Arizona State Head Coach Kenny Dillingham on Sam Leavitt, Roster Building and ASU’s Future

Brian Fisher for Sports Illustrated here at Big 12 Media Day is joined by Arizona State head coach Kenny Dillingham.

Kenny, I saw you not too far from here over at AT&T Stadium, uh, catching the soccer, and I know Commissioner Yaks mentioned football meets football here.

Uh, what, what were your takeaways from the World Cup?

Yeah, it was awesome.

I mean, our whole leadership council who's here today representing Arizona State football, uh, was there, and, uh, unbelievable experience, uh, first-class, uh, set up, and then just the, the game.

How fast it was, the appreciation for the players and their talent level.

It was just an unbelievable experience.

Did you learn anything that you can take back as, as a football coach in terms of spacing or anything like that, or are you just there to enjoy it?

I was just there to enjoy it.

It was , I, I, I love the fact that all of a sudden, you know, people would cheer because they, they, you know, would call the end of the first half or when they call the stoppages.

And they would cheer for that.

Like, it's, uh, it's just so interesting that the delicacies of, uh, the intricacies of the game and, and the differences between that and football.

What, what most excites you as you kind of do turn your attention to fall camp in, in this upcoming season.

What, what excites you most about the Sun Devils?

I'm excited to see the team grow together.

Like, uh, you know, we got a lot of new faces, and I think they've put a lot of work in building relationships, and how you do that is through work.

Like, the more blood and sweat equity that you put into something.

The harder it's gonna be for you to quit, the harder it's gonna be for you to stop.

So I think our guys have put in so much work and they've built such, such strong relationships that, uh, I'm excited to see that, and I'm excited to see when conflict happens, when adversity happens, what we do.

And you, speaking of adversity, I mean, you went through a lot of it last season, especially in terms of injuries.

Did you, did you learn anything going through that process about, about your team, about your program?

I did.

I mean, our guys didn't quit.

I mean, through all the adversity, we had very high expectations last year, and, uh, you know, we obviously stumbled and we had some injuries, and our guys could have tanked last year and said, man, it's, we're not going to hit our goals externally, right, our external goals.

So what are we still doing?

And those guys kept fighting and they kept playing hard.

They kept playing for each other.

So that's what I appreciated was, uh, how hard we kept playing.

Did it change anything in terms of your approach to how you build your roster and how you go about things just in the, in the offseason?

Yeah, um, not much, I would say.

I mean, I think the rules have had a bigger effect, the one transfer portal and And uh some of that stuff has had a bigger effect.

You just know that you need depth and you need, uh , you need guys who can go in there and perform at a high level if somebody goes down.

Well, Amy speaking, the rules changes, it seems like every year, you know, you kind of got to roll with the punches in terms of some of those changes.

How do you anticipate, you know, you're looking at the 5 and 5.

How do you anticipate maybe changing how you go about building the program?

Yeah, well, I think the first thing is, you know, the 5 for 5 is going to extend to multiple guys on our roster.

So that has to decrease your high school class, uh, naturally, because, uh, you're gonna have more guys that can stay on your roster and you're gonna have a wave of guys that have more eligibility, which is naturally gonna, in my opinion, decrease this season of high school class because now you have, you know, 5 years, you added a cycle.

Uh, so, uh, for us, that's really first strategy and then moving forward, I think your classes will get rebalanced.

But, uh, we have a lot of guys who, Who actually get that 5th year.

So because they get that 5th year, right, that obviously changes your numbers and it changes the math.

I've always been struck by how supportive you have been of players, even if they want to lead the program, somebody like Sam Levitt.

I know, he was obviously a big part of that, that CFP run you guys had a couple of years ago.

How tough was it to lose him, uh, going into the season, and ultimately what is LSU getting in?

Oh, they're getting a heck of a player.

I mean, I see all these lists and he's not near the top, and I'm like, I just laughed at myself.

I'm like, that dude's an absolute star player.

I'm rooting for him.

I want to see the utmost success for him and see him achieve all his dreams and goals and all the aspirations he has and You know, we've got other guys, uh, in similar boats too, and I, I, I'm rooting for them.

Like I have, this is a new era of college, uh, sports, and I just want to see guys succeed.

I wanna see young people, you know, reach their goals, and I want to do whatever I can to help that.

Is it, is it different at all for you though, knowing that, you know what, there's, there's numbers attached to really every one of your players on your roster?

It's just a different era.

I mean, I think everything's different.

I think there's, there's so many layers of how many things are different.

You just got to be willing to take the different.

Landscape that's constantly changing and figure out a way for that to affect your 105 guys in the best way, shape or form.

You got a bunch of guys with you here at Big 12 Media Days, but is there somebody on your roster that maybe we're not talking about right now that we're going to know their name come the end of the fall?

Yeah, um, I think Blazon, uh, and then, uh, JT.

JT transferred from Michigan State and Blazon at defensive end and, uh, defense.

tackle plays and a defensive tackle who's been with us since we took over, uh, 4 years ago.

Uh, I think he's really come on.

So I think those two guys, uh, from a, a defensive line standpoint are, are really guys to, to know.

I mean, it's interesting you mentioned two defensive guys as an offensive guy yourself.

I mean, do you find yourself gravitating more to that side of the ball and, and doing that now that you're a little more comfortable as a head coach?

Yeah, I love defense.

Uh, I mean, I.

I started my I played linebacker very badly or poorly, and then, uh, I coached defense at the first few years of my career.

So, I, I love defense.

Uh, I think the game is the game, if you understand defense, you can understand offense.

So I think the game is run through a defensive, uh, mind.

So, uh, most things I look at it through a defensive mindset.

This is a league where it seems like every game comes down to the 4th quarter, a couple of plays here or there.

coin flip, you were on the right side of that two years ago when you, when you won the league.

Maybe you're probably on the wrong side more than you would have liked last year.

What is that, that margin in the Big 12 right now?

Yeah, it's so tight.

I mean, for us, I mean, I think we've won, I don't know if the stat's right, but we've won like 70% of our one score games or something like that, uh, since I've been the head coach or maybe a little bit higher or lower.

I don't know the stats.

Somebody told me over 70%, so I hope that's right.

Uh, but, uh, so, I mean, we pride ourselves in trying to win the 4th quarter, but, uh, this league, everything comes down to the 4th quarter.

I mean, everything comes down to the, the final last 6 minutes, 8 minutes of that football game because the competitive balance is so strong.

So, uh, you, you know, in this league, you don't know which game, uh, is gonna be the game that, you know, catches you off guard.

So you got to bring it every week.

Does it help or hurt that, you know, the league is?

tightly packed in terms of resources, the amount of spending on rosters, you know, just everybody seems pretty closely packed.

Does that kind of help or hurt in terms of the case to get multiple teams in the CFP?

That's a great question.

I think, uh, obviously winning gets you the CFP.

So if there was a separation or a gap, it would obviously help a few teams be able to get there.

But I think for us as a whole, we've got to create a good enough product and we got to get people to the CFP, let them advance.

in the CFP, uh, and, uh, continue to progress the brand of the Big 12.

You were part of that inaugural 12-team playoff.

Where are you kind of on that size debate in terms of what you want to see out of the playoff?

I like competition.

So, like, for me, it was like, all right, then go to 24.

If we're gonna expand it, go to 24, get as many teams in there as possible, and let's go compete.

And let's keep competing.

Like, we can talk about who's the best team and who's not the best team and all that.

That's great.

Or we can just go play more games.

So, like, for me, it's more about that.

I don't know nothing about the TV and what it affects other things.

No, I don't know any of that.

I just want to go compete.

So, put us on the field, let us play somebody, let us compete.

I'm all about it.

The more teams for us to go compete, the better in , in my mind.

Does that change your, how you look at kind of the non-conference schedule and what you want to do in talking with your AD?

Um, you know, it just depends on which direction they go, but, uh, to me, eventually, I think you could, you can argue either way with any schedule.

Like, uh, You, you, you gotta win games at the end of the day.

So whatever you wanna do to try to win games, uh, go try to win as many games as possible.

What is a successful season going into 2026 for you now?

Uh, for me, it's the same thing it's been every year.

Uh, be the very best we can be.

Like, I want this team to maximize who we are.

If I would have told people in year two what a successful season was, and then We go on and we're a play away from the Final Four, and we win the Big 12, and we're in the Peach Bowl.

I would have said that, people would have laughed at us, right?

Because that wouldn't have been ruled as a reasonable expectation.

So, I think when you put limits on yourself, when you put expectations on yourself that are like, win this or win that, I think you, you can limit yourself or you can cripple yourself.

I wanna be the very Best we can be.

I have no clue how that, what that is right now.

I have no clue.

I know the ceiling can be pretty high.

If we put in the work, holy cow, right?

But it can also be low.

We gotta put in the work to be the very best team we can be and see where that takes us.

We're excited to find out here in 2026.

We'll see what the Sun Devils have in store for us, uh, as we wrap up here at Big 12 Media Days.