Aiming for Clemson and Oregon status, Kenny Dillingham makes bold claim for ASU

Coach Kenny Dillingham and the Arizona State Sun Devils had a strong 2024 season. They won the Big 12 and earned a bye to the quarterfinals of the college football playoff. While they were eliminated by the Texas Longhorns, they put up a good fight, losing in double overtime.

As one of the youngest head coaches in college football, Dillingham is entering his third season with the Sun Devils. After an incredible turnaround following a poor first season, Dillingham believes the Sun Devils can be one of the best teams in college football. He was quoted by On3 insider Pete Nakos on Saturday morning, saying he thinks Arizona State can become a team like Clemson or Oregon.

"Kenny Dillingham tells On3 Sports he believes Arizona State can become a Clemson or Oregon, a blue blood of the 2020s. "You can go back in history and figure out which teams have shown up in which era. There hasn’t been a team in this era.""

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Heading into the 2025 college football season, Kenny Dillingham and the Arizona State Sun Devils are once again expected to contend for the Big 12 championship. While the team suffered a few big losses, including running back Cam Skattebo, it still has an impressive roster.

Led by QB Sam Leavitt, the Sun Devils should be able to stay ahead of the other top contenders next season.

Kenny Dillingham speaks about what he wants Arizona State's identity to be

Before he took over as head coach at Arizona State in 2023, Kenny Dillingham was the offensive coordinator at Oregon. On Thursday, he appeared on "The Herd with Colin Cowherd" and spoke about what he wants the identity of his team to be.

"The fun. I think when you think of Oregon, there's a brand behind what they do. Green, yellow, fast, fun, explosive. That's what you think about. And I think for me, it was, what is the brand of ASU football going to be? When people look at those gold jerseys, what do they think about? And I want it to be passion."

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It will be interesting to see how the Sun Devils perform next season after a tremendous year in 2024. They finished with an 11-3 record after going 3-9 in 2023. Fans will be watching eagerly to see if they can put up a repeat performance or if they regress back closer to where they were the year prior.

About the author

Alexander O'Reilly is a journalist at Sportskeeda from Kingston, Ontario with over seven years in the field at companies including SenShot, RVBlogger, Monarch Media, WordAgents, GSeC LLC, and IGC.

His favorite college team is Duke, and his favorite sporting memory was Duke winning March Madness in 2010. JJ Redick was Alex's favorite college player when he was young but more recently, Caleb Williams gets the nod. As the Chicago Bears are Alex's favorite NFL team, this was a perfect match.

Alex's proudest moment came when he was interviewed by a radio station in Ottawa on his opinion on recent moves by the Ottawa Senators, which gave him a confidence boost and the knowledge that he could succeed as a writer.

Aside from sports, Alex likes to spend his time playing games. He is also very passionate about running and strives to improve at the half and full marathon distances.

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Edited by Alexander O'Reilly