Arizona State coach will allow players to enter transfer portal — and keep playing for the Sun Devils

Kenny Dillingham has turned around the Arizona State football program through a player-led culture.
That culture was on display Monday during Dillingham's weekly press conference when he detailed how he's approaching the college football transfer portal.
The portal officially opened on Monday and continues until Dec. 28. Players on the teams competing in the College Football Playoff, and bowl games that are played in late December, will be allowed to enter an additional five-day transfer portal window in January after the portal closes.
But Dillingham made it clear he wants his players to have the best of both worlds.
“Our guys have the opportunity to stay on our football team, and they’re like, ‘We’ll go in (the portal) at the end,’ and I go, ‘No, that’s not fair to you to go in after our run is over," Dillingham said on Monday. "I want you to have the best opportunity to find a spot. You can go in day one right now, we’ll help you find a spot, and stay on our football team if you want to stay on our football team and let’s go on this ride together the rest of the way.'”
Nine Arizona State players have officially entered the transfer portal so far, including safety Kamari Wilson.
"I didn’t want those guys to wait to go in because they felt like they had an opportunity to have a bigger role for a program until after the CFP,” Dillingham said. “I think that would have hurt their chances. So I made it very clear to the guys that, ‘You can stay on the team as long as you do what you’re supposed to do. Go to meetings, show up, be five minutes early, check in, weigh in, go to workouts. Even if you go in the portal here, that doesn’t affect me at all. That’s just us being on the same page and trying to help you achieve what you want to achieve in your career.'"
"So we will have some people going in that choose to stay a part of this team, and it fires me up that we have the relationship between the kids on the team that they want that."
Arizona State (11-2) has three weeks off before playing in the College Football Quarterfinal (the Peach Bowl) on Jan. 1 in Atlanta. The Sun Devils will play the winner of No. 5 Texas vs. No. 12 Clemson.