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Kenny Dillingham envisions Arizona State as breakout program of 2020s
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Kenny Dillingham has a vision for Arizona State football in the coming years, and it’s chock-full of glory.
Dillingham is a Phoenix native and an Arizona State alum who lives and breathes Sun Devils football. He was an offensive assistant at Arizona State in 2014 and 2015 after graduating in 2012, so he got his college coaching start in Tempe. After a winding assistant coaching journey that took him to Memphis, Auburn, then Florida State and Oregon, Dillingham landed back where it began, at Arizona State, and he was named the 26th head coach of the Sun Devils at the end of the 2022 season.
He was all of 32 years old when he replaced Herman Edwards. Now, he’s still just 35 years old as he enters his 3rd season in charge of the program he loves so much. Things didn’t go so well in his first season in 2023, as Arizona State went just 3-9. Then last fall, Dillingham took the Sun Devils on a meteoric rise, leading them to the Big 12 title and a spot in the College Football Playoff.
Arizona State did everything but beat eventual semifinalist Texas in its quarterfinal game, taking the Longhorns to double overtime before falling, 39-31, at the Peach Bowl. The Sun Devils’ dream season came to a sudden and honorable end, and now Dillingham has much bigger dreams for Arizona State beginning this fall. Dillingham, who was the Big 12 Coach of the Year in 2024 and the runner-up for AP Coach of the Year, told On3 that he truly believes that Arizona State could become a blue blood program this decade.
“You have Clemson this last cycle, from 2010 to 2020. They just showed up. People think they’ve been around forever. You have Oregon from 2000 to 2010. … There hasn’t been a team in this era, in the 2020s. The lifestyle you have in Arizona, if we can create some staff consistency, and then we’re in a league where we can continually compete to win,” said Dillingham.
Time will tell if Dillingham’s big dreams come to light. The Sun Devils have 1 of the best quarterbacks in the country in redshirt sophomore Sam Leavitt, who had an incredible first season in Tempe after transferring from Michigan State.
That’s a good place to start, and now we’ll see where Arizona State finishes in 2025 coming off its breakout season.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
