Kenny Dillingham Speaks on Modern Recruiting Landscape

Arizona State had an eventful Tuesday as the de-facto headliners of Big 12 Media Days in Frisco, Texas by virtue of being the defending champions of the conference.

Sam Leavitt, Jordyn Tyson, Ben Coleman, C.J. Fite, and Xavion Alford were all joined by Kenny Dillingham after the five former players were selected to preseason All-Big 12 honors.

Dillingham was the last coach to speak to media for the day before the next eight coaches take the stage today - and had some very fascinating things to say.

Among the most intriguing is the third-year head coach's approach to recruiting in the age of NIL and the transfer portal - the response was quite telling about the transformations these developments have lead to in the game.

From ESPN's Pete Thamel:

“To me, recruiting is dead. Retention is alive.”

"It's not about recruiting. I don't care if we're ranked dead last in recruiting my entire career here. Who knows... it'd be like if the draft was for one year, then half of your draft picks leave. So it's all about retention now. That's my entire thing."

That sentiment has reflected in the approach to the 2025 roster, where freshman were recruited largely to fill gaps that outgoing seniors left, while transfer portal players were brought in to fill the remaining gaps.

The player retention efforts have largely been successful as well, as 17 players from last season's team decided to return despite some potentially receiving lucrative NIL offers from other programs to leave.

Among those was Leavitt - who stayed steadfast in his loyalty to the program, and looked at the cost-benefit angle through a very broad lens:

“Why would you not want to be in a situation where you know exactly what’s going on…Who cares if you get paid a couple hundred thousand dollars less when you're gonna have a shot to now go play in the NFL and make 10 times more money.”

In an era where money makes the majority of decisions, Dillingham has built a culture that is predicated on community, drive, and personability - that mindset has largely paid off.

Read more on everything else Dillingham had to say at Media Days here, and the Big 12 commissioner discussing why the Sun Devils were the driving factor behind the conference ending the preseason team standings poll here.

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