After firing Herm Edwards earlier in the 2022 season, Arizona State has opted to head in a much different direction with its next hire.
The Sun Devils have hired Oregon offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham to become the next head coach. Dillingham is an Arizona native and ASU alum — the first to hold this position. At 32, he becomes the youngest head coach in the Power Five.
For a program that has seen some success over the last decade but has mostly underachieved, the decision to hire Dillingham is a significant change of pace coming off the ultimately failed tenures of Todd Graham and Herm Edwards, both of whom have been regarded as hard to work with.
An energetic guy and something of an offensive wunderkind, Dillingham had a bit of an unorthodox path into coaching. He began his career at the age of 17 while still a student-athlete at Chaparral High School in Scottsdale, becoming the quarterbacks coach for his team after tearing his ACL.
By the age of 21, he was the varsity offensive coordinator at Chaparral while enrolled at Arizona State.
He would later join the Sun Devils’ coaching staff as an offensive assistant under then-offensive coordinator Mike Norvell. Dillingham followed Norvell to Memphis when he was named the head coach, serving as offensive coordinator. He later held the same role at Auburn, Florida State (under Norvell once again), and, most recently, at Oregon.
Dillingham came to national prominence this season for his work with transfer quarterback Bo Nix, who he worked with at Auburn when Nix was a true freshman. Nix had a very productive season and guided the Ducks to a nine-win regular season.
Given Tempe’s location in the greater Phoenix metropolitan area, there’s certainly a lot of potential at the program. However, much of that is yet to be realized as the Sun Devils haven’t won 10 games since 2014 and are still looking for their first NY6/BCS bowl appearance since making the Rose Bowl after the 1996 season.
Whether Dillingham is the answer remains to be seen, but it’s clear that the brass at ASU is aiming to modernize this football program and inject it with some energy.
