It may have been just the first day of spring practice for the Arizona State football team, but coach Kenny Dillingham was already going full throttle with the psychological warfare.
Queen’s “We are the Champions” blared over the loudspeakers at the Kajakawa practice fields as the Arizona State Sun Devils took to the turf for the first time this spring. But the song wasn’t part of a playlist. The song ran on loop so it was heard again, again and again. No fewer than 20 times.
Dillingham’s team does, indeed, come into the 2025 as the defending Big 12 champion, having throttled Iowa State 45-19 in the conference championship game at AT&T Stadium in Dallas last December. It was an unexpected run; the Sun Devils were picked to finish last in the preseason poll.
It’s not that Dillingham wanted to remind his team that it was the defending champion. Quite the contrary. He wanted them to get sick of hearing it and move on.
ASU football fans welcome team home after trip to Peach Bowl
The Arizona State football team arrived in Tempe late on Jan. 1, 2025, after the Sun Devils’ loss to Texas in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl.
“I wanted it to become monotonous, like `Who gives a crap?'” Dillingham said. “You’re going to be told so many good things forever, you better just become so monotonous to you that it’s irrelevant.
“Nobody cares, so we’re just trying to make last year irrelevant because nobody cares anymore. So we’re going to do things and play things that make last year irrelevant.”
Asked if it was his idea, the coach replied, “Yeah, I like to do stuff to mess with people.”
Mission accomplished.
“I can’t speak for anybody else, but it was annoying me,” quarterback Sam Leavitt said of the song’s continual play. “I don’t care about last year’s championship. It was fun for the moment, but I don’t want to hear about it anymore.
“I told him to turn it off because we’re not champions anymore. It’s a new season. We have more to prove.”
Added running back Kyson Brown: “I’m tired of it already. Whatever Kenny wanted to accomplish by playing it all day, he accomplished it.”
Tuesday’s practice was the first of the 15 spring sessions. The team is slated to go on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
Among those on hand to lend some support on the first day were former players including running back Cam Skattebo, receivers Xavier Guillory and Melquan Stovall and offensive lineman Cade Briggs.
