Kenny Dillingham puts a question mark over Josh Pate calling Arizona State “America's team”

Under coach Kenny Dillingham, Arizona State shocked many last season, reaching the Peach Bowl, where they narrowly lost 39-31 to the Texas Longhorns in double overtime. Dillingham led the Sun Devils to an impressive Big 12 championship win and the College Football Playoff.

The Sun Devils improved from a 3-9 record the previous season and were projected to be the worst team in the Big 12 to become conference champions with an astounding 11-3 record.

During Monday's segment of "Pate State," CBS Sports analyst Josh Pate had high praise for Dillingham and the Sun Devils after they were part of the most-watched game in college football history against Texas in the Peach Bowl (17.3 million viewers).

"I think Arizona State would be my answer here," Pate said. "Number one, it's not an SEC or Big Ten team. You cannot be America's football team and be in one of those conferences. Because you've gotta have a likable quality about you and those conferences aren't likeable right now. The Q ratings of those conferences are way down.

"So, not only is it not a Power Two team, it's not Clemson or Notre Dame or Miami or one of the ACC or independents. They went and hired Kenny Dillingham and that is a marriage that I always love to see when it's possible. Kenny grew up in the shadow of the stadium, the guy would have crawled over broken glass and taken a 50% pay cut to stay there just because."

Kenny Dillingham reacted to Pate labeling his team "America's team" by reposting the clip of the analyst's show on his Instagram stories and captioned it:

"America's team?" Dillingham wrote.

Dillingham's IG stories

Kenny Dillingham's team tabbed to struggle next season

Last season, the Arizona State Sun Devils were powered by running back Cam Skattebo's stellar season, which yielded 2,494 rushing yards on 457 carries, resulting in 30 touchdowns while adding two thrown touchdowns and four receiving touchdowns before departing for the NFL via the 2025 Draft.

During last week's segment of the "Joel Klatt Show," analyst Joel Klatt tabbed the Sun Devils to struggle next season without their talisman Skattebo, but he still ranked them at No. 15 in his post-spring portal rankings.

“I’m like, man, you can’t replace that,” Klatt said (17:15). “You can’t replace that energy and that passion, and you look at what happened in the playoff and what they relied on him for — even if you looked at the Big 12 championship game. He meant so much to that program.”

Alongside 14 other starters from last year's team, Kenny Dillingham will welcome back highly-rated quarterback Sam Leavitt and talented wide receiver Jordyn Tyson as he attempts to recreate the magic of last season.