Kenny Dillingham Has Arizona State One Win From a Bowl. Is That Enough?
ASU has made the postseason two times in the past three seasons under Kenny Dillingham, but how many times has Dillingham mentioned Bowl Season?
"Zero times in four years."
Arizona State head football coach Kenny Dillingham is not interested in bowl bids, conference standings or any other thing hanging in the distance off his program.
He has said it once and he said it again, addressing the question about bowl eligibility after ASU's Wednesday practice, with ASU one win away from accomplishing the feat for a second straight season.
"I've never mentioned that (to our team)," Dillingham said about talking about bowl eligibility. "That's not even at the beginning of my thought process."
While the fourth-year head coach focuses on the game at hand, the topic of bowl eligibility hovers around this Sun Devil program. If you asked someone in August, a minimum six-win season would feel like an underachievement.
By mid-October, it felt like the Devils would be lucky to even reach six victories.
Quarterback changes, European trips, injuries and more have made this a whirlwind of a year for Kenny Dillingham and Co. But with that being said, is a low-tier bowl bid considered a failure? Or is it a high note after a series of body blows?
Addressing The Damage
Kenny Dillingham came across what was arguably the lowest point of his tenure at Arizona State this October.
ASU was blown out at home 55-19 by Baylor, a type of loss that fans in Tempe have not seen since Dillingham's first season in 2023.
A sobering defeat at home was followed by a lackluster victory vs. Hawaii, a week before being blown out on the road vs. Texas Tech, where starting quarterback Cutter Boley officially lost the QB1 job.
ASU then sat at 3-3 and 1-2 in conference. Their first big-time "purchase" of a transfer quarterback had failed. Dillingham struggled to find the answers to get his team playing Sun Devil football, while some fans even started to question his ability to do the job.
Looking Towards The Future, In The Present...
Arizona State has endured two separate mini seasons this fall.
Their first: a 3-3 finish with some blowout losses and a quarterback that lost his job.
The second?
A reenergized team that has found its identity, going 2-1 in three competitive games while being led by a true freshman quarterback and running back.
ASU's year may have gone from "win now" to "building for later", but their success in a small sample size with their younger players hasn't gone unnoticed.
QB Jake Fette and RB Cardae Mack have supplied ASU fans with something to get excited about. Now, with three games left, a bowl game might actually mean more to the Devils now than it did a few months ago.
"It definitely is good to have those extra (bowl) practices," Dillingham said. "The more times you get on the grass and coach and teach, it's better for the young guys."
With young guys now at the helm, a trip to a bowl game may be dividends for ASU's seasons to come, getting postseason prep and action under their belt as just freshmen.
For all the heat Dillingham caught in the middle of the season, he deserves just the same amount of praise for rolling the dice with his true freshmen and pulling the season out of the mud.
Can he continue to find beginner's luck with the Fette/Mack campaign? Time will tell in the homestretch of 2026.
Going Bowling
While Kenny Dillingham would have no interest in this statistic, it is true that the ASU alum is winless in bowl games.
Yes, he has won a conference title and earned a CFP bid, but Dillingham is still 0-2 in Bowl Season, falling to Texas in the 2024 Peach Bowl and Duke in the 2025 Sun Bowl.
A bowl win could be a good high note on a rollercoaster of a season. Punching bowl bids in three of four seasons, one of them being a CFP trip, along with a victory in 2026, would be a solid start for just Dillingham's first four years as a head coach.
Another way to get in the good graces of the people of Tempe? Beat Arizona. Dillingham is just 1-2 against the team from down south. Another loss could sour the final touches on the season, especially if ASU is not able to secure a bowl bid.
First, the Sun Devils will key in on the UCF Knights. Kickoff in Central Florida is set for 1:30 PM MST, Nov. 14.
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Dan Allison is a graduate of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University, graduating Cum Laude in Sports Journalism. He currently works for the Rio Rancho Observer and the Albuquerque Journal in New Mexico and has covering high school sports in both New Mexico and Arizona and he is a contributor to High School On SI. He began contributing to Arizona State Sun Devils On SI in 2026.