“You can’t worry about what others think,” he said. “If you get caught up in the negative then you’re going to be negative. Your players are going to feel the negative. You’re going to make excuses and your players are going to make excuses.

“It is way harder for the kid to block out the noise, but I think the secret is just in the culture you create. It doesn’t matter what people say. The only time you listen for external motivation is like when we’re picked [to finish] last in the Big-12. Great, I’ll definitely tell them that, but other than that, you control you.

“We control if we’re gonna show up every day with passion and energy, and we’re gonna play this game because we love to play this game. Kids are a reflection of the people around them. If you create an environment of ‘poor me,’ then they’re going to think, ‘poor me.’ If you create an environment of response, then they’re going to learn how to respond. It may not happen overnight, but they’ll figure it out.”

Dillingham hears the whispers. The same critics who questioned his résumé wonder if the job is too big for him.

He won’t back down.

“I could play Michael Jordan in basketball and I would, in my mind, convince myself that I have a chance,” he said. “I’d say, ‘Okay, if I back off of him and he misses a couple shots and I get lucky a couple times, I could be in it long enough to then make a play.’ That’s just how I’m wired. I would never say,’ Oh, I have no chance. I can’t fathom that thought process. That’s just not how I operate.”

At the same time, he’s not promising the moon and the stars this season. He’s only promising progress.

“A really good program is built off of a good foundation, and sometimes you don’t really understand what your house is built on right until pressure gets applied,” he said. “Just trust that we’re building the foundation even if the house isn’t built yet.’ I wish the house was done right now, but it’s not and my wife would just say, ‘Don’t you want it to get done right?’ 

“I do, so I say, ‘Let us build the house right; not fast.'”

Top photo of Sun Devils football coach Kenny Dillingham via Getty Images

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