When Kenny Dillingham was named the head coach for Arizona State’s football program in late 2022, there was still the negative air of an NCAA investigation looming over the program from a disastrous end to the Herm Edwards era. It was a low point that would soon be juxtaposed with the highs experienced only two years later. At this moment though, nothing was promised.
Sure, Dillingham, the young-faced and newly minted coach had quite the background for someone who was only a 32-year-old at the time: stops as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coaches at Memphis, Auburn, Florida State and Oregon, some of the most prestigious programs in the country. But none of this guaranteed he could be Arizona State’s savior. And now, he’s not just writing a new chapter in an era of ASU football. No, he’s ripping up the entire book and authoring a new one.
With a Big 12 Coach of the Year title in tow, Dillingham and the Devils look ahead to the Big 12 championship approaching on Saturday. But how has Dillingham turned around Sun Devil football?
The Connector
Dillingham is a connector of people. No more apparent was this than in the aftermath of the Territorial Cup. Arms on each other’s shoulders, Dillingham and star Cam Skattebo lined up to do a postgame interview together on the field. A little while later, Skattebo was asked about being former Alabama coach Nick Saban’s favorite player in the country right now. The praise from an all-time great didn’t matter.
“It means a lot, but I want to be this guy’s favorite player,” Skattebo said, referring to Dillingham. “I’m here, I’m in the present, I’m ready to win a Big 12 Championship, and I’m here for this coach.”
Players want to play for Dillingham not just because of his talent on the sidelines, but his relatability off the field too. At 34, Dillingham isn’t much older than his players. Add in the fact he’s a charismatic Scottsdale native and Arizona State alum, and you have the perfect recipe for a coach who can motivate players to represent the Valley strongly and give their all on the field for him.
“He represents hope for the future and excitement for the present,” Tim Healey, ASU Football’s radio play-by-play voice said. “I don’t think he views this (job) as a stepping stone. This is kind of where he wants to be in his hometown. I think he could envision himself very easily being in this job for a long time, and he’s brought that energy, that passion, the excitement, the enthusiasm, and he’s got coaching chops. I’ve called him a coaching savant. It’s an exciting thing to watch unfold here, even for some of us old timers.”
In today’s football coaching universe, the times of having a stern father figure coach, the ones where when they call your name you freeze a little bit, are gone. Nowadays, the ideal coach is, well, Kenny Dillingham. He has all the intangibles a modern head coach should have.
“His guys have taken on his personality. They’re passionate, they play hard,” Juan Roque said, a former ASU football player who has stayed connected to the team. “They will run through a wall for this guy, but then he’s able to also come down to their level a little bit. Like in a video I saw on TikTok, where he’s jumping around with the guys and he’s singing the rap song along with his players. Not a lot of head coaches can do that and do it where it’s real.”
High tides lift all ships, and that’s exactly what ASU football has done for the other sports at the school in terms of bringing attention to other successful programs.
“When you have an individual like Kenny who’s just so supportive of everybody, and there aren’t a lot of places where the hockey team can win or the volleyball team can win and immediately get support from the football coach,” ASU’s hockey coach Greg Powers said. “He loves ASU. He’s really in this for the greater good of everybody and he understands the responsibility of the football program that everything trickles downhill from their success. It’s just awesome to see and be a part of, and I’m really happy he’s here and I’m proud to call him a friend, and I think any coach here would tell you the same thing.”
The excitement for the football team is palpable across all the sports. After a win over archrival Arizona which helped send the Sun Devils to the Big 12 championship, the men’s basketball team is considering a trip to Dallas to watch the football team in the game.
“He hit the ground running and I think he’s earned it,” ASU men’s basketball coach Bobby Hurley said. “It’s so exciting to watch what football has done in particular, just Kenny and his enthusiasm and how he’s brought that group together to play and believe.”
Building sustained success
Dillingham has also greatly utilized the transfer portal to build out his roster, with about 60 newcomers to the team arriving in Tempe this season. Gone are the days when you could have a roster marinate and get better year by year as a group. Now, it’s more comparable to putting that roster in a microwave and heating them up as fast as possible to achieve a quicker result. So far, the microwave has worked for ASU.
“Sam Leavitt has been unbelievable, Jordyn Tyson has been unbelievable, I think all the linebackers have done (a great job), I think (Keyshaun) Elliot and (Jordan) Crook in particular, (Chamon) Metayer at tight end,” Jeff Van Raaphorst, Healey’s radio partner said. “So if you start to look at all the players that have really improved, I think we upgraded ourselves. We have depth, and they’ve all played tremendous minutes and done well.”
Leavitt was named the Big 12 Freshman of the Year and made the Big 12 Second Team, while Tyson was named the Big 12 Offensive Newcomer of the Year and made the Big 12 First Team.
Sustaining this level of success, however, is an entirely different story. In an age where the transfer portal and NIL offers reign supreme, roster shakeup can just as easily go against the Sun Devils as it has been in favor of them this year. Dillingham has done a beyond excellent job bringing in players who fit the mold of what ASU wants to do and who gel together so perfectly. But with x-amount of players leaving by virtue of being a senior or finding greener pastures than they can find in the desert, it becomes less likely each passing year that the Sun Devils can replicate their success with the transfer portal.
“It’s a little bit of a mercenary period where players are coming and going,” Van Raaphorst said. “You got to win now, and you got to reload and play the college free agency game.”
What also needs to be considered is the NIL opportunities available to the student athletes competing on the gridiron. While ASU has improved in terms of being able to offer NIL opportunities for its players, the simple truth is they won’t be able to compete with the big dogs like a Texas, Florida, Ohio State, LSU or Georgia. These schools can simply offer more in that department. This, along with the parity in the Big 12, could make it difficult for Dillingham and his Sun Devils to achieve sustained success.
One way Dillingham has been trying to do this is instilling a one for all and all for one culture that has seen the team elevate itself by lifting each other up. However, he insists that he isn’t the culture, the players are.
“The retention of players is what keeps the culture alive,” Dillingham said. “So the retention of players, guys coming back, and then the recruitment of guys that want to fit this culture, not the recruitment of the best players, the recruitment of the best players for us, which are two different things.”
The best could be yet to come for a hungry, seemingly up and coming ASU football program. But for now, a conference championship game against Iowa State with a potential playoff spot on the line is what matters the most in a storybook Sun Devil season.
“It’s remarkable what he’s done,” Roque said. “I think it’s a testament to who he is, and then what he brings to the table when you talk about competent, passionate leadership. He embodies that, and he’s proven that this season in spades.”
