Dillingham talks about taking his dream job at ASU, his recruiting strategy, his thoughts on the transfer portal, and more.
State football began last sunday when the athletic director, Ray Anderson, Michael Crow announced Kenny Dillingham as the new head coach of the Arizona State Sun Devils and coach joins us right now here on the Arizona Sportsline Kenny. I'm vince my partner tim today. Congratulations on the job and welcome back home.
Thank you. I'm fired up to be here. And our first day out on the road is the staff in this valley is today.
Yeah, I've heard you talking and I saw your interview you did on sportscenter yesterday. Uh, this has got to be just a whirlwind. I mean last saturday, you're playing in a rivalry game as the offensive coordinator with Oregon and less than a week later here you are on the road with another staff. Can you just kind of outline what this, what this week has looked like for you personally?
Yeah, obviously after sunday, uh, it was just, you know, meeting with the high school coaches, meeting with the players, getting to know people in the building and then literally from monday Tuesday Wednesday, thursday until noon. I've been meeting with every single player on this team face to face.
Uh, just to meet them, get to know them, you know, this, this is about relationships. It's about helping those young men achieve what they want to achieve and just explain to them what it's gonna look like moving forward as honestly as possible. And uh, I think that's more important than recruiting. That's more important than anything is just
explaining and meeting your guys and teaching them what this program is gonna look like moving forward, Kenny, first of all, Congratulations man, We're just so happy for you? I know this is a dream come true job for you. A fun one off the bat. If you find out, you get the job, who's your first phone call?
Oh first phone call. We definitely called my father. I'm not gonna lie. You know, this is, I used to sit on his lap watching a S. U games. So I definitely called my parents and that was one and we definitely called my wife's parents who grew up going to a S. U. Games as well. So you know, we definitely called the family.
Um, you know when I landed here on saturday night, they were trying to do it up big for me. They had an awesome hotel for me and my wife that was decorated and all this stuff, right? And I said, you know what, I just, let's, let's go hang out with the family and that's just kind of the type of person I am family driven.
Uh that's what matters to me and, and I'm just so far to be here. Oh man, that that's awesome. So all right, so you get the job first week on the job. What is, what is job one Kenny? Is it? Is it kind of keeping your own guys from hitting the portal that you want. Is it going out to the portal and because I mean portal combat is already underway as you know, even though that darn thing doesn't actually open for a bunch of guys until next week. What, what is Job one for Kenny Dillingham, when you talk about the 2023 roster,
Job one is to meet with our guys and contrary to what a lot of people do nowadays, it's not to convince people not to transfer. I want people who want to be Sun devils, uh, I want people who wake up every day, they walk into that building and they go, man, am I lucky
man, can I wait, not wait to get to work? And that's what I told everybody that walked through that door is, you know what, This is my dream job, I'm gonna be here forever, as long as long as I can and we're gonna do this the right way, we're gonna get people in this building who want to be here and you'd be shocked how many people want to be here and love this place. And it's, it's not a recruiting pitch to keep the guys, it was more a, this is gonna be the hardest thing you've ever
in your life and now that I'm through that point, it's obviously now on to, you know, how do we build this roster? And I think for us, you know, we're pretty far behind the 23 class when it comes to in state recruiting in particular and it's more just talk to the guys committed elsewhere and say, listen, we understand we're not going to build a relationship in three weeks that may get you to, you know, come here, but but
understand in a year from now when you realize you missed the sunshine, the mountains, the beautiful weather and all the good food and you want to come home, just know you have a place.
Yeah, Kenny Dillingham, the new head coach of the Arizona State. Sun Devils, our guest here on Arizona sports and Kenny. I know ultimately the answer to this question, but I'm curious to the process.
Um and this process was different because this job opened up in september and I assume Arizona State was in on you very early because your name had been connected to the job. But one of the things that's hanging over this program as you well know is the N. C. Double A investigation, maybe some pending sanctions. And I know it wasn't enough to dissuade you from taking this job, but how much of that was considered in your decision making process to come here?
Yeah. I mean, I'm not too concerned with things we can't control. I mean, we're gonna put together the best team, we're gonna build the best culture, We're gonna get this valley behind this program. Um, and I'm just, you know, that that's episode you can't control, can't control. And that's one of the pillars to our program of life, little things, intensity, family and education. We want to be lifers respond to adversity, the good and the bad and the s is for success and that's just being the very best you can be at whatever you're doing and
you know, for me, I can't be concerned about things that can't control. We're just gonna be the very best we can be every single day at whatever task we're doing. If I'm walking through a door, I'm gonna open that door for people until there's not any more people to walk through. Because I think that's what makes successful people successful programs. All right, Kenny. So there's been great, great high school football players in our state. A lot of them, most of them have gone elsewhere to play college football. You know that we all know that Kenny, Dylan ham walks into the living room,
you gotta you gotta four or five star kid. He's think he's thinking about going to S. C. He's thinking about going to Alabama is thinking about going to texas. What's your pitch brother? What what are you telling them? What are you telling his parents? What are you telling him about coming to play for the Sun Devils and coming to play for Kenny Dylan hams new program.
When you make decisions on where you go to school, it should be about relationships, our relationships, our staff is gonna be here, right. The second thing is that the relationships of the connections, the connections you can make in the area. This is one of the largest going, that's growing metropolitan areas in the country. It's the top five largest metropolitan area in the country. You can come here for four years, B H
star build the relationships you want to build in a place that people dream of living the rest of their life wherever you go to school, you're gonna build the connections. So if you don't want to live somewhere for the rest of your life where you go to school, you're gonna lose all those connections or a majority of those connections. This is a place you could go to play football at a high level, build connections that will help you for the next 50 to 60 years of your life,
go on. And if you have a career in the NFL great, if you don't capitalize on those connections right, and help you be successful in life and that's something we have here that most places do not have, they have the phoenix metropolitan area, they have one of the largest alumni bases in the country. Let us help you come here build relationships and let those people help you be successful in life,
Kenny Dillingham, the new head coach of the Arizona State Sun Devils, Our guest here on bickley and Marotta mornings, you mentioned coach about being behind an in state recruiting for 2023 but you're, you're armed to maybe make some real inroads there, retaining shawna guano, bringing in charlie Rangel to, very highly successful high school coaches here that are respected in the community, might we expect any other high school coaches maybe to join your staff in the near future?
Yeah, I mean, I don't want to, uh, I don't want to get ahead of myself, but we do have, we do have a few members of our staff, uh, pretty, pretty set. We're just out of respect for, you know, college coaches and you know, different people's schedules. I want people to leave their prior school the right way. Uh, college coaches included. I want them to, to be able to do it on their terms and we're just being patient with the process so we can get the right guy at the right time.
Hey Kenny, uh, want to meet with the pac 12 championship game tonight. I think you're ideally suited to give a little preview. What do you, what do you, what do you think USC and Utah, a rematch of a game that's going to be played in a, in front of a sold out crowd at Allegiant Stadium there in las Vegas. What do you think? How would you break that one down?
Yeah, I mean, that's gonna be a really good football game. The last time those two guys played USC got out, I watched that game a lot us, he got out to a lead um, in Utah obviously fired back in the second half. I think that game is gonna come down to, you know, if USC can handle the pressure that Utah creates. You know, Utah defensive coordinator morgan Scalley is one of the most aggressive defensive play callers in all of the country. Uh, and I think he does that with your confidence in this guy. So I think
that's gonna be a chess match. You know, Coach Riley over there. USC got them on a tunnel screen and cover zero on the 25 yard line with about six minutes left to go in the game last time they played. And then, you know, coach scaly fired back and hit him on the cover zero on a two minute drill to create a fact. So I mean when you go back and forth with two good football coaches to really good programs, uh, there, I'm just blessed that those football teams are playing each other because it's gonna be a
great product for the pac 12 tonight and Kenny along those same lines. Talking college football major news yesterday about the college football playoff expanding from 4 to 12 playoff teams beginning in 2024. Now that you've got a seat at the big table as the head college football coach. What are your thoughts about the playoff expansion and what that means for college football? Not only the postseason, but there's a lot of thoughts on what it now means for the college football, regular season. Go ahead and give me your take.
Yeah, I mean, I think obviously it's just gonna create more excitement at the end of the year. Uh, I think it's going to get the best players or the best teams, you know, on a stage to go on a run.
And I mean, I think that's when you watch college basketball, that's one of the funnest things about March Madness is sometimes the best team quote unquote throughout the regular season, you know, isn't the one who wins? And I think that's the excitement that it creates. Is it gives everybody a fresh start and in college football right now you have to be perfect nearly, uh, to have a chance to play for the national title. I think this
allows really good teams who have blemishes early to kind of respond. And it also allows the team that just gets better and better and better throughout the year, uh, that may have stumbled early to have a chance to compete. So I'm fired up about it. I think it gives, you know, more of a platform for more teams to get on the national stage and compete for a national championship and it gets me excited.
Uh, Coach, we appreciate the time we are. I'm assuming you'll be a weekly guest of ours come september because we had the coach's interview on this show. So I'm really looking forward to that. But I also wanted to say, uh, as somebody who has followed this program rooted for the sunday
For 40 years, who went to Arizona state. I will only speak for myself. But I think a lot of people will agree this is the most excited. I've been about sun devil football for a really long time because of what your energy is bringing to this job. So I wish you the best of luck in turning this thing around.
I appreciate it. Like I told everybody this is, I am not going to turn this place around. We are and I absolutely mean that we people listening to your show right now. Right? How can you help some devil football? I don't care if you're worth a billion dollars or if you show up to work and you grind to survive.
There is a way you can help.
There is a way you can be involved and this place is special because of the valley, because of the people listening to this show right now. We need everybody involved in this program in any way, shape or form Kenny. I got a, I got a freshman at Desert mountain. He's a 5 10, 100 and £50 defensive end. I'm gonna give you first. I'm gonna give you first crack at an in home. Okay. You got my word. All right brother. You got my word. Okay
Kenny. Thanks thanks so much for the time, appreciate it. And again, congratulations on the job