The Arizona State Sun Devils (9-2) are currently tied for first in the Big 12 Conference, a group it only just joined in the 2024 season, and controls its destiny in regard to the College Football Playoff over the final few weeks of the year.
Head coach Kenny Dillingham has been a massive part of returning ASU back to former glory once thought to be a thing of the past, never to return.
In 2023, the team won only three games in Dillingham's first season at the helm but he made some major roster overhauls - including some massive gets in the NCAA transfer portal. Now, he's surprising a lot of folks with triple that amount of wins after the program was picked to finish 16 out of 16 in the Big 12 preseason media poll.
Kenny Dillingham: "I want to be here." Coaching Arizona State is his passion and he's not done yet.
Dillingham appeared on ESPN's "SportsCenter" on Tuesday and gave his perspective on how he approaches being an ASU alum and translating that to his coaching style.
"I want to live here, I want to be here," he said. "It's not just about winning you want your guys to have success, you want to live here forever ... you want to make the other alumni proud, it's a lot deeper than just you're coaching the game of football."
"It’s a lot deeper than just you’re coaching the game of football, it’s something that I’ve had a lot of passion about ... since I was a little boy."
— ESPN College Football (@ESPNCFB) November 26, 2024
Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham is loving coaching at his alma mater ❤️
(via @SportsCenter) pic.twitter.com/6Rx8esXGnI
That's a refreshing reminder for ASU fans who might still have the trauma of the Herm Edwards - Antonio Pierce regime fresh in their minds.
Edwards and Pierce had some signature wins under their belts from 2018-22 but an NCAA investigation that resulted in a one-year bowl ban and several personal sanctions set the program back by losing talents like quarterback Jayden Daniels who went on to win the Heisman Trophy at LSU in 2019.
Dillingham appears genuinely invested in his players and bettering the school's reputation athletically which is something ASU has missed desperately. Previously the offensive coordinator under Dan Lanning at Oregon, Dillingham brings a fresh perspective to the team's competitive attitude and that translated immediately into unexpected success.
Fans will be hoping he can finish the job with some sort of silverware this season and avenge the demons of would-be champions past (2014, 1997, 1975 to name just a few).