Brad Cesmat
Getting to the Peach Bowl in January didn’t mean that Arizona State had figured out its football program. I mean, the head coach had, but Central Campus had not. I attended a couple of Kenny Dillingham speaking events over this past year. He wasn’t shy in asking for financial support, and I would be left to wonder, “Why is he still doing all of the asking?. I wasn’t the only one. This past summer at the Kickoff Luncheon, Dillingham again made the financial ask of those in attendance, and I thought, “If he were at a blue-blood football program, this would be embarrassing.” I would’ve asked Central Campus for their thoughts, but once again, the President was MIA from the event(no surprise). The “Forks Up, Go Devils” crowd blindly believed that “all has always been well”, when some who were actually writing checks weren’t so sure. Big cigars can only be asked so many times before fatigue starts to weigh in, no matter how loyal.
Dillingham, to his credit, has gone about his business in a way most football coaches hadn’t while in Tempe. The nonsense behind the scenes hasn’t affected his focus. A-lways S-omething U-niveristy was in full force when he arrived, and he experienced it somewhat in his first year( “oh, by the way, you’re ineligible for a bowl game”(August 2023). Assistant coaching pay was a big one that needed to be fixed. Today it was.
This annual exercise of linking Dillingham’s name to other jobs isn’t going to go away just because of this new contract extension. He might be Kyle Whittingham (just wrapped a 20-year head-coach run at Utah), or he could be Matt Campbell (finally left Iowa State after a successful run). But if he has consistent success, he’ll get chased every year. You want that to happen with your head football coach.
Perhaps the Michigan job would’ve been more intriguing if the athletic department in Ann Arbor wasn’t about to be turned upside down from several years of shenanigans. Sure, the money would’ve been better, but why uproot your family when you’d be going to a job where if you don’t beat Ohio State every other year, you’d probably be on the hot seat. That doesn’t happen here.
Becoming a true-blue-blood athletic department takes resources that Arizona State Central Campus hasn’t deemed to be important. This is the same President who thought the Pac-12 Network was a good idea. (BTW, what would today look like had the Pac-12 taken the Apple-TV offer? He didn’t initially want to leave the Pac-12 for the Big 12 (“very wedded”). Former Athletic Director Ray Anderson paid to be a professor on campus (last month, he spoke on NIL). His “Arms Race” quote helped usher him offstage from the Athletic Department with a bag full of cash. We are talking about the same President who used the terms “completely functional” and “just fine” in 2023 when describing Desert Financial Arena. I guess not having one elevator or handrails shouldn’t matter. Maybe the fact that basketball coaches haven’t made stopping off at the arena a priority when they walk recruits through. Has the current president shown anything close to blue blood in his tenure?
I’ve never understood the “we have it all figured out, you guys don’t” mentality that has permeated Arizona State since I arrived here in 1993. In my dealings with Dillingham and the current Athletic Director, Graham Rossini, I’ve found much more sensible, humble, and realistic views and opinions on getting Sun Devil athletics out of Always Something University.
Maybe we look back ten years from now on the timing of the mess at Michigan that helped push Arizona State University to end its head football coach always having to ask for more money. Be a true blue-blood…
