Could Oregon's Kenny Dillingham be a Candidate for ASU Head Coach?
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The Pac-12 football landscape saw a significant change over the weekend, as Arizona State fired head coach Herm Edwards following the Sun Devils' 30-21 loss to the Eastern Michigan Eagles in Tempe.
With an underwhelming on-field product and ongoing NCAA investigation looming over the program, this move doesn't come as much of a surprise. Multiple staff members were either let go or departed the program throughout the offseason, which hinted it would be a matter of when not if for Edwards' time would be up.
A coaching search is now underway in Tempe, and one name that's been mentioned in college football circles is Oregon offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham. Chris Karpman, publisher of 247's Sun Devil Source, provided more insight on the fit this week on The College Football Daily.
"If ASU went totally to a young up and coming guy who’s a coordinator, I think maybe Kenny Dillingham at Oregon, he’s someone who has deep ties and probably would have a lot of booster support," Karpman said. "He’s from Scottsdale. Kind of the old money crowd, big boosters, I think there’s going to be a push for him as a sort of an out of the box candidate if they go with someone who’s really keen on young players, NIL and a lot of these things going on right now."
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Dillingham's ties to the state have already paid dividends for Oregon on the recruiting trail, landing multiple commitments in the 2023 class including defensive linemen A'mauri Washington out of Chandler and My'Keil Gardner from Liberty High School in Peoria. He's also proven he knows how to foster relationships and recruit the most important position on the field seeing that the Ducks hold a verbal commitment from five-star Detroit (Mich.) Martin Luther King quarterback Dante Moore, Oregon's highest rated quarterback commit in program history.
The offensive coordinator is in his first year with the Ducks after serving as offensive coordinator at Florida State, Auburn. Prior to that he spent time with Mike Norvell as an offensive coordinator at Memphis after getting his start in the college ranks at...Arizona State, where he was an offensive assistant.
If you look past the blowout loss to Georgia, Dillingham's offense has been a strength of the Oregon team for the past two weeks, showing signs of efficiency and explosion the Ducks have lacked in recent seasons.
He's certainly a young candidate for the vacancy at just 32 years old, but his local ties to the state, recruiting savvy and offensive ingenuity could make him an appealing candidate for the Sun Devils.
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