Kenny Dillingham: Can He Keep Arizona State Football Moving Forward?

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Before Kenny Dillingham became the head coach of Arizona State football, he was a kid who dreamed about becoming the head coach of Arizona State football. An eighth-generation Arizonan, ASU graduate and former Sun Devils graduate assistant, Dillingham grew up around the program. He attended his first ASU game at six years old and eventually worked his way through Memphis, Auburn, Florida State and Oregon, building the résumé that would eventually bring him back to Tempe.

When Arizona State hired him in 2022, it wasn't simply the next step in the career of a young coach. It was a homecoming. Dillingham had spent years imagining himself on the sideline at Sun Devil Stadium, but the reality waiting for him was far less glamorous. Arizona State was coming off a 3–9 season, the program was dealing with the fallout from the Herm Edwards era, and there was no quick fix waiting in Tempe.

Dillingham knew exactly what he was getting into. He also knew what Arizona State could become. The challenge was convincing everyone else to believe in it.

The Program He Inherited

Arizona State needed an identity. The program was coming off a 3-9 season, dealt with NCAA issues and experienced significant roster turnover. Dillingham wasn't inheriting a team that needed one final piece to compete. He needed to rebuild the foundation.

His first season reflected the size of the task. The Sun Devils went 3–9 again in 2023, and patience became part of the job. Dillingham used the season to reshape the roster, attack recruiting and establish the culture he wanted. The wins weren't there yet, but the personality of the program was beginning to change.

Then came 2024, and suddenly the rebuild accelerated far beyond anyone's expectations.

From 3–9 to the College Football Playoff

Arizona State entered 2024 as a new member of the Big 12 and was picked to finish last in the conference. Instead, the Sun Devils won 11 games, captured the Big 12 championship and earned a place in the College Football Playoff.

It was more than a good season. It was one of the most dramatic turnarounds in college football. A program that had won three games the previous year was now playing for a national championship. Dillingham had gone from an unproven head coach trying to stabilize Arizona State to one of the brightest young coaches in the country.

The CFP loss to Texas in double overtime didn't diminish what happened. Arizona State had become relevant again, and Dillingham had proven that the ceiling in Tempe was much higher than most people thought.

He Chose to Stay

That's what made the offseason so interesting. After taking Arizona State to the College Football Playoff, Dillingham suddenly had choices. Bigger programs were interested, including reported interest from Michigan, and there were jobs available with more established infrastructure and greater financial resources.

He stayed.

The decision wasn't difficult to understand. Dillingham had never hidden what Arizona State meant to him, and after finally getting his dream job, he wasn't ready to walk away from it after one breakthrough season. He believed the CFP appearance could be the beginning of something rather than the culmination of it.

But staying also meant accepting a much harder challenge. Rebuilding Arizona State had been one thing. Maintaining that success in the modern college football landscape would require far more than coaching.

The Resources Don't Match the Expectations

The biggest challenge may have little to do with X's and O's. College football has become increasingly dependent on financial investment, particularly with NIL and revenue sharing changing how programs build and retain their rosters. The teams competing for championships aren't simply recruiting well; they're building entire financial ecosystems around their football programs.

Dillingham has been vocal about Arizona State needing greater support. ASU has made meaningful investments in football, but the program still operates in a different financial environment than some of the teams it is trying to compete with. That's an important distinction because Dillingham has already shown he can outperform expectations. The question is whether Arizona State wants to continue asking him to outperform its resources as well.

If the expectation is for the Sun Devils to consistently compete for Big 12 championships, the investment has to reflect that ambition. Coaching can close some gaps. Culture can close some gaps. Development can close some gaps. Eventually, though, the gap in resources becomes difficult for even the best coaches to overcome.

Dillingham can build the vision. Arizona State has to help fund it.

The Downhill Turn

The success of 2024 changed the standard overnight. Before that season, an 8–5 record would have represented progress. After winning the Big 12 and reaching the CFP, the same record felt like regression. Arizona State finished 8–5 in 2025, a respectable season on paper that nonetheless raised questions about whether the previous year had been the beginning of a new era or simply an extraordinary peak.

Those questions have carried into 2026. The Sun Devils have struggled to find the consistency that defined their breakthrough season, and the 55–19 loss to Baylor brought those concerns into sharp focus. It was the type of performance that goes beyond simply losing a football game. It forces a program to ask whether it is actually moving forward.

None of that changes what Dillingham accomplished in 2024. It does, however, change the challenge in front of him. The rebuild is no longer the story. Sustainability is.

I Am Letting Our Football Team Down

Dillingham's response to Baylor was revealing because he didn't try to distance himself from the result. After the 55–19 loss, he put the responsibility squarely on his own shoulders.

“I am letting our football team down. I am not maximizing the team that we have.”

It's the kind of statement that shows just how differently Dillingham views his role now. He isn't managing expectations anymore. He helped raise them. After showing everyone what Arizona State could look like in 2024, he knows that performances like Baylor can't simply be dismissed as a bad night.

There is still a long season ahead, and one loss doesn't determine the future of a program. But Dillingham's willingness to acknowledge the problem matters. The next step is turning that accountability into improvement.

Can He Build Something That Lasts?

That's the question Arizona State has to answer now. Dillingham has already demonstrated that he can take a struggling program and make it nationally relevant. What remains uncertain is whether he can create the infrastructure and consistency necessary to keep it there.

That requires more than a talented roster. It requires recruiting, development, player retention, staff stability and financial investment. It also requires Arizona State to embrace the expectations that came with the 2024 breakthrough. The program can't want the results of a championship contender while operating as though those results are still a pleasant surprise.

Dillingham doesn't need to win the Big 12 every year. He needs to make Arizona State a team capable of doing it regularly. That's a much harder task than the initial turnaround, and it will ultimately determine how his tenure in Tempe is remembered.

Arizona State Football is Still Home for Kenny Dillingham

The interesting thing about Dillingham is that he could have made his life easier. After the 2024 season, there were opportunities to take his success somewhere else. Instead, he chose to remain in the place where his football story began.

That decision makes the current situation more compelling. Dillingham isn't simply trying to protect his résumé. He is trying to build the program he grew up watching. He has a personal stake in what Arizona State becomes, and that makes the highs more meaningful and the setbacks more frustrating.

But a coach's commitment can only take a program so far. If Arizona State truly believes Dillingham is the person who can lead the program into its next era, the school has to provide him with the tools to do it.