Kenny Dillingham, Steve Sarkisian prepare for Peach Bowl

No. 4 Arizona State and No. 5 Texas are prepping for the College Football Playoff Quarterfinals at the Peach Bowl.

Both Kenny Dillingham and Steve Sarkisian spoke to the media via Zoom on Monday.

One thing that stood out is the admiration these two coaches have for one another.

Similar journeys

Sarkisian (50) knows what Dillingham (34) is going through as a young head coach. Sark was 35 in 2013 when he got his first head coaching job at Washington.

“A lot of guys go out & put on that head coach hat and then they go find the manual and just cookie cutter it… I think he’s blazing a trail for some older coaches to look at.”

There is a ton of respect between @KennyDillingham & @CoachSark heading into the @CFAPeachBowl pic.twitter.com/B0IOb9on4I

— Jordan Spurgeon (@spurge_) December 23, 2024

The path to getting their first college football head coaching jobs had one major similarity: being around bright, successful coaches at multiple programs.

“He’s obviously a very bright football coach,” Sarkisian said. “He’s been arounnd some really good coaches, but you can see how innovative he’s been. Whether he knows it or not, I’ve watched a lot of his stuff too.”

“A lot of guys put on a head coaching hat and then they go find that head coaching manual and they just kind of cookie-cutter it because that’s how we’re supposed to do it. I give him a lot of credit, and I have a lot of respect for him because he does what he thinks is the best thing to do, and sometimes that’s not always what the manual says to do, and in this day and age of college football, we all have to continually evolve.”

“I think he’s blazing a trail for some older coaches to look at  to say, hey, maybe there’s a better way. We don’t always have to do it the way we’ve always done it before. I think we’ve all got to think that way. This is a new era. There’s a lot of change going on. We’ve all got to think outside the box a little bit, and I credit him for doing that. They’ve done a nice job.”

That is high praise from one of the brightest offensive minds in the sport of football.

Dillingham recognizes that too, saying he’s impressed with how good Sarkisian is at adapting his coaching style all the time, unlike many older coaches who stay stagnant.

“There’s a lot of good offensive schemes out there, and then there’s offensive coaches who change their scheme and are constantly getting better. I think that’s something that he’s done as good if not better than anybody in the country is if you turned on his tape from 10 years ago, it’s going to be unrecognizable to his tape right now.”

“That is very challenging to do when you’re successful. When you’re successful, you want to keep doing what got you successful. It’s very challenging to be, in my opinion, to be humble enough to constantly continually adapt to the current landscape to the rules. You can’t cut block on the perimeter, to RPOs and how they change the game in terms of substitution patterns, and now you can slow teams down that sub late. You couldn’t do that 15 years ago.”

Other notes

• Sarkisian said he was impressed with how versatile Cam Skattebo is as he’s gotten deeper and deeper into his film. Was expected more of a “Mike Alstott” type tape but that isn’t the case with all of his superb skillsets.
• Dillingham knows that the Texas defense is great at forcing turnovers so he’s staying vigilant with Sam Leavitt to avoid turnovers. ASU has the second fewest turnovers in the country this year with eight.
• Both coaches touched on how impressive it is for their oppnonent to be here after joining new conferences. Sark made sure to point out that Texas only one the Big 12 four times in 27 years, while ASU just won in year one. Says the confernce is more difficult than people give it credit for. Both coaches mentioned how tough some new environments for their programs were this year.