The Arizona State Sun Devils’ head coach, Kenny Dillingham, has picked up all the hype. He led the Sun Devils to an 11-3 record and a No. 7 final AP Poll ranking. In June 2025, Dillingham was named Frank Kush Coach of the Year, which is named after the school’s winningest football coach. As per the program’s history, Dillingham is the first football coach to win it since it started in 2018.

The success had a lot to do with how Dillingham kept his team together. As Arizona State’s tight ends coach, Jason Mohns shared, “He’s so humble and he asked things, ‘Hey where can I get better and what can I do?’” Having kept himself open to suggestion and constantly being better, Dillingham has already started to prepare for the post-Sam Leavitt era. After all, their quarterback is considered to be a 2026 NFL Draft pick. So, the head coach is now pinning high hopes on Jake Fette.

Going by the progress of their 2026 recruiting trail, it’s hard to talk highly about the Sun Devils as they stand at No.46 with 18 recruits. However, Dillingham has caught a big fish. The buzz behind the scenes from college coaches was extremely strong regarding El Paso (Texas) Del Valle High quarterback Fette. The 6-foot-2, 190-pounder comes off as a dual-threat after throwing for 2,488 yards and 31 touchdowns to just one interception. But it was Dillingham who won Fette’s heart, beating Ole Miss, Mississippi State, LSU, and Auburn. And the analysts can’t stop talking about it.

On the July 16 episode of the Locked On Sun Devils podcast, analyst Brian Smith shared,  “Let’s talk recruiting. Jake Fette, quarterback out of El Paso. LSU’s made a run at him and a bunch of other schools. Really good recruit.”

The analyst continued, “He’s probably the guy everybody’s going to want to talk about if Sam ends up turning proactive this year. I doubt he starts as a freshman, but he’s probably the next really good guy. Then maybe they take a portal kid. I don’t know. But I think Sam will have another good season, and there’s a chance he’ll leave. Good for him if I’m right on that. But you get a quarterback that is recruited by the likes of LSU that puts things in perspective. I think LSU, with their recent history, kind of knows a thing or two about the quarterback position with two Heisman winners.” Maybe, Dillingham, too, could not let Fette slip away as he had Brian Kelly’s eyes on him. But what made the young chap pick up so much buzz even before running the gridiron in college?

Fette is on track to become one of the more polished quarterbacks in his class. Does he have the weapons to carry the load of Dillingham’s QB room in Leavitt’s absence? Definitely. The quarterback possesses a cannon for an arm, topped with his ability to evade pressure. All this earned Dillingham’s 2026 quarterback recruit an invite to the Elite 11. Fette had left a strong impression. As Chris Karpman of SunDevilSource noted, “ASU commit Jake Fette was 12th in accuracy and 8th in Pro Day simulation scoring out of 20 QB participants yesterday by Elite 11’s staff.” Turns out that Dillingham’s post-Leavitt gamble is likely to pay off. Now that’s something the head coach is going to savor in the future. When it comes to their 2025 race, their rivals’ $28 million luxury is bound to give Dillingham some cold sweat. 

Who will stop Kenny Dillingham from striking the lightning twice?  

Dillingham’s Sun Devils won the Big 12 Championship last season. Moving into 2025, they are set to play host to seven teams. They include Arizona, Houston, Northern Arizona, TCU, Texas State, Texas Tech, and West Virginia. Dillingham’s team will be travelling to play against Baylor, Colorado, Iowa State, Utah, and Mississippi State. So, can they repeat their 2024 feat? Analyst Richie Bradshaw sounded all confident. “I can sit here until I’m blue in the face and tell you how biased I am with ASU and that they will repeat.”

He continued, “But I can also sit here and tell you that they brought back the vast majority of the team that was good last year, the second most production in the nation behind Clemson. They should be the definitive favorites. Like I  can tell you that as a fan, and I can tell you that as an analyst. But there is a lot of good competition.” Dillingham is returning the key contributors from last season, like Leavitt, wide receiver Jordyn Tyson, and linebacker Keyshaun Elliott. But turns out that this won’t be enough for Arizona State to keep their boat floating.

Talking about the tough competition they are going to face, Bradshaw stirred up some fear. “And the first one that pops into my mind, Texas Tech, because they loaded up that team. But they also bring back Behren Morton. They are bringing back a lot of that wide receiver room, but I mean the trenches, both sides of the football. I said David Bailey, but that doesn’t even mention Lee Hunter or the guys they got on the offensive line. They killed the trenches. So Texas Tech is one of them.” As per On3’s Pete Nakos, Texas Tech’s football roster will reportedly cost more than $28 million this season. So what’s the moral of the story? Kenny Dillingham can’t bank on familiar faces alone if he hopes to chase another Big 12 crown.