Kenny Dillingham has not changed his view on his job with ASU football
Arizona State football head coach Kenny Dillingham explains how he feels about the Michigan head coaching job compared to his job with the Sun Devils.
- Arizona State athletic director Graham Rossini is working to secure a long-term contract extension for football coach Kenny Dillingham.
- Rossini stated it is more important to get the details of the new contract right than to complete it quickly.
It is more important to get it right than get it done quickly.
That was Arizona State athletic director Graham Rossini’s message to the school’s fan base, which has been on edge ever since football coach Kenny Dillingham’s name was first mentioned in connection with the vacant University of Michigan job.
Rossini had his weekly call with Arizona Sports 98.7 on Thursday, Dec. 18, on the Burns and Gambo afternoon show.
Dillingham’s future was the first topic addressed. The coach is under contract through 2029, with an extension he received a year ago, but other suitors are calling.
The pressure to lock him up long-term has escalated. The parties are working on an extension, which Dillingham said earlier this month was first forwarded to his representative at the end of the regular season.
Also at issue are the resources Dillingham wants to continue to build the program into national prominence.
Rossini said he understands the angst in the fan base and doubled down on his support of Dillingham, who is rounding out his third year. He said there are a lot of details to iron out, and it all takes time.
“There’s a lot going on around the Valley, around our fan base,” Rossini said. “I’m hearing about it as well. I’m not going to talk about contracts publicly, but I’m happy to talk about the leadership in our program, and I’m one of the many thousands of people who also agree that Kenny Dillingham is the right leader of our football program. Leadership matters. We had tremendous leadership in place with Coach and his staff. It’s an exciting moment for our fans.
“We’re working through it, working through the details. There are a lot of things we want to solidify, looking at the perspective of how we look at these things as a sport, as an industry, we work with these long-term contracts. The reality is the landscape of college sports is changing daily, weekly, very quickly, and so my perspective has been all along, as you’re designing something long-term, the little details become the most important part of the big moment.
“So we’ve got to get it right. And we’ve got to secure what we’ve been building, and so I’m of the mindset that it’s more important to get it right than it is to get it done. That doesn’t mean we’re recklessly slow or irresponsible; we’re committed to getting it right.”
Rossini added he understands the fan base wants a resolution immediately, but things of this magnitude don’t happen quickly.
“I understand the world we live in,” he said. “It’s a great item of discussion, debate and topic and anxiety for people, but I would hope people also understand there’s a privacy and a process that plays out behind the scenes, and so, I know everybody wants the scoop. I know people want these things to play out on social media, but that’s not how these processes evolve.
“I just hope the fan base is sensing that there is a good track record recently that reflects confidence in how we’re approaching athletics.”
Dillingham’s name has been linked to virtually every major college job opening in the last year. He has turned down overtures from others in the past, but no opening has generated quite the buzz as that of Michigan, which appears to have unlimited resources at its disposal.
ASU’s situation appears to be getting better, thanks to its showing in 2024, a season in which the Sun Devils went worst to first, winning a Big 12 championship and earning a berth in the College Football Playoff, but the level of resources and financial support is not at the level of schools such as Michigan and others.
“We continue to invest resources into our program,” Rossini said. “We’re continuing to make significant progress on the football facility. We’ve got some fun news on that project you can expect to hear more about in January, and so we’re hard at work. We’re hard at work doing all of it.
“But again, from my perspective, when you’re going through long-term commitments and arrangements, every little detail needs to be right, and we’re focused on making sure all the due details can be as right as possible.”
