Getty Image / Kevin Abele
On Sunday, Arizona State announced they had hired Kenny Dillingham as their next head football coach. Dillingham recently served as the offensive coordinator at Oregon. At Oregon, he made Bo Nix look like a competent quarterback and helped the Ducks to a 9-3 record in Dan Lanning’s first year there.
He will be the youngest head coach in the country at just 32 years old. And, he’s also the first Arizona State alumnus and Arizona native to ever be the head coach at the university. Needless to say, it’s a good match.
Nine years ago, Kenny Dillingham was a high school offensive coordinator.
Six years ago, he was a graduate assistant at Memphis.
He's now an FBS head coach at 32 years old.
Quite a meteoric rise.
— Curt Weiler (@CurtMWeiler) November 27, 2022
His introductory press conference was Sunday, and it got interesting.
Kenny Dillingham cried at his press conference
I think all of us have dreamt of becoming the head coach at our alma mater, and he’s getting to do it in real life. And, he was quite emotional.
Kenny Dillingham opened his introductory press conference with an emotional plea to Sun Devil nation.@SunDevilSource pic.twitter.com/a5kW0wb4UN
— Ethan Tuttle (@KingTutSports) November 27, 2022
Kenny Dillingham on ASU: "We need everybody in this room to get involved. We need the valley behind us."
His pitch is to get the transplants to spend their money and stay around to go to ASU games instead of going back up to Big Ten games on Saturdays.
— Chris Vannini (@ChrisVannini) November 27, 2022
It’s awesome to see a coach care that much about a place. It’s no guarantee that it will work out, but it does energize the fan base.
And, his pitch for people to get involved seems to be working. A booster already committed $1 million to NIL at his press conference.
During Kenny Dillingham's press conference, a booster stood up and said he'll donate $1 million to Arizona State's collective. AD Ray Anderson also shouted out the collective.
A new world for college football.
— Chris Vannini (@ChrisVannini) November 27, 2022
It’s a new era in college football, and he’s quite the proof of it.