BIG 12 CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA DAYS

July 7, 2026

Kenny Dillingham

Ford Center at The Star

Arizona State Sun Devils

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Our next guest at the 2026 Monster Energy Big 12 Media Days is Arizona State Head Coach Kenny Dillingham. We'll go straight to questions.

Q. Kenny, my question is about your coaching continuity. You've had a tremendous amount of coaches stay within your program. That's something that's caused prior ASU staff challenges, including a staff that you were on under Todd Graham. What does that enable you personally and the team?

KENNY DILLINGHAM: Yeah, I think it makes you more efficient. I think anytime that you can have consistency on your staff, a lot of the things that you would spend time on, you don't have to spend time on, which allows you to give more time off to your staff, which makes them want to stay more. Then the more time off you give them, the more they want to stay, but then the more continuity you have.

I think it's a what came first, the chicken or the egg, scenario in terms of that really just provides a lot of time-saving scenarios, and we can all get on the same page. We all know how we think. We know how we work together. I think it's a huge advantage for us. It allows us to see our families, to get away from the game, and also get the same amount of work done, if not more than other places with extreme turnover.

Q. You guys got so close to winning in the '24 playoff. Tech had a good seed last year. How important is it for somebody to break through and start winning once you get in the playoff, important for the league?

KENNY DILLINGHAM: Yeah, winning is always important. So, yeah, we want to win as many games as we can in the regular season, as many games as we can in the post-season.

Obviously winning, I mean, it's the nature of the sport. We got to win.

Q. Chemistry and cohesion some will say are the biggest cliches in sports, but do you feel that the culture that you established at Arizona State has really helped those elements become from cliches to actually building blocks of the program, especially with so many newcomers this year?

KENNY DILLINGHAM: 100%. I think the leadership council here has done a great job, along with a lot of other guys who have votes, establishing a culture, establishing a work ethic, establishing those things that do breed success. I mean, when you talk about culture, you can put it on a wall or you can live it.

I think a lot of the guys alternate how we've recruited guys, the guys that we've brought in, they're very like-minded. When you recruit like-minded people, they get along. Those people get along. They want to be around each other, create an environment to have them work.

I think these guys on this council, these guys on this team, I think they love the process, they love the work, and they believe in what we're doing. I think they've really brought in the rest of the team.

Like I said, there's a bunch of leaders on this team that aren't here who have done the same thing. I do believe in that culture and that that has been established.

Q. Who are you looking forward to losing to in the new NCAA game?

KENNY DILLINGHAM: I think the last time I played a player on our team, nicknamed Sip, I think I beat him 40 pre-game on a Friday night. We ended up to win that game later. So it would not be Sip. It would have to be somebody else on our team. So I don't know who that would be.

Q. My question for you is, when someone watches Arizona State football this fall, what's one characteristic you hope they immediately associate with the team?

KENNY DILLINGHAM: Tough. Watch us. We're physical. We respond to adversity. Physically and mentally tough. Bad things happen; we respond. We don't get too high. We don't get too low. We're a physical football team, so tough.

That's the No. 1 thing, other than the little things like owning the ball and all that stuff that everybody has to do to win. But tough. When you turn on our tape, I want our football team to be a team that you can feel the physicality, and you can see us respond.

Q. ASU has produced a multitude of draft picks since you've taken over. What are some of those names that we can look for this fall that can generate some noise?

KENNY DILLINGHAM: Yeah, I think there's a lot of names. For me to go through, we'll be here for a while. But I think there's a lot of names of guys that have an opportunity to get drafted this year and in future years within the program. I think that's something that we've established is that we can put guys in the NFL, that we can develop a team and a culture and an environment to maximize players.

I think this last season, you know, having those four guys drafted and guys that weren't really ranked super high in their high school recruiting rankings, were kind of under the radar, and then have the success they had and get drafted where they were, I think that's only the beginning for our program to prove that we can help you get to where you want to go.

Then there are guys that don't make the NFL, how can we help you in life, which is the more challenging prospect.

Q. Can you talk about the schedule your team is playing, and in particular, the London game and how that is going to change everything you do on a weekly?

KENNY DILLINGHAM: Yeah, it's definitely a challenge. I told our team, the biggest challenge is us this year in managing the schedule, going on the road at A&M and then going straight from A&M straight to London week three. That's a challenge of its own.

I want to do the London game because college football is, at the end of the day, still about these players, it's still about 18- to 22-year-olds and their experience in college and the memories they make, hopefully good memories, but it's about those memories.

Sending 105 college kids to London to experience something they may never experience again is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Even though it makes our schedule more challenging, everything is challenging in its own light. We created the challenge for ourselves, but if we go take care of business, play the game we want to play, prepare how we want to prepare, it could also bring us together, and we could turn it into a positive.

That does create challenges in the schedule. It puts our bye week week 3, and then us having nine straight games is another challenge of keeping our bodies healthy. This is a great challenge for our team to be able to play a difficult schedule, not just verse teams, but logistically, and find a way to navigate through it. That's the maturity that I think this team has.

Q. Looking at the elite wide receivers that you have brought in via the transfer portal, what can you say about that room, how it's growing, and what we can expect this season from them?

KENNY DILLINGHAM: Yeah, I expect that room to be dynamic. I expect that room to, you know, force people to lean safeties in the run game, in the pass game, to change coverage. That's what I expect. I expect some of those guys to force a team to play them with more than one person.

In a game that's turning into a league filled with, you know, four match, which fits almost like two man and three match, and a game that's turning into a lot of match coverage, you have to have guys that can truly win on the perimeter and give yourself throws. If you can do that, you can change the math equation. We're looking for those guys to change the math in the box so guys like Kyson can run the rock.

Q. After reaching the College Football Playoffs in 2024, the team took a bit of a step back last season. How has the heavy use of the transfer portal, how is that going to benefit you this season as a team?

KENNY DILLINGHAM: I think after the '24 team season, which was a great run for our guys, no expectations. Just work one day at a time. Just the work, the work, the work. I think we brought in guys in the portal that have a similar mindset to what we want our team to be, and that's process-driven, not results-driven.

I think if you can stay true to that mindset of process-driven and focus on what you can control every single day and you can do it in an environment where you like to be and you enjoy being there, I think it only multiplies the process-driven culture. We brought those guys in, and we expect them to be a big impact.

Q. What was it about Cutter Boley coming in from Kentucky that made you go and want to bring him into Arizona State, because I think he was in the transfer portal for only two days before you guys signed him?

KENNY DILLINGHAM: Yeah, I recruited him to Oregon when I was there, and I just remember he was a really good athlete. You know, people don't give him enough credit for his athleticism. He is a very good athlete, was a good basketball player. He had all the arm strength and all the ability of what he can do.

And then when he went in the portal, watching his tape really fast, but I remembered who he was, and I remembered a lot about him from his visit out there to Oregon. He was someone I knew I wanted to target from the beginning.

Q. You've been very vocal about the importance of fundraising just to keep up with the college football arms race. Are you content with what's already been done, and do you feel like there's further room to grow in that area to allow ASU to keep up?

KENNY DILLINGHAM: You just asked a coach if he's content, right? Obviously the answer is no, right? We'll never be content. You're always striving to be better. You're always striving to push better, push for more, push for more. And the day that I stop trying to push for more is the day that I'm complacent and content, and that's not what you want.

You should always want more. You should always push for more, and I think that's just the nature of the world we're in today, but it's the nature of how sports have been forever is you always want more, you want more, you push for more.

I'll say, the athletic department, the president, they've definitely gotten way, way, way more involved in terms of what they want this program to be from my four years here. There's been unbelievable growth in who we are as an athletic department, as a university. There's support for football, and we're building a new indoor facility that's going to be state-of-the-art, one of the best indoor facilities in the country, and we're continuing to try to get better and better and better.

But I'll never be satisfied. I'll always want more. I'll always push to want more. I think anybody who wants to be the very best is going to want the same.

Thank you. Go Devils.