Kenny Dillingham previews new-look ASU offense with QB competition, WR transfers

Arizona State football is gearing up for a spring camp where numerous positions will start to be sorted out, most notably at quarterback.

ASU has much less continuity going from 2025 to 2026 compared to when it returned all but a handful of its starters from the 2024 Big 12 championship season into a 2025 campaign that was then hit hard by injuries.

The offense will look almost entirely new, headlined by quarterback Cutter Boley and a pair of receivers who were in the top four at their position to enter the transfer portal. However, enough competition is there that presumed starters are just that.

“I just couldn’t be more excited about the football program, the competitive depth we have. That’s what fires me up. There are no jobs secured, it’s on,” ASU coach Kenny Dillingham told Arizona Sports’ Bickley & Marotta on Thursday for Newsmakers Week.

Boley is the favorite to start at quarterback, but if he’s not quite ready yet as a redshirt sophomore who transferred from Kentucky after starting 10 games in 2025, there’s a veteran in Mikey Keene with more playing experience to fall back on.

Dillingham said Boley is “a guy I recruited coming out of high school when I was at Oregon … and I really loved him, I thought his potential was through the roof.”

Kenny Dillingham recruited new QB Cutter Boley out of high school before he transferred to ASU from Kentucky this offseason.

“That’s a guy who we think has unbelievable potential for us. Young guy, better athlete than people give him credit for, has all the arm strength.” pic.twitter.com/39HtrZ9ipb

— Arizona Sports (@AZSports) February 19, 2026

Boley ended up committing to play at Kentucky for Liam Coen, now the Jacksonville Jaguars head coach, who left for the NFL ahead of Boley’s true freshman season.

“Good choice for him,” Dillingham said of Boley picking Coen over himself.

Keene spent last season at Michigan, where he did not play as Bryce Underwood’s backup. It was before that at Fresno State where he had the Mountain West’s best completion percentage for two years, with now-ASU receiver Jalen Moss among his weapons.

That included a 29-0 Bulldogs victory at ASU in Dillingham’s first season. Keene, a Valley product out of Chandler High School, totaled 281 yards and two touchdowns in the win, which Dillingham called one of his own most embarrassing performances.

“He torched us,” the Sun Devils coach said.

True freshman Jake Fette and redshirt freshman Cam Dyer will compete in their own battle behind Boley and Keene, with the potential to “cause a wrinkle” in the competition, according to Dillingham.

Fette got the early start by joining the team once Sun Bowl practices moved to his native El Paso, while Dyer spent much of his redshirt season rehabbing a torn ACL, getting cleared to be ASU’s QB2 starting with the Iowa State matchup.

The goal for whoever’s under center? Cut down on turnovers.

ASU’s turnovers per game ballooned from 0.6 in 2024 to 1.6 in 2025.

The issue was largely cut out in the Sun Bowl up until the final two possessions where Jason Brown Jr. fumbled and Jeff Sims threw an interception, and Dillingham wants to lean on the offensive process that made that performance look sound after a few turnover-riddled games to end the regular season.

Dillingham called for more of the “controlled, quick passing game” going forward.

As for who the quarterbacks will be throwing to, two receivers stand out between Colorado transfer Omarion Miller and Boston College transfer Reed Harris.

Miller is following in the footsteps of the last slot receiver to transfer to ASU out of Boulder with Jordyn Tyson heading to the NFL. Dillingham said Tyson hosted Miller when he took his Colorado visit, so the two already had a prior relationship that allowed for a “natural in.”

Dillingham pointed out a similar connection between Harris and former Sun Devil QB Brock Osweiler, with both hailing from Montana.

Miller and Harris combined for 1,481 receiving yards and 13 touchdowns at their respective schools in 2025, now in position to start in Tempe. The battle for snaps behind them is as wide open as it gets.

Derek Eusebio returns after he was an all-conference honorable mention, and Moss and Jaren Hamilton didn’t quite live up to expectations after transferring last season. Raiden Vines-Bright was the third notable transfer addition (Washington) this offseason, tallying 238 yards as a true freshman in the Big Ten.

They’ll all be under the tutelage of wide receivers coach and assistant head coach Hines Ward, whom Dillingham called a game-changer in part for his development of Tyson.

“This is where you want to come if you want to be a wideout and get developed and not get told how great you are, but to get pushed to be how great you can be,” Dillingham said.

Related

Kenny Dillingham says high-level donor helped ASU's indoor practice facility move forwardKenny Dillingham's contract extension bumps ASU staff pool, increases buyoutArizona State football transfer tracker: Sun Devils land 2 DB commitsASU football’s new practice facility will be named Invisalign Performance CenterCourt halts ruling allowing thousands of college players extra year of eligibilityWill this be the season ASU goes RB-by-committee after years of featuring a bell cow?