7.29.25 Sun Devil Football - Kenny Dillingham press conference fall camp

Arizona State Head Coach Kenny Dillingham:

On his comments on recruiting being dead, retention is alive and the importance of evaluating talent and discussing revenue sharing:

“Obviously recruiting is the players on your roster. So you have to recruit good players and you can’t have a bad roster. You’re not going to be worth a crap as a coach with a bad roster. What I meant by saying recruiting is dead, retention is alive is when you’re talking recruiting rankings, you’re usually talking one to two player difference. It takes you from seventh to second. Or from first to seventh. You’re talking about these small factors and what my deal is what I actually believe is going to take from those factors is because your roster has to be good is the retention of those players. So what I meant was not that we’re not going to recruit but we’re going to recruit it’s everything. Retaining the guys you recruit and not losing two of your top guys in the first two years is a real value in that process. It obviously is way different with the revenue sharing now. There’s so many ways to get players on your team and i think that’s the biggest difference. That’s the biggest difference is there’s so many different ways to get players on your team and there’s so many different ways to build a team now. Before to build a team was you sign high school kids, if you thought somebody was really good and you missed them. You have to play them and that sucks. Now you may never have to play them. He may have been a freshman and may have been lied too at that school to get him there. He may not receive that money and he may be in the portal and he may play for you. Even though you lost him in the recruiting rankings. So I think there’s so many different ways to obtain players now, you still have to sign guys that can build your culture. But there’s so many different strategies and I think that’s the biggest difference. We definitely have a plan that I believe in and whether it works or not, who knows. But it’s what I believe in is necessary in this era.”

On having a policy if commits want to visit elsewhere and if it helps figure out players that fit the culture:

“I’m old school in nature. Even though i’m a young guy I believe if I tell somebody something i’m going to do it and the same is in return. That’s what I believe in to my core and i want guys who truly want to be here. I don’t want guys who are deciding if they want to be here yet. If you’re committed to use you’re committed to us and I’m committed to you and we’re going to do this thing. I’m going to pour into you and give you everything I got and i expect the same in return and if you’re not ready to commit to us, don’t commit to us. I’m fine with that. It doesn’t matter to me but I definitely believe in the word commitment and what that means but I do understand. I just believe in that process.”

On the development of the tight end room now compared to when he arrived at ASU:

“I think when we first got here – I don’t want to say that we didn’t have the talent – I thought we did. I mean Messiah is still with the (Green Bay) Packers. Jalin Conyers is on a roster right now. Bryce was a goodp layer for us and I thought we had some good pieces there. I definitely think coach Mons did an unbelievable job getting that room the type of guy that we want in that room from a skills standpoint. How we use our tight end, the versatility of their tight ends. Instead of having a lot of guys that maybe had a speciality. I think we have the jack of all trades which I think you want at that position. I like to say that positions like the Draymond Green. If you get a really good one, they can play power forward, they can guard a center, then bring the ball up if needed. I think a good tight end in today’s day and age can put his hand in the dirt and block at defensive end and flex out and win a one-on-one space against a linebacker. I think that that

position to me, I love the direction it's headed because it's versatile. It's not guys who are like really good at one thing. It's guys that are really good at multiple things, which is I think how you can become versatile on offense.”

On what he’s hoping to get out of fall camp this year and what areas is he focusing on:

“Toughness. I want our guys to play the game with passion, toughness and physicilaity. Everybody’s talking about how we got the players, we got some good players this year and we do. By the end of the day football is a very simple game. You have the beat the crap out of the person in front of you physically. It’s not rocket science. If you move somebody two yards we’re going to gain yards. If they move you back the odds are that we aren’t going to gain yards. You have to make special plays all day. So at the end of the day, I want our team to double down on physicality, double down on toughness. I want to see that toughness throughout practice. In spring ball we definitely manage guys in a way with all the returners. We’ll do that a little bit in fall camp. We got a lot of veterians so you have got to treat the veterans right. Football is a simple game, you don’t turn the ball over and you whoop a person’s butt in front of you. You’re going to win a lot of games. Then you add a quarterback, add some pieces to that and add talent, that’s when you can win a ton of games. But the nature of it is the same. You have got to whoop the person’s butt in front of you.”

On how tough it will be to win back to back conference titles:

“I’m not worried about the championship or any of that stuff. That’s a mute point to me. But this league is super competitive, I mean you alluded to it you have Texas Tech who have more guys that could be drafted than arguably than any teams right now according to some of these sites. You have Utah who’s already really good on defense. Now they have a really good quarterback that’s there. They have consistency at that position. Baylor, i mean the list goes on. There’s a reason only three and a half win total difference between last place and first place in this league. That tells you how competitive this league is. Every single week you can lose and every single week you can win. That’s why us picked last, won it all last year is because we won close games. Us picked at the top could lose all those close games this year and be at the bottom. I mean that’s the name of the game. Who wins close games in this league? Who’s poised in those moments. That’s the challenge. Then who can keep leads, that’s one thing we did really good last year. Contrary to what some people believe, we didn’t lose leads, we lost leads, but didn’t lose the games in the games. They may not like how we did it or all the things behind it but when we had a lead, we didn’t lose. Right, wrong or indifferent. We got to continue that. Then when we got big leads in games, we have to win those games. We win them cute, big, ugly, small. I really don’t care. We need to win them. Then on games we get behind early, we’ve got to be able to get back in it and make it a game and sneak some of those out. I think that’s the nature of this league is winning those tight games.”

On what excites him most about meshing off the field and if any new traditions will happen:

“No new traditions. We do a time capsule thing we started a few years ago where our guys wrote a letter to themselves. We bury it when we climb the mountain. They get to read their letter that they wrote last year to themselves this year. I think will be pretty cool. We started that when I got here so this will be the secon year they’ve gotten to read their letters. It’ll be interesting to see what some of the guys wrote going into last year for expectations for the team, for themselves. What they wanted when they were reading the letter. Now what do they want to have accomplished and did they achieve those goals. My goal is that they didn’t. I hope they read those letters and there’s something in that letter that they didn’t achieve because at theend of the day you know your goal should be so high they should be laughable. So hopefully there’s some goals in those letters from last year that they didn’t achieve that we can continue to strive for. Then what i’m looking for is the guys to come together. I’m about to have a team meeting and one of those things we’re going to talk about is the goals of the team. One of the goals is going to be to create memories and relationships that last forever. That should be the goal of every single season is you should leave that season with memories and relationships that last forever. If you can create those, there’s going to be good and there’s going to be bad. That’s part of it but if you can leave every season with relationships and memories I think that’s pat of a successful season.”

On what a successful season looks like from a process standpoint:

“I think a successful season is playing our best football. A successful season is continuing the brand of football we want to play, which is people know that we're going to be a physical football team and we're going to play passionate and we're going to play physical. Like tat brand continuing on that you can feel the passion when you watch us on TV. I say all the time like when somebody describes us, what do you want it to be? How do you want somebody to describe us? Cute. Is that is that how you want it? Like that's fine. There's nothing wrong with that. A lot of teams win, in a cute manner. Or do you want to be described as a dude who strap it up? And to me, I want our football team to be described as that. And then I said, I want our guys to have relationships and moments that will last a lifetime. And I want them to have more fun working harder than anybody in the country. I want them to love and enjoy the season. I think if we can leave the season being the very best version of us every single day. We can leave the season being a physically tough football team that plays with a passion, that has a lot of fun doing it more than anybody in the country. And combine that with moments that were created. I think that's a successful football season. I think all of that together, we'll wake up one day and be like, "Holy cow, right?" I don't know where we'll be if we're missing one of those pieces.”

On what ASU quarterback Sam Leavitt does that NFL scouts will look at and how he looks in Aroyo’s offense:

“Last year the leash came one-hundred percent off. In my opinion. We actually hindered him last year more than helped him in a lot of ways. We said, ‘hey, go fix this third and long, go fix it on second and long.’ which is very tough for a quarterback. So I think what you saw from Sam last year is somebody who had to fix a lot of problems in bad situations and he did an unbelievable job of us giving him a bad scenario and fixing it. This year, I hope we will put him in more positions to be successful on early downs which will allow him to stay in rhythm, allow him to be a better quarterback on those long yardage situations. What he does well that translates is he’s super intelligent. He throws the deep ball extremely well. He’s the best player on game day. He’s a better player on game day than he is practice player and he’s a hell of a practice player. But when game day hits, he’s so prepared for what he’s about to see that it translates. He’s mobile enough to get you out of problems. He can make awkward throws, which is what people want to see, his off-platform throws. In my opinion I think this is going to be an unbelievable year for him. I’m really fired up.  He's in the best shape of his life.

His leadership is getting to another level. uh you know, people see the passion he has in him, but he's learning how to lead at a higher rate. Uh very similar to Bo’s (Nix) transition from Auburn to Oregon. Bo had a little transition from a leadership standpoint. I can feel that in Sam. So, I think he checks a ton of boxes for NFL teams and I'm just blessed that he's on our football team.”

On the importance of staying mentally grounded and how he’s seen Sam (Leavitt) and Jordan (Tyson) stay grounded:

“I say it to them like, ‘You're going to let somebody else's expectation of you be the biggest expectation?’ That would be a red flag. If I were to meet with them and what I hear from the media is a bigger expectation than what they're telling me they want to achieve, I better meet with them daily (to fix that). When you have guys whose aspirations and goals are far beyond what anybody could write or say, then does it really matter? Because your goals are bigger than what they're saying. And I think that's what you want in a football team. You want people's goals to be almost unachievable. You want it to be laughable. You want people to think you're a little crazy. Last year, our guys said some things at times and people were like, ‘Oh, it'd become a controversy, do you want them to say that?’ I want our guys to have confidence in going to play the game and playing the game aggressive and free. So, I haven't really had to meet with them about it. And it really doesn't matter because their goals are so high for themselves and we're going to keep the main thing the main thing and that's getting better every single day. If you continue to do that, the better you get, the bigger your goal should be.”

On what he sees from the defense with several players returning from last season:

“I mean you look back at who we are. We're a three weak, match-man team to the boundary. Everybody knows that. Every football team we face knows that. It's 50% of our base down snaps. And you look at the Texas game, the last game we played, we played our best football when we just did what we do. Our guys came to the sideline and said, ‘Keep calling it. Keep calling it. Keep calling it,’ because they had so much confidence. So, I think just because we’re back doesn't mean we need to change or get cute. I think you have to double down on what you’re good at and then you have to add wrinkles. ‘Can we disguise things better? Do we know how much we can disguise things? Do we know how much we can't disguise things? Are there tweaks schematically that we need to make as a staff based on our skill set coming back? Do we need to play more man coverage?’ So, what do I expect? I expect a veteran group of guys that are going to play passionately… I expect extreme effort and extreme physicality out of our defense. We have enough talent that the talent will take care of itself. It's the effort and the physicality from that defense that I'm looking forward to.”

On the impact of head sports performance coach Joe Connolly:

“I think Joe is one of the best in the business. When I first got here, obviously, you want to start over for the most part and your strength coach is one of the most vital pieces when you're starting over. That's the guy who helps create a culture. So, I reached out to some people about who we were going to hire. And I’m like, ‘Well, we’ve got to hire somebody new, right? You can't keep the people that are here because you’ve got to have a new identity.’ And then I met with him. And I'm like, ‘Yeah, this is a no-brainer.’ He's so good at balancing the work with the science. Sometimes you get guys that are all about the work and there's not much science — just run your head through the wall and keep running. And there's other guys that are all about the science, but they don't have the motivation. I think Joe's phenomenal at balancing both. He's super intelligent. He understands the science that goes into it, but he is also a really, really good motivator. He understands people. He's relationship driven. He holds a standard and his entire team holds a standard. Going out there and watching them work out, you don't see a slip in the standard of the program. I think that's the stuff that happens behind the scenes. That's really the backbone and you can see it. Keyshaun Elliott's a mile per hour faster, Clayton's (Smith) 20 pounds heavier and a mile per hour faster. Jordan Tyson's almost a mile per hour faster and 10 pounds heavier. So, the growth was there, the work was there. I'm just excited to see it all put together.”

On how to coach poise:

“Hard. I think it's that they’ve got to believe in each other. I think in the biggest moments, the closest teams win. The teams that know each other's names, the team who knows the guy next to him deepest and darkest secret. It comes down to those relationships when you can look at somebody and be like, ‘Let's do this." And you have so much confidence that the guy next to you is not going to let you down, that the guy next to you is going to make the play. So, I think in the biggest moments, it's the relationships that take the lead. And the calmness of you in a huddle … and that confidence when you take the field and that confidence when you hear the voices of the guys that you have really really strong bonds with. So, hopefully we've continued to build those bonds, which I think we have, and double down on those bonds. But that's what wins close games.”

On comparisons between Sam Leavitt and Denver Broncos quarterback Bo Nix:

There's a lot of comparisons to be honest. They're both great kids off the field. They're both plus-athletes. They could both probably play safety at a high level in college, if not get on a team in the NFL at safety or at a defensive back position. They're both physical kids. They're both super hard studiers. They love to know the game and they want control. They don't want to give up control, they want the control of the game. And that's not even including the ability to throw the ball. I know everybody thought Bo couldn't throw it deep, but he's really good at throwing the deep ball. Sam's really good at throwing the deep ball. They both were kind of wild cards earlier in their careers in terms of how they played off-platform all the time. I think that's the progression for Sam (where he can make) those off-platform plays, but now can you be the guy that Bo was at the end of his college career, which is a 75% completion percentage guy. Can you be a guy that makes early down completions? Can you make a team say, ‘Oh crap, if I blitz this guy, he's going to throw the stick route to replace it and it's going to go for 11,’? That's the next evolution and Bo had that evolution when he was at Oregon. But, I hope Sam  has really progressed in that this offseason. That's his next step being a year-two starter. That early down passing and being able to almost punish people that try to pressure him based off of his film study and footwork.”

On making wide receiver coach Hines Ward an associate head coach:

“He’s been awesome. Just look at Jordan Tyson. Look at the wide outs and the progression. Malik McClain’s had an unbelievable offseason. The reason we added the title was, what better person for our leaders to go to when you're trying to build consistency than a guy who was the model of consistency in an organization that built consistency. He was one of the pillars as a player. A player can come to me all they want and they can ask me leadership advice, but I'll never know the answers that Hines knows because he was in their exact same shoes as a player-leader. I've never been a player-leader. I've only been a coach-leader, which are different roles. So, I think giving him that title was really for me to say, ‘Guys, I don't care if you're a defensive back. I don't care if you're a defensive lineman. I don't care if you're a linebacker, offensive lineman. If you have a question about how to lead, if you have a question about how to create standards, how to be successful and continue that on a personal level, you have a guy here who can help you.’ Sometimes people get scared if he's not your position coach, so I wanted to make sure that people knew that you need to go to him and utilize him not just for coaching the wide receivers, but for your own personal growth. We have an unbelievable resource here, an unbelievable person and coach.”

On the biggest things he wants to see from the wide receiver room this fall:

“Consistency catching the ball and perimeter blocking. Toughness is from wideouts to corners, defensive line to offensive line. I want to see guys whoop the person's butt in front of them. I want to see people block people into a cooler like Jordan (Tyson) did last year, like Anthony Miller used to do, like Jaelen Strong used to do. And then, I want to see guys catch the ball consistently. At the end of the day, football is about catching the ball. If you play wideout, get open all you want, but if you can't catch it, it's irrelevant. Be fast all you want,  but if you can't catch it, it's irrelevant. So, I want to see us catch the ball at a high rate and then block extremely physically.”

On what he’s seen from Akim Lenieux:

“He was a guy that we felt could add a lot of versatility in the room. He has come in and worked his butt off. I'm excited to add him to the room. He's been really good so far.”

On if he got a chance to unplug from college football and enjoy any downtime:
“I did get a chance to get away a little bit. It was good. I got to hang out with the little guy. He's really into baseball right now. So we actually went over to Willie (Bloomquist’s) camp. He hit balls out of the cage for a little bit. We went up to Flagstaff a little and Big Bear. So we went to a couple places with the family. It was fun. The phone never turns off, just the location you answer it changes, which is nice. But no, it was a good summer. I tried to give the staff a good amount of time off before we get in this spaceship and get launched for four months. We just got back again today. We had a three-day weekend. So everybody's back, and it's day zero.”

On what the returners on the defensive line will bring this season:
“I think our defensive ends in general. Our four guys and then Coop (Anthonie Cooper) is coming back. But I think between Elijah (O’Neal), (Justin) Wodtly, Prince (Dorbah) and Clayton (Smith) alone, I think those guys alone have gained about 70 pounds just in that unit. You're talking 15 pounds on average apiece. I think that's going to help us in pass-rush scenarios. I think we're going to change some ways we create pass rush as well, which is obviously a positive. And I think this year we're going to be a different football team. I think we're a faster football team. So naturally we're going to have more explosive plays, or we should have more explosive plays on offense. If you have more explosive plays on offense, well hopefully we don't, but you have the ability to blow more leads and you have the ability to gain more leads. So I think when we gain those leads and we get into the pass rush scenarios, it can create more explosives on the defensive line based off of our offense. Adversely, if we're creating explosives on defense, usually offense feeds off that energy. When you get explosives on defense, that's contagious for an offense just from a momentum standpoint. So I do think the depth in the D-line, the added size with those guys at defensive end, I think it's going to help our pass rush, which is going to create more negatives.”

On if the defensive play calling will be more aggressive this season:
“I do. I think the word aggressive is interesting when you talk about defense. See, when you think offense, aggressive is how far you throw it and how many times you throw it. When you think defense, is aggressive blitzing? Or is aggressive playing two-man and telling those four guys, you've got to sack the quarterback and control the scramble? So I think the word aggressive correlates to blitzing on defense. I think that's going to depend on the matchups this year. I think this year we may not be that team that you see as much chaos. It may be calmer and saying, ‘listen, we're going to get this dude matched up versus this dude, block him.’ It may be simpler if we have a guy step up and we can move guys around to get a favorable matchup. So I think that's going to be game-plan driven. We'll always be at some point a pain to go versus on third downs, whether you like it or not. When you're on offense and we do so much, we bring everybody within eight yards in the last column. Does it cost us sometimes, yes. But when you're on offense and you see a team do all of that on third down, you worry so much about third downs in the game plan that you think they're simple on first downs, let me just focus on third down. Then you dominate early downs and you get so many people in the third downs that all you have to do is be 50% and you're going to be really good. So I do believe in chaos on third down but more just philosophically because you have to prepare for the chaos. And preparing for the chaos if we do it every week and you have to do it once a year or twice a year, you have to spend more time. That takes time away from base downs and carries over. So I don't know if it's much personnel driven. The personnel side will be, can we get to the passer with four? Can we get to the passer with five? Can we get to the passer with three and bring games and have a spy? I think you may see more of that based off of where I think our defensive line will be this year based off, like you said, personnel. More aggressive, letting them go. The more you move, the less you let the D-line go. Because now they're stunning left and stunning right. It's not a one-on-one. So we may be more aggressive with letting our D-line go and say one-on-one.”

On what he wants to tell the fans before their home opener versus NAU:
“Week one, we play NAU. It's going to be hot. A lot of people who have tickets are going to be in Flagstaff. They're going to be at home on their couch. Regardless of where you are, understand we had a lot of kids who chose to come back to play football at Arizona State, and they take a lot of pride in this place. Show the amount of pride they show. Show up. Everybody says, ‘oh, are people going to show up week one?’ Go look at any good football program and go look at week one. You're going to see sold-out crowds or 85% capacity. If we want to be a program that continues to build, then we as the community have to show that. Because at the end of the day, I've said this from day one, this is not a Kenny Dillingham, this is not one player, one coach. In order to win in college athletics, it takes a community. The current rules of college athletics, it's even going to be more important to have a community with the way NIL is changing and all that. So when I say it's important for people to show up and sell out and be loud from week one on, I absolutely mean that because we're going to have people watching. Our players are going to run out of that tunnel, and they're going to say, ‘man, it matters here’ or ‘man, it doesn't.’ And that's going to carry over for the next tradition of kids. ‘Man, it matters here’ or ‘man, it doesn't.’ And our fans dictate that.”

On what Jaren Hamilton brings to the wide receiver room:
“He's gained 17 pounds since he got here, and he's gotten faster. Depending on how you look at the speed, he's a mid to high 22 guy right now at 206-207 pounds. And he showed up here at 190-191, somewhere in there. So whatever that weight is, I may be off by a pound either way. But you see speed and you see a kid who's gotten comfortable. I want guys to be themselves here. I think that's evident the moment you walk in here. It's a little uncomfortable to be yourself in a college football environment because so many environments want you to be the environment. ‘You're not yourself, you need to be us.’ And I couldn't disagree more. When you come to our football program, you need to be you. You need to hit a set of standards, however you do it. I don't care how you do it. Just be a good person and make good decisions and have more fun working harder than anybody in the country. I don't care if you do that with a sideways hat. I don't care if you do that with an arm sleeve. I don't care if you do that with a grill. I don't care if you do that with earrings. I don't care if you do that in a sweatshirt. I don't care what you do it in. Just be yourself and be a good person and make good decisions and have more fun working harder than anybody in the country. So I think for him, I think he got comfortable here. He's himself. I think now you're seeing why he was so highly ranked. He's got a lot to prove still. I'll tell him that to his face. He's got to go prove that his progress is going to show up on the field. And he's going to become a better blocker and all the things that are necessary. But I'm really happy he's here and I've loved the progression he's made. I think he's really comfortable here.”

On who is a part of the leadership council:
“Not me, our team votes. So our team votes and that's who they voted for. I do not change the votes, I refuse to. I don't care if there's somebody that I don't think should be on it. I don't think if there's somebody not on it that I think should be on it. I don't change the votes. Never have in three years, never will. I think it's helped some guys. You look at Clayton Smith who showed up, who was voted on the council, and you look at where he is now. Is Clayton Smith 20 pounds heavier? Is he a mature human being, even though he still has snakes and is goofy and funny? He's grown up a ton. Would he have grown up, gained 20 pounds and been the Clayton Smith of today if his teammates didn't vote him on that and if we didn't challenge him to become a better leader? I don't know, but he is. So I'm really pleased with what the leadership council is and who they voted on this year, though I think it's a reflection of our team.”

On who are the new players on the Leadership Council besides Jordan Tyson:
“Besides Tyson, Skrilla (Josh Atkins). Actually, even though he's lost a lot of weight, he's led cardio clubs, so he's medium Skrilla now. Not quite as big as he used to be. So you have Skrilla. You have JT (Jordyn Tyson) from last year. Sam (Leavitt) was on it last year. For D-line, C.J. Fite was on it last year. You have Clayton (Smith), he was on it. You have Jordan Crook, who was on it this year now. You have Keith Abney, who's on it this year now. Ben Coleman, who's on it this year now. So those guys that I mentioned were on it last year. Montana (Warren) was one of the young guys last year, so we haven't added those young guys yet to the council. So we'll add a few of the younger class to kind of learn how it works before they get voted on. He's intelligent enough to do it. He's played tackle. He's played guard. And he wants to. When you're transitioning to center, it's kind of annoying. You have to make calls. You have to hold the ball and snap. It's really an undervalued position because you're down a hand, and you have to be really good at communicating. Obviously, you don't pull as much, and there's some advantages and stuff like that. But he knows that if he wants to make it on Sunday, the more versatility you have, the better. So that's a guy who started at tackle in college football, who's been a really high productive guard. He's now going to start at center. What more of a Swiss Army knife could some team want to carry than a guy who's played and started at all three in the Power Five level on winning football teams. So that was the reason. His demand and leadership along with Skrilla in that offensive line, I've been really pleased with and I think they feed off of each other really well. So I've been really happy with both of those guys.”