Kenny Dillingham is better than Deion Sanders.
Yeah, I said it and I didn’t stutter!
In 2024, Dillingham, the head coach of the Arizona State Sun Devils football team, is better than Sanders, head coach of the Colorado Buffaloes.
Deion has been fantastic this season with the Buffaloes, but he’s not the best coach in the Big 12, let alone the best coach in the country.
There’s been buzz about Deion winning Coach of the Year in college football, but I’d argue that Dillingham actually has a better chance of winning, or at least he should, in both the Big 12 and in college football as a whole.
Why is that? Because Dillingham has done more with less than Deion Sanders has done up in Boulder.
Kenny Dillingham Vs. Neon Deion Effect
Let’s take it a step back.
I don’t mean it as a slight to Deion. I really don’t. What he has done is impressive.
He has turned around a CU squad that was terrible before he arrived from Jackson State and turned them into a conference powerhouse this season; a team that still has a shot at the Big 12 title as we head into the season’s final weekend.
He had advantages along the way though.
First of all, he’s Deion freaking Sanders.
He’s a Hall of Fame football player.
If you grew up in the 1990s , you know all about Neon Deion. You know he was a two-sport athlete. You watched him with the Falcons, the Braves, the Cowboys, the Yankees, the 49ers and even the Baltimore Ravens at the end of his career. You know who Deion Sanders is.
So when he goes into the living room of a student, he has a leg up because guess whose parents know who Deion is, and guess whose parents probably watched Deion while they were growing up.
Not to mention Sanders was on television for years after his playing career. You saw him on NFL Network, on ESPN, you saw him in commercials. Hell, you still see him in commercials.
He is a national brand even without a college football program behind him.
He also had the advantage over Dillingham when it came to head coaching experience.
Sure, Jackson State is not a major Division I school, but Jackson State got as much attention as Arizona State football got when Deion was there. Sanders turned them into a powerhouse, winning more than 11 games twice and going undefeated in the SWAC conference twice.
He then got to cherry-pick those players and bring them with him to Colorado with 11 guys transferring from Jackson State to his new home, including his son.
When it comes to NIL money, the lifeblood of the new era of NCAA football, Deion has a massive advantage over Dillingham as well.
Reportedly, three guys on Colorado’s roster combined to make around $8 million this year. Shedeur and Shiloh Sanders and Travis Hunter.
Shedeur Sanders himself made $6.2 million in NIL money this year.
The fact that Deion has star power has given him a huge NIL advantage. Good on him for getting more money for his players. Good on him for upping his program by using his star power to get people he knows and that know him to invest in Colorado’s football team. But most coaches don’t find themselves in that situation.
That’s why Kenny Dillingham deserves Big 12 Coach of the Year over Deion Sanders.
His team has been better on the field and off it.
They Couldn’t Kill Kenny (DillingHam)
Dillingham didn’t have the advantages Deion did.
Dillingham wasn’t a head coach prior to being hired by ASU.
Dillingham wasn’t known nationally at all.
Dillingham is the youngest coach in college football this year at 34 years old. Yeah, 34 years old.
Dillingham’s team hopes some day to have $7 to $7.5 million in NIL money to stay competitive in the Big 12. That’s right, $7 to $7.5 million overall, not wrapped up in three players like Deion has.
Simply put, he has not had the advantages that Sanders has to compete in the Big 12. Period. Point blank.
Everybody talks about where the media picked Colorado to finish in the conference: 11th overall. The Sun Devils were picked to finish dead last, 16th, five spots behind the Buffaloes.
That’s not all. Back in August, CBS Sports ranked Dillingham as the worst coach in the Big 12.
That worst coach now leads the conference at 9-2 and has a shot to punch his team’s ticket to the Big 12 championship on Saturday when they take on Arizona in the Territorial Cup.
Dillingham is a hometown kid making good. When he showed up, he wanted to activate the Valley and he has done just that. Along the way, he has captured the nation’s imagination with his postgame press conferences on ESPN.
Kenny Dillingham is a viral star. ASU football is once again on the map, having won the biggest game in a long while at Sun Devil Stadium last Saturday against No. 14 BYU to go from unranked just three weeks ago to No. 14 in the country now.
Regardless of what happens Saturday in Tucson, Kenny Dillingham is the Big 12 Coach of the Year.
He’s the National Coach of the Year, and his accomplishments far exceed what Deion Sanders has accomplished in Colorado. It’s not even arguable at this point.
ASU won three games last season. The road back to respectability from the Herm Edwards years was supposed to be a long one. Instead, the Sun Devils are in the college football playoff picture. Mic drop.
