For the Arizona State Sun Devils to make a bowl game in 2024 was improbable. The Sun Devils winning 11 games and qualifying for the College Football Playoff — nearly advancing to the semifinal — was almost impossible.
Games are decided by the players on the field, and Arizona State’s roster deserves a lot of credit, but so much of the Sun Devils’ success in 2024 should be attributed to Head Coach Kenny Dillingham. On Thursday, CBS Sports writer Tom Fornelli released his season grades for each second-year coach in college football. Dillingham was the only FBS coach to receive an “A” grade.
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An “A” for Dillingham is certainly not a surprise. Arizona State was projected to finish last in the Big 12 (which has 16 teams) in the 2024 preseason Big 12 media poll. After a 10-2 regular season, the Sun Devils instead found themselves in the Big 12 Championship against Iowa State — College Football Playoff berth on the line.
After going 3-9 in Dillingham’s first season, the Sun Devils were slammed with NCAA sanctions due to recruiting violations made under the previous head coach, Herm Edwards. The sanctions were firm and included probation and an undisclosed fine according to ESPN, but they didn’t stop Dillingham from turning his 3-9 team into an 11-3 powerhouse.
The 2024 Sun Devils averaged 32.9 points per game (4th in the Big 12) after scoring the fewest per game in the Pac-12 — a conference not known for its defensive acumen — the year before with an average of 17.8 points. A big part of that swing was recruiting and key transfer portal acquisitions, namely Michigan State transfer QB Sam Leavitt. Still, ASU’s biggest offensive contributor was Cam Skattebo, who was exponentially better in 2024 than in 2023 for the Sun Devils.
After the 2022 season, Dillingham took the Arizona State job following much success as an offensive coordinator at Memphis, Auburn, Florida State, and Oregon — his last job before becoming a head coach. At all of those offensive coordinator stops, Dillingham was also the team’s quarterbacks coach. In addition to his aptitude for playcalling and play design, Dillingham’s ability to develop QBs is one of his greatest strengths.
Dillingham is widely respected as one of the best young coaches in college football (he is the youngest coach Division I coach at 34), and if the Sun Devils’ success continues, he’ll start attracting attention from programs with more prestige than Arizona State. ASU is Dillingham’s alma mater, and he got his start as a college coach there right after he graduated in 2013. Those ties may make him less likely to leave the Sun Devils for a “bigger” job if those calls start flowing in than a coach without a personal connection would be, but nothing is for certain.
“I’m home,” Dillingham said to open his introductory press conference as ASU’s head coach in November 2022. “This is literally home. Home.”