Todd Graham laughed when a reporter recounted a version of his first at-length conversation with Kenny Dillingham.
Dillingham was an assistant coach at Chaparral High School in Scottsdale, but he wanted a spot on Graham’s staff at Arizona State. As Graham tells it, Dillingham just “kept hanging around” the coaches. Eventually, offensive coordinator Mike Norvell approached Graham to suggest they hire Dillingham as a GA.
Per a Scott Bordow story for ASU News, Graham asked Dillingham what he hoped to accomplish as a coach and Dillingham replied, “I want your job. I want to be the head coach at Arizona State.”
“I don’t remember that one,” Graham said, chuckling. “What I do remember is he was a local high school coach and when we came in, our big focus was recruiting Arizona and winning the state so we built a relationship pretty quick with the coaches at Chaparral and Saguaro and Notre Dame Prep and more.
“Kenny was kind of a byproduct of that but he was also very diligent. He came every single day with a lot of enthusiasm and a lot of energy, but he also just kind of sat in the back of the room and just watched and listened and learned.”
Graham will be keeping a keen eye on Dillingham when the Sun Devils face Texas State on Thursday night in San Marcos, Texas.
Graham is about 220 miles to the north in Ft. Worth, serving as an analyst and advance scout for coach Sonny Dykes at TCU. The Horned Frogs are preparing for a home game against UCF on Saturday.
“I’ll record it so when I get home I’ll watch it,” Graham said. “Hopefully, I’ll get home in time to watch it live.”
You can’t throw a stone in Texas without hitting a college football team. There are 13 FBS teams and 39 college programs overall in the Lone Star State, but if you toss the same stone around the national college football map, chances are you’ll hit a Todd Graham protégé.
Whether from his days at Rice, Tulsa, Pittsburgh, ASU or Hawaii, many of Graham’s assistants have gone on to become head coaches at other college programs, and even more have gone on to other positions within the college ranks.
The combined lists include Dillingham, Texas State coach G. J. Kinne and assistant Chad Morris, who is the Bobcats wide receivers coach/passing game coordinator.
“I don’t think that I can take all the credit for that,” Graham said. “Like for example, Mike Norvell was very instrumental in identifying Kenny. Some of these guys were with me for a long time; others for a little while and we all helped each other. I think the one thing that I’m proud of is I hired great men. They’re great teachers who impacted young men, and I’m really proud of the success that they have had.
“When you hire a football staff, you can’t hire everybody who is just like you. You have to have diversity of talents and a system that you believe in. I believe in the teacher model and I believe in elite discipline. People say that everything has changed in college football, but when you look at the teams that are winning championships like Alabama and Georgia and Michigan last year, they’re going to possess two things: they’re going to possess elite discipline, and they’re going to have elite physicality and toughness.”
Morris added one more element.
“Working for Todd, I learned how important it was to be detailed in every part of the game,” he said. “I would not have had the journey and the position in college football that I have had without working for Todd and learning from him. He has a great eye for identifying talent — both from players and staff.”
(Getty Images)
When Graham looks around the coaching ranks these days, his eyes can’t help but fixate on Mike Norvell at Florida State and Dan Lanning at Oregon.
Norvell was Graham’s offensive coordinator at ASU. Lanning was a graduate assistant in 2012, and a recruiting coordinator in 2013 under Graham at ASU.
Norvell led Florida State to a 12-0 regular season before quarterback Jordan Travis suffered a gruesome leg injury that ended his 2023 season and the Seminoles’ national championship hopes.
After serving as Georgia’s defensive coordinator from 2019-21, Lanning took the Oregon job and has a 24-5 record in two seasons with the Ducks. Oregon was ranked No. 6 (tie) at the end of the 2023 season; No. 15 the season before. The Ducks are ranked No. 9 through two games this season.
“Mike and Dan are two of the best coaches I have ever worked with, and the proof is in what they are doing now,” Graham said. “But I’ll tell you, we had some great GAs. Dan was a GA, Kenny was a GA. Mike was a GA for me at Tulsa. [Memphis coach] Ryan Silverfield [at ASU]. That’s quite a list.”
(Getty Images)
Many of the names on the list worked with Graham at ASU, and although he is enjoying working at TCU in his home state, he admits that a big part of his heart still resides in Tempe.
“It’ll always be a second home to me and I will always pay attention to them,” Graham said. “I was all in at Arizona State, hook, line and sinker. I had worked my entire career to get to a place that I thought could win a national championship; that I thought could do some great things.
“We went to five out of six bowl games and I don’t think anybody’s done that since Frank Kush. I have great relationships with people there. Bobby Hurley’s a great friend of mine and the coaches that are there, a lot of those guys were high school coaches when I was there so I cheer for Arizona State every single weekend.”
Graham joined the PHNX Sun Devils crew for an upcoming episode of which you can watch a clip here.
As he looks back on the manner of his dismissal after the 2017 season, Graham insists he harbors no ill will toward the school. He is excited that one of his former coaches has taken the reins, and he believes in new athletic director Graham Rossini.
“I’m cheering for Kenny and I am absolutely thoroughly impressed with Graham Rossini,” Graham said. “I love having a Sun Devil in that position, and one that has his energy, his intelligence, his enthusiasm, his collaborativeness is going to help, but man, they’ve got an uphill battle ahead of them because commitment matters. Leadership matters. Resources matter.
“Do I think it was smart what they did with me? No, I don’t. The fans deserve better than what’s happened there, but I’m cheering for Kenny to get this thing turned around. Obviously, they had a tough season last year, but they’re off to a good start this year. People have got to be patient as they try to get it back. I don’t know that it hit rock bottom, but it was pretty close. Hopefully the commitment will be there now and they will let somebody build something special there.”
(Getty Images)
Top photo of Todd Graham coaching at ASU via Getty Images
