The 2025 season was a step backward for Kenny Dillingham and Arizona State. To avoid another setback, Dillingham is insistent on his team getting things right in the offseason. The Sun Devils’ head coach seemed to have found the secret to success, and he wants more of it from his players ahead of the 2026 season.
“I wouldn’t say I walked away from this scrimmage being like ‘oh man, that is a physical violent football team,’” Dillingham said to the media after Saturday’s spring practice. “We got a lot of practice to go before I can say we’re a physical, violent football team. I think we have it in us, though. I think we have the ability to be that, but that takes a lot of work, a lot of grind.”
A more physical Sun Devils team has been Dillingham’s heart’s desire since spring practice started, knowing the areas they fell short last season. Dillingham is keen on ensuring the team looks more like their 2024 season than the other two seasons of his three-year tenure.
In his debut season, Dillingham led the Sun Devils to a 3-9, marked by injuries, a heavy reliance on the transfer portal, and an offense that struggled, ranking last in the Pac-12 in scoring. But they soon witnessed a dramatic turnaround in 2024. The team went 11-3 and became Big 12 champions despite being projected to finish bottom, and earned a spot in the College Football Playoff.
However, 2025 resembled none of the previous two seasons. It was not as good as 2024, nor was it as bad as 2023. Any other coach may find an 8-5 record satisfactory, but not Dillingham, who is building a reputation as one of the outstanding young coaches in college football, following his Big 12 Coach of the Year award and AP Coach of the Year runner-up award.
While Dillingham’s gesture gave away the fact that he expects more physicality from the team, he admitted their performance that day was “above average.”
Unsurprisingly, Dillingham’s idea about physicality is about the team giving their all. In his world, the more dedicated and committed teams do not just stand a chance of being likely winners. He feels whenever the college football lucky charm is finding a team to help out, passion and commitment are the main criteria.
“I’m just trying to get us to be more physical and create a mindset. I firmly believe that the team who pour the most in are the most likely to become winners or get lucky, right? Because when you give something, everything you got, you don’t quit. And if you’re down 18, down 19, down 20, you just keep fighting because you’ve poured in to quit.
“And I’m really trying to get our guys to empty the tank, put everything in. That way, when we get in those moments where somebody who didn’t pour everything out is going to quit, our guys rally together, and we fight because we’ve worked too hard to quit.”
Dillingham is unsatisfied with Arizona State’s defense
Dillingham’s demand for physicality is an overall demand, but a unit in the team is giving him an extra headache. Ever since spring practice began, he has had more complaints on the defense than the offense, and Saturday was not any different.
“We’ve had some explosive runs on offense. And then, in some downs, our defense has stopped the offense in some short-yard downs. So, we got to minimize the explosive plays on defense. We’re giving up too many explosive plays right now. But then, offense, we’re still taking a little too many negatives, even though today we didn’t. We only turned the ball over one time on offense, which is good.”
Dillingham had other battles to fight alongside his defense, one of which was the frequency of penalties. He admitted it was an area they fell short, and would need to improve in the off-season
“That was an area that early in last year, was like, where did that come from, to be honest, and I had to really look at things that we were doing as a staff, because obviously we didn’t do a good enough job of emphasizing it. We got to clean up towards the end of the year, right? And so, we’re just trying to carry that through. I think it’s a testament to the players being veteran players and having played football on the field in game days. And testament to us just recruiting smart guys, and smart players usually don’t make mistakes.”
