A year ago, few outside of Tempe could’ve predicted it. Now, Kenny Dillingham is one of the fastest-rising names in college football. ASU head coach has turned his program—and his reputation—on a dime. And this fall, he’s armed with the dangerous same old QB1 in Sam Leavitt. The head coach already has a game-changing playmaker in Jordyn Tyson and a defense built to make noise under Brian Ward. The Arizona State Sun Devils, once spinning in the desert, suddenly look locked and loaded for a breakout year. And the Heisman conversation? It’s heating up in the Valley of the Sun.

It’s not just empty preseason chatter. The buzz surrounding Leavitt isn’t accidental—it’s strategic. Kenny Dillingham made that crystal clear in a recent conversation with Speak of the Devils. “I think Doug’s done a phenomenal job with that. Just putting him in front of certain people, having a plan for that,” Dillingham said, tipping his hat to the school’s marketing side. “That was something that when we met with I said, ‘Hey, you know, this is a guy that deserves to have the backing of the university from that perspective,’ and I think the university has backed it.”

While the head coach didn’t reveal the full marketing playbook, the goal is obvious—Leavitt to ‘Pushitt’ to national spotlight. “I think there’s a strategic plan in how they’re going about that… he’s earned it.” Kenny Dillingham knows how the Heisman game works. A great quarterbacking season needs hype, and the 35-year-old isn’t shying away from that reality. “I think there’s more than just him on our team,” he said, “but obviously the quarterback and the Heisman get hyped up the most. So that’s why the hype is on him, which it should be because he deserves it.”

That wasn’t just coachspeak—he made sure to spread the love. “But there’s a lot of other guys—our O-line for awards, Xavion Alford, Myles Rouser for awards in the back end, obviously Jordyn Tyson—like there’s so many other awards that guys are nominated for right now that I think it’s going to be hopefully an exciting season from that perspective.”

Leavitt’s numbers back the narrative. They finished last season with an 11-3 record, a CFP appearance, and a 24-8 TD-to-INT ratio. That’s elite. And with a full offseason under Dillingham’s system and leadership, the ceiling looks even higher. Arizona State was efficient, balanced, and explosive when it needed to be. The Sun Devils leaned on tempo and spacing to open up the playbook for Sam Leavitt, who’s shown he can make the throws—deep.

The culture shift isn’t just coming from the sidelines. Players are feeling it, too. DL Zac Swanson recently echoed what many inside the program have hinted at for months. This staff is building something special—tight-knit, competitive, and player-driven. It’s why so many veterans returned despite other interests elsewhere in the portal. That buy-in starts at the top, and Kenny Dillingham has leaned into every ounce of energy his youth allows.

He’s also earning respect from his peers. Earlier this week, Arizona Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon didn’t hold back his praise. “He’s got major juice. He’s very smart, he thinks about the game in a really unique way.” Coming from a defensive mind like Gannon, that matters. And when you stack Dillingham’s tactical edge with a program that’s finally getting real traction off the field—revenue sharing plans, player-focused branding. It’s a long season ahead though.

Kenny Dillingham details how he reacts to revenue changes

Kenny Dillingham is proving that building a consistent winner doesn’t mean throwing darts in the dark every time the rules change. When asked about how Arizona State is handling the new wave of revenue sharing and collective involvement, the young coach offered a surprisingly calm — and calculated — response.

“I think, you know, with the collective and stuff like that, has already been doing things. So I think for us it’s really just staying the exact same course there,” Dillingham shared. “We’ve already had a plan for this day. Somebody said something the other day that really, you know, it made sense to me and talked about how do you react to situations, and you’re always reacting. I think that’s a — nobody has a plan, right? You’re in a constant state of reacting to things, right? So, we had a plan… that was put in place?”

Translation: ASU’s staff had this mapped out well before headlines started flying. “There really is a plan that was put in place, myself, our staff put in a plan in November, that’s last December of last year, and that plan has been in place the last 6 months, and that will be the exact same plan we move with moving forward.”

With 23 commits in 2025 and 16 already in 2026 — including standouts from Texas and California — Dillingham’s plan is clearly working.