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The Arizona State football program has been called a “sleeping giant” for years because of the team’s potential to become a perennial college football power.
Could ASU become the next college football powerhouse program?
Sun Devils head coach Kenny Dillingham recently addressed that topic on a podcast, talking about the potential his team has to be the next “blue blood” in college football after its 11-3 season that included a Big 12 football championship and College Football Playoff appearance.
“Every decade there’s a team, I tell our staff this, I tell people this: 2000 to 2010, Oregon showed up,” Dillingham said on the Next Up with Adam Breneman podcast. “Research it. 2011 to 2020, Clemson showed up. Boom. People look at those teams as blue bloods now. Maybe the older heads don’t look at them as blue bloods, but if you’re an 18- to 17-year-old, they’re a blue blood. All they’ve known is those schools winning.
“Who’s gonna be the team from 2020 to 2030? Who’s gonna be this era of team that shows up and the next generation of kids looks at them differently? I really think we can do that here.”
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Dillingham added: “The city, the place, from the commitment of the university to the city to the fans selling out to the staff all returning this year. I really believe this place has the tools necessary for kids 10 years from now to be like, ‘Woah, they weren’t always this good?’ Like sometimes I show that to recruits and they’re like, ‘Woah, they weren’t always like a 12-win team like Clemson is now?’ Like, no, this just happened, bud. That’s what you can be a part of here. You can be a part of when you look back and think, ‘Woah, I was a part of this wave that all these younger kids thought we were always good.’ Nah, we’ve built this thing.”
Did the “sleeping giant” wake up last season? We’ll see if Arizona State can build off its College Football Playoff and Big 12 championship in the 2025-26 season, which begins on Aug. 30 against Northern Arizona.
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Reach Jeremy Cluff at je**********@*************ic.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter @Jeremy_Cluff.
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