Kenny Dillingham Clarifies Goal of Arizona State Football Program

Less than four months remain until Arizona State football kicks off their 2025 campaign against Northern Arizona University on August 30. 

The opening game of the season will bring a wave of positive emotions for fans of the program, under the premise that the Sun Devils are surely to be ranked in the AP preseason top 25 poll and should be favorites to win the Big 12 conference  - but head coach Kenny Dillingham is not approaching the newfound waters of success any differently.

The third-year head coach took to the ‘Big 12 Today’ podcast to talk about a myriad of topics - one of them being the ultimate goal that he has as the leader of a rising football program.

“Our goal is not to win a national championship. Our goal is not to win the Big 12 championship… none of these things exist to me. To me, it’s just be the very best we can be,”

“Like I tell our guys, the better you end up being, the bigger the moments become, naturally. So if you just double down on being the very best over and over again, you’re going to create a bigger moment and a bigger moment and a bigger moment,”

Dillingham has built up an incredible culture in just two full seasons on the job - the shift couldn’t be more significant from the previous staff that committed numerous recruiting violations and shattered trust with much of the locker room over time.

The fact that the focus is on being internally motivated, humble, and taking things day-by-day is a testament to that - gone are the days where individual players or coaches are creating distractions. Everything from NIL deals to postseason awards will take care of itself if the roster continues to buy into Dillingham’s mentality.

This culture has ultimately produced moments such as star QB Sam Leavitt donating his entire NIL collection from last season back into the ‘Sun Angel Collective’ - all so his teammates could benefit off of his own success. Jordyn Tyson and Leavitt both decided to stay in Tempe for another year as well - in an era of college football where many players in that position would depart for another opportunity. 

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