Tempe is hot. That’s not a weather report; it’s the state of a program that has spent the better part of a decade trying to find its own shadow. If you look at the lineage of arizona state football coaches, you see a pattern of high-risk gambles that sometimes paid off in December but rarely lasted until the following September. It’s a weird place to coach. You have the resources of a massive university, a recruiting hotbed in your backyard, and a fan base that is perpetually one five-game winning streak away from losing its collective mind.
But then there's the baggage.
When Kenny Dillingham took the job, he wasn't just stepping into a coaching vacancy. He was stepping into a crime scene left behind by the Herm Edwards era. People forget how bizarre that whole "New Leadership Model" actually was in practice. It was an NFL-style front office experiment that ended with NCAA investigations, a self-imposed bowl ban, and a roster that looked like it had been through a vacuum cleaner. Dillingham didn't just need to call plays; he had to be a local therapist for a burnt-out community.
The ghost of the "New Leadership Model"
To understand why the current crop of arizona state football coaches is obsessed with "Sun Devil Weather" and local pride, you have to look at what failed before them. Herm Edwards was supposed to be the CEO. Ray Anderson, the former AD, thought he could disrupt the college football world by treating a college team like the Arizona Cardinals. It didn't work. While the "Pro Model" sounded great in a boardroom, it ignored the basic reality of college sports: you have to actually like recruiting.
The fallout was spectacular. Recruiting violations during a global pandemic? It’s almost impressive in its audacity. By the time Shaun Aguano took over as interim, the program was essentially a skeleton crew.
Dillingham, a Scottsdale native, was the polar opposite. He’s young. He’s manic. He’s the kind of guy who drinks four energy drinks before breakfast and talks about "activating the community" until his voice goes hoarse. He understood something his predecessors missed: ASU is a "vibes" program. If the students are engaged and the local high school coaches aren't being ignored, the Sun Devils are a problem for the rest of the Big 12.
Moving to the Big 12 changed the math
Timing is everything in football. Just as Dillingham started building, the Pac-12 evaporated. Suddenly, the arizona state football coaches were no longer scouting trips to Eugene or Palo Alto; they were looking at road games in Stillwater and Morgantown.
This shift changed the profile of the athlete ASU needs.
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You can't survive in the Big 12 with a "finesse" roster. You need depth. You need massive human beings on the offensive line who can handle a 10:00 AM kickoff in the humidity of Kansas. Dillingham’s staff, including guys like Charlie Ragle and Brian Ward, had to pivot their entire talent evaluation process mid-stream.
The defense under Brian Ward has been a legitimate bright spot, which is saying something given the chaos of the last few years. Ward brought a scheme that actually asks players to play downhill. No more soft cushions. No more "prevent" defense that only prevents the defense from winning. It’s aggressive, sometimes to a fault, but it matches the "Activate" branding that Dillingham has plastered all over the Mountain America Stadium walls.
The Cam Skattebo effect
You can't talk about coaching without talking about the players who make those coaches look like geniuses. Cam Skattebo is the living embodiment of what this coaching staff wants the program to be. He’s not a polished, five-star NFL prototype. He’s a bowling ball with legs. When the coaches decided to lean into his bruising style, the identity of the team shifted.
It wasn't just about winning games; it was about making the other team miserable.
The struggle with NIL and the Transfer Portal
Let's be real: ASU isn't throwing around Texas or Oregon levels of money. The arizona state football coaches have to be scrappy. They’ve leaned heavily on the "Valley" connection, trying to keep local kids from fleeing to the SEC or the Big Ten.
It’s an uphill battle.
- The collective (Sun Angel Collective) has had to play catch-up.
- The roster turnover in 2023 was one of the highest in the country—over 50 new players.
- Building chemistry when half the team just met in the parking lot is a nightmare.
Dillingham has been vocal—sometimes maybe too vocal for the boosters' liking—about the need for financial support. He’s basically used his press conferences as a telethon for NIL funds. It’s desperate, but it’s honest. In 2026, a coach who doesn't talk about money is a coach who is about to get fired.
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Managing the quarterback room
The quarterback position at ASU has been a revolving door since Jayden Daniels hopped in the portal and won a Heisman elsewhere. That stung. It still stings. Seeing a former Sun Devil thrive at LSU was a wake-up call for the fans and the administration.
The staff's handling of Jaden Rashada and later Sam Leavitt showed a shift in philosophy. They want guys who want to be in Tempe. They aren't looking for mercenaries as much as they are looking for "program guys," though in the age of the portal, a "program guy" is anyone who stays for more than twelve months.
Why Frank Kush still looms over Tempe
You cannot walk five feet on the ASU campus without feeling the weight of Frank Kush. He is the standard. He was a tyrant, a legend, and the man who put ASU on the map. Every coach since has lived in his shadow.
Bruce Snyder got close in 1996. Todd Graham had those back-to-back ten-win seasons that felt like the start of something real before it all curdled.
The problem is consistency. ASU is the king of the "seven-win ceiling." You get a good year, everyone gets excited, the coach gets a raise, and then they go 5-7 the following year. Dillingham is trying to break that cycle by building from the trenches up, rather than relying on a few superstar skill players to mask a weak roster.
The actual job description for an ASU coach
Honestly? The job is 30% coaching, 30% recruiting, and 40% managing the "Tempe distraction factor." This is a party school. It always has been. Keeping twenty-year-olds focused when Mill Avenue is right down the street is a legitimate tactical challenge.
Successful arizona state football coaches are the ones who embrace the environment rather than trying to fight it. You can't turn Tempe into Tuscaloosa. It’s not going to happen. You have to make ASU a place where "weird" is an advantage.
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What the future looks like
Looking ahead, the stability of the assistant coaching staff will be the metric that matters. If Dillingham can keep his coordinators for more than two seasons, ASU has a chance to become a consistent top-25 threat in the Big 12. If the staff gets picked apart by bigger programs, we're back to square one.
The 2024 and 2025 seasons provided the blueprint. It showed that the "Sun Devil Weather" advantage is real when you have the depth to back it up. It showed that the fans will show up if the team plays with a specific kind of violence and effort.
Actionable insights for following the program
If you're trying to track the success of the current coaching regime, stop looking at the scoreboard for a second and look at these three things:
1. In-state retention. Watch how many top-10 recruits from Arizona stay in-state versus going to Tucson or out of state. If Dillingham loses the local battle, he loses the job.
2. Line of scrimmage development. The Big 12 is won in the dirt. If ASU isn't producing NFL-caliber offensive tackles or defensive ends, the scheme doesn't matter.
3. Discipline metrics. The Herm Edwards era was defined by sloppy penalties and off-field noise. A disciplined ASU team is a dangerous one because the raw talent is usually there.
The era of the "CEO coach" in Tempe is over. We are back to the era of the "grinder." Whether that translates to a Big 12 Championship remains to be seen, but for the first time in a long time, the people in charge actually seem to know where the keys to the building are kept.
To stay ahead of the curve, monitor the weekly press conferences for shifts in NIL messaging. That is the quickest way to see how the "behind the scenes" health of the program is doing. When the coaches stop asking for money and start talking only about the opponent, you'll know the foundation is finally set.