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Should Arizona State be viewed as a potential sleeping giant in college football? The Sun Devils’ quick turnaround under head coach Kenny Dillingham cannot be ignored after he led the program to its first College Football Playoff appearance in just his second season at the helm. Arizona State was a train wreck before Dillingham took over the controls at his alma mater in 2023. Now, Dillingham is already making the case for the Sun Devils to emerge as a modern blue blood.
“Every decade there’s a team, I tell our staff this, I tell people this: 2000 to 2010, Oregon showed up. Research it. 2011 to 2020, Clemson showed up. Boom,” Dillingham said, via the Next Up with Adam Breneman podcast. “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.”
As bold as that may sound, the argument from Dillingham holds weight. Before 2000, Oregon had never recorded a double-digit win season. Clemson, despite winning a national title in 1981, endured a two-decade lull prior to the arrival of head coach Dabo Swinney in 2009. Now, both programs rank seventh nationally in win percentage (.741) since 2000. The Tigers won national championships in 2016 and 2018, while the Ducks have been on the cusp of their first ever title multiple times.
Arizona State has zero claimed college football national championships in its history, but has experienced periods of high-level success, most notably the stretch from 1970 to 1975 when the Sun Devils finished undefeated twice under then-head coach Frank Kush. Dillingham is confident the pieces are aligning for Arizona State to emerge as a modern power in college football.
“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,” Dillingham continued. “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.”
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The Sun Devils enter 2025 as repeat Big 12 title contenders and expectations are high with a large percentage of starters back in the fold. While stud running back Cam Skattebo departed at the end of a thrilling 2024 campaign in which he finished fifth in Heisman voting, both quarterback Sam Leavitt and his top receiver, Jordyn Tyson, are back for another season.
Carter Bahns contributed to this report.