Is Arizona State Football Becoming National Power?

If one is to look at a football program that made it out of perceived purgatory in record time - Arizona State is perhaps the first place to look.

The Sun Devil program looked to be near total collapse as recently as late in the 2022 season following years of incompetence from Herm Edwards as the head coach.

Enter Kenny Dillingham.

The now 35 year old coach transformed the program outlook nearly overnight - to the point of leading an eight-win improvement from 2023 to last season.

Now, the Sun Devils could be poised to be the next 'national power' - joining the likes of programs such as Clemson and Michigan.

Spencer McLaughlin of Locked on College Football discussed why Arizona State could factor in as a future powerhouse in the landscape of college football in a recent episode that featured Locked on Sun Devils host Richie Bradshaw.

Bradshaw made a compelling case for Arizona State being a future national power in the ensuing discussion.

"If you want to go to Arizona State, there's a few things going for you... we can talk about athletics. We can talk about how beautiful the area is, that you got a short drive to Rocky Point, to California, to Las Vegas... If you want to talk about the football program, I think it starts and ends with this."

"Yeah, Kenny Dillingham, one of the youngest coaches in sports, just took a three-win Sun Devils team in his first year there to Big 12 champions... and he did it not with a ton of money, but with a very simple pitch of, 'Hey, do you want to be a part of something?'

It was also alluded that the Sun Devils' culture of balancing working hard and having fun while also having tangible success in the player development department could be driving factors towards building something truly sustainable.

While there is still work to do to reach those lofty heights, Dillingham is well on his way to building a program that consistently competes for conference championships, top recruits, and potentially national titles on a yearly basis - that was something that would have been dismissed in short order just three years ago.

Read more about Arizona State TE coach Jason Mohns discussing the mentality that Dillingham instills in the program here, and transfer WR Jaren Hamilton's quest to be a star at Arizona State here.

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