Kenny Dillingham is one of the youngest college football coaches at the FBS level.
He’s also the conductor behind one of the more impressive turnarounds in college football at Arizona State.
In less than two seasons, the 34-year-old Dillingham has brought life to the Sun Devils program as it faced losing seasons and NCAA recruiting violations under Herm Edwards.
No. 13 Arizona State now has its biggest test under Dillingham, as it will compete for the Big 12 championship title in its first season in the conference on Saturday. The Sun Devils will face off against No. 16 Iowa State at AT&T Stadium.
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The Sun Devils weren’t expected to be in the position that they will be in come Saturday just four months ago — and certainly weren’t expected to be competing for one of the final spots in the College Football Playoff.
With that, here’s a deeper look into the turnaround Dillingham has done at Arizona State heading into Saturday’s Big 12 title game, including a look back to the Big 12 preseason poll and more:
Arizona State football record turnaround
- 2023 record: 3-9 (2-7 Pac-12)
- Arizona State record: 10-2 (7-2 Big 12)
It’s nothing short of impressive on the type of season the Sun Devils are currently having, considering Arizona State went 3-9 in Dillingham’s first season.
As noted by Arizona State’s game notes for this week, the Sun Devils — following their Territorial Cup victory over Arizona last week — became the eighth “Power Four” program to improve their win total from year to year by at least seven wins since 2012.
At 10-2 overall on the season, the Sun Devils have three signature wins on their CFP resume, beating then-No. 16 Utah in Week 7, then-No. 20 Kansas State in Week 12 and then-No. 14 BYU in Week 13. Three ranked wins are tied for the third-most in program history for Arizona State.
It is the first 10-win season for the Sun Devils since 2014, and just the fourth since 2000.
“I think we’ve recruited guys who love ball, who are good people and who are competitive. I talk about it all the time, competitive people win all the time,” Dillingham told Inside the 12 on Friday on how the Sun Devils have been able to have the season they are having. “We got a lot of good kids in here that competitive and they’ve really taken over the culture, taken over the program and made it their own.
“This is a player-driven team. Not a coach-driven team. This is all about them.”
Here’s a look at the full list of Power Four teams to improve their win total year-by-year to seven games since 2012:
- Eight wins: TCU (2021-22) and Indiana (2023-24)
- Seven wins: Missouri (2012-13), Syracuse (2017-18), USC (2021-22), Washington (2021-22), Northwestern (2022-23) and Arizona State (2023-24)
Where was Arizona State voted in Big 12 football preseason poll?
The Sun Devils were picked to 16th out of 16 teams in the Big 12 preseason poll back in July.
“I don’t care about any of that,” Dillingham said earlier this week when asked about the narrative surrounding his team’s turnaround. “The same people who picked us to suck say we’re good now and that’ll be forever. You can’t get blinded by other people’s expectations of yourself.
“Just got to be the very best version of yourself and see what happens.”
Iowa State was also not expected to compete in the Big 12 championship game, at least in terms of where they were voted. The Cyclones were voted sixth in the conference, a full 10 spots ahead of the Sun Devils.
Here’s a look at what the preseason poll looked like for the Big 12:
- Utah
- Kansas State
- Oklahoma State
- Kansas
- Arizona
- Iowa State
- West Virginia
- UCF
- Texas Tech
- TCU
- Colorado
- Baylor
- BYU
- Cincinnati
- Houston
- Arizona State
Big 12 football standings
With its win over Arizona in Week 14, Arizona State moved into a four-way tie for first place in the Big 12 standings with a 7-2 conference record. The Sun Devils beat out BYU in the tiebreaker scenarios for first place because of their win over the Cougars in Week 13.
Here’s a look at what the Big 12 standings looked like after the regular season:
- T-1. Arizona State: 7-2
- T-1. Iowa State: 7-2
- T-1. BYU: 7-2
- T-1. Colorado: 7-2
- T-5. Baylor: 6-3
- T-5. TCU: 6-3
- T-5. Texas Tech: 6-3
- T-8. Kansas State: 5-4
- T-8. West Virginia: 5-4
- 10. Kansas: 4-5
- T-11. Cincinnati: 3-6
- T-11. Houston: 3-6
- T-13: Utah: 2-7
- T-13. UCF: 2-7
- T-13. Arizona: 2-7
- 16. Oklahoma State: 0-9
