Top Michigan coaching target turns down Wolverines to sign massive extension

Michigan will have to look in another direction after one of their hopeful coaching candidates opted to sign a new extension with his current school rather than head to Ann Arbor

Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel talks to former Wolverines player | Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The first 10 days of the Michigan football head coaching search have produced very little progress. In fact, since firing Sherrone Moore on Dec. 10, UM doesn't appear to have an obvious candidate atop their list. And if they did, he may have just signed a new extension to stay at his current team.

On Saturday morning, the Wolverines woke up to more bad news in regards to the search. According to ESPN's Pete Thamel, popular Michigan target and one of the rising head coaches in the entire sport, Kenny Dillingham, has signed a massive extension to remain in Tempe with his Arizona State Sun Devils. Here was the report from Thamel:

"Sources: Kenny Dillingham has signed a new contract at Arizona State, which will average $7.5 million over the course of the deal," Thamel posted on X shortly after 5 a.m. on the West Coast. "The staff salary pool is up to $11 million, which puts it near the top of the Big 12." Thamel added in a second post:

"The deal remains five years, but there’s incentives to extend the deal up to 10 years. The deal is pending board approval. The heart of this deal was resources for the program, as he prioritized the staff salary and resources for the program."

Sources: Kenny Dillingham has signed a new contract at Arizona State, which will average $7.5 million over the course of the deal. The staff salary pool is up to $11 million, which puts it near the top of the Big 12. pic.twitter.com/Z94dFG9thG

— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) December 20, 2025

Kenny Dillingham is the rare major conference college football coach born in the 1990s. Back in april, Dillingham turned just 35 years old just a few months after he had led Arizona State to their first College Football Playoff appearance in the first year of the expanded 12-team playoff field. Now, thw Sun Devils did sufffer a season-ending injury to their QB and experienced a few more stumbles en route to their 8-4 record this season, which is still a respectable mark for sure. Hey, they are still the only side to topple Texas Tech in 2025.

Prior to accepting a major head coaching gig with the Sun Devils, Kenny Dillingham came up as an offensive coordinator at Memphis, Auburn, Florida State, and even Oregon, too, before he elevated to head coach at ASU back in 2023. After a three-win season with the Sun Devils in a year one that also featured a nine-turnover game against Fresno State, a 29-0 loss, he somehow turned the program around and got them into the postseason in 2024.

Going forward, Kenny Dillingham has some questions to answer in 2026 as his star quarterback, Sam Leavitt, has already entered the transfer portal after missing the second half of the season due to a Lisfranc injury that he should be able to recover from. Whoever is at QB, though, Arizona State appears equipped to compete at the top of the Big 12 for quite a while.