How has Arizona State's football coach turned the program around? 'We've recruited guys who love ball'

Picked to finish last in the Big 12, the Sun Devils are one win away from a berth in the College Football Playoff
Arizona State Sun Devils head coach Kenny Dillingham.
Arizona State Sun Devils head coach Kenny Dillingham. / Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

Kenny Dillingham loves to compete. And he wants to see the same competitive fire in his players.

Dillingham, who has taken the Arizona State football program from the bottom of the Pac-12 to the top of the Big 12 in two years, intentionally recruits players who hate to lose.

"Play ping pong with him. Play Madden with a kid. Play chess with a kid," Dillingham said when asked about how he identifies that competitive gene. "How are you wired? Are you wired to be fiery, or are you wired to be like 'Oh that was unfortunate that I lost, let's go get more food.' No, play again. That's what I want."

That competitive instinct has translated to a 10-2 season that has Arizona State on the brink of an improbable berth in the College Football Playoff. The Sun Devils face Iowa State (10-2) in the Big 12 championship game Saturday at 10 a.m. MST, with the winner receiving an automatic bid to the CFP.

Here are the highlights of what Dillingham said in a Big 12 interview on Friday morning.

Dillingham On Arizona State's Culture

"I think we've recruited guys who love ball, who are good people, who are competitive. I talk about it all the time: competitive people win. People who love to compete all the time, and they're just good people. I think we've got a lot of good kids in here that are competitive, and I think they've really taken over the culture and taken over the program and made it their own. This is a a player driven team, not a coach driven team. This is all about them."

Dillingham On Cam Skattebo's Rise

Arizona State Sun Devils running back Cam Skattebo (4).
Arizona State Sun Devils running back Cam Skattebo (4). / Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

"He's put in the work. When he showed up here he was unbelievable [at] contact balance, hard to tackle. ... But this year he really took another step. He really pushed himself to be the strongest version of himself, to drop body fat, to increase speed. I think when he did all that, and then he started practicing consistently and started managing his body and taking care of his body and eating right, he really took his game to a level that I felt like he could get to. A level that surprised everybody else around him, what he's doing right now, because of the work he put in and the sacrifices that he made this offseason."

Dillingham On Iowa State's Defense

"This staff .... is one of the originators of this [three-high safety] system that's really kind of taken college football by storm. This is kind of kind of where it started at the Division I level, was at Iowa State with coach Campbell when he got there. Other people have emulated it. Their linebackers coach left this last year to go be the DC at Cincinnati .... their safeties coach two years ago left to be the DC at North Texas. So people are trying to take the special sauce that this defense has and bring it to their own team's because of how successful they've been.

"They've been doing this scheme for a long time. They know what they're doing. They have different answers to pretty much everything you can throw at them. You just have to have a plan for what they're going to pull out that week because they can do it all ... because {of} how long they've been in this system."

Dillingham On Playing Without Jordyn Tyson

"There's going to be a lot of adjustments. Obviously we've got to get more guys the football ... got to move people around more. So that'll be an adjustment for us. There will be quite a bit of a change when you lose a guy of that magnitude. Like you said, arguably one of the best wideouts in college footbal."

Dillingham On Coaching From The Sideline vs. The Booth

"It is quite different. It's kind of crazy. The last time I was on the sidelines before I took the head job at Arizona State, I was the freshman offensive coordinator at Chaparral High School. That was the last time I have been on the sidelines of a football game. ... I was 21. Kind of wild to think I went all those years with being in the booth, then you get your biggest job, they're like 'all right go back down there.'"

"Play ping pong with him right uh you know play Madden with a kid play chess with a kid play Spades with a kid uh play NCAA with a kid go play bags with a guy just talk crap to the kid like back and forth like what like what are you wire like

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Ben Sherman
BEN SHERMAN

Ben Sherman has been covering the sports world for most of his journalism career, including 17 years with The Oregonian/OregonLive. One of his favorite memories was covering the 1999 Fiesta Bowl - the first BCS National Championship Game - at Sun Devil Stadium.