Arizona State is a program under the rise with Kenny Dillingham pulling off a season that previously felt unthinkable. The young head coach also reportedly dipped into his own earnings recently to reward members of his staff.

According to Chris Karpman with SunDevilSource.com, Dillingham earned a $200,000 bonus on Saturday for Arizona State’s win over BYU. That bonus was activated for the 9th win of the season by the Sun Devils.

Karpman reported on Thanksgiving that Dillingham informed 20 of his off-field staffers that they would each be receiving $5-$10,000 bonuses. Those bonuses are reportedly coming straight from Dillingham with the head coach using his bonus for 9 wins to pay out the bonuses to his staffers.

Sources: Amazing, 100% true Thanksgiving story about Kenny Dillingham.

Saturday: Dillingham earns $200k bonus for 9 wins.

Monday: Dillingham tells 20 off-the-field ASU staffers they’ll all get a 5–10k bonus.

What Dillingham didn’t tell them (or me): He’s giving them his bonus. pic.twitter.com/KgNx6B57kQ

— Chris Karpman (@ChrisKarpman) November 28, 2024

That’s an awesome story from Dillingham, to say the least, and it’s possible bonus season is not complete. The 2nd-year head coach took the Sun Devils from 3 wins a season ago to 9-2 entering Week 14 and a chance to earn a bid to the College Football Playoff.

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Arizona State is currently ranked 16th in the latest CFP rankings but is part of a 4-way tie for first place in the Big 12. Should the Sun Devils win out, and win the Big 12, they would undoubtedly be no worse than the 5th-highest-ranked conference champion, a position that would put Arizona State into the 12-team bracket.

We’ll see how it all shakes out, but Dillingham has already led the Sun Devils to their first season with 9+ wins since winning 10 games in 2014.

Paul Harvey

Paul Harvey lives in Atlanta and covers SEC football.