Arizona State's Kenny Dillingham Among Best Coaches in Big 12

The third-year head man is already considered among the elite in college football.

Arizona State head coach Kenny Dillingham responds to a question during a joint news conference with Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian before facing off in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl. | Michael Chow/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Just how great of a spot is the Arizona State football program sitting in heading into the 2025 college football season?

For starters, the program is considered the odds-on favorites to repeat as Big 12 champions after shocking the football world last season. 

The other major thing fans can feel great about is none other than head coach Kenny Dillingham - who is considered to be the class of Big 12 coaches according to Jordan Mendoza of USA Today. 

“This may be a case of recency bias, but Dillingham has orchestrated one of the great turnarounds in college football. Returning to his alma mater, he inherited a team reeling from the Herm Edwards era, and it showed with a 3-9 debut season. But after Arizona State was picked to finish last in the Big 12 in 2024, it won the conference and made the College Football Playoff. Dillingham has brought fire back to the Sun Devils and at just 34-years-old, he's setting the path for a long, successful career.”

Dillingham edges out more seasoned coaches such as BYU’s Kalani Sitake, Iowa State’s Matt Campbell, and Colorado’s Deion Sanders for the top spot in what is considered to be a conference full of high-level tacticians. 

Mendoza is correct in theory that it could be too soon to coronate Dillingham after a singular season of success, but there is absolutely nothing that points to the current balance of power being unsustainable. 

Dillingham is young, energetic, passionate, has an uncanny eye for talent, and - most importantly - has an unrequited love for Arizona State. 

His track record when it comes to filling out the coaching staff is incredible, as well as the ability to find under-the-radar players through the transfer portal that have been overlooked. 

Most important to the program’s recent success is surely the discovery of little-known Sacramento State running back Cam Skattebo and the faith in Michigan State transfer Sam Leavitt to shine bright in a more stable situation.

The pair of star players could very well become the defining finds of Dillingham’s Arizona State tenure - a testament to how far possessing a strict moral code, an eye for talent, and the desire to find good fits for the program can ultimately take it.

There also remains a strong likelihood that the head coach will spend a long time with the program - the aforementioned loyalty could lead to a program long considered a ‘sleeping giant’ in college football fully emerging as a power. 

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