ASU players have ‘nothing but love and respect’ for newly extended Kenny Dillingham

A new contract for ASU head football coach Kenny Dillingham was a no-brainer, as he has been a perfect fit back in his home and with the players he’s brought in.

The players have almost always been the recipients of deflected credit thrown Dillingham’s way this season, so it’s only fitting that after the new deal was announced for their head coach Tuesday night we shine a light on their perspectives from prior to the announcement.

Sam Leavitt, for example, said whenever final buzzers have sounded this season, Dillingham is the first person he looks for to go shoulder bump and celebrate.

“I just love people who have so much passion for the game, and he’s one of the ones that’s got one of the most that I’ve ever met in my life,” Leavitt said. “So it’s nothing but love and respect for him.”

The two have gelled in their first season together through a shared obsessive competitive fire, which the coach broke down with a story detailing how the quarterback has been spending his down time recently.

“He was in the (team) game room the other day. We had the event that started at 7. He was playing somebody at ping pong. Then he started shooting hoops. I left and came back at 9:50, and I’m walking in with my wife. And I said, ‘Watch, I guarantee you Sam is one of the people left in here doing something competitive,’ and she was like, ‘No way.’ He was over there still shooting hoops,” Dillingham retold during a joint press conference with Texas coach Steve Sarkisian.

“And that’s what has got him to this point is he’s wired in a way that he just wants to be the best all the time, all the time. And he has confidence in him wanting to be the best all the time.”

Kenny Dillingham said he knew what kind of leader Sam Leavitt was after hearing what he said prior to a game-winning touchdown drive against Kansas in ASU's first Big 12 game. pic.twitter.com/goiiNrMjxX

— Arizona Sports (@AZSports) December 31, 2024

How has Kenny Dillingham connected with ASU players on the field?

“Coach Dillingham gives us a lot of freedom to express ourselves and be who we are on practice or on a gameday, but you have to earn that. That’s just something that (comes with) getting the right guys in here who are willing to honor that,” wide receiver Xavier Guillory said. “It helps us play relaxed.

“But he’s got the guys in here we know when to turn it on. We know when, okay it’s time to focus. It’s time to work hard and put your head down. … The guys that are on the team right now are all just, you don’t even have to tell them to go. That’s just what they’re gonna do.”

“I think it makes you play better,” Leavitt said of the balance Dillingham fosters. “At the end of the day it’s still a game that you’re playing, and you might be doing it for a bigger purpose but you gotta enjoy what you do. And if you do that, then you’re going to work even harder and play even harder and want to win more.”

ESPN’s Paolo Uggetti aptly pointed out in a recent profile of Dillingham that the coach often has entered postgame press conferences looking like he had just played in the game himself. He won’t shy away from passionate coaching that can leave him worn out.

But while he’s shown time and time again to be definitionally a players’ coach, he also won’t hesitate to pull out the bad cop side when practice isn’t up to snuff.

It’s the lengths he goes to when showing how much he genuinely cares about them, their future and the program in Tempe that gives him the ground to do so.

How have the ASU players connected with Dillingham as a person?

Dillingham has preached authenticity time and time again, which has only been reinforced by his praising of Cam Skattebo and Sam Leavitt’s authenticity in how they’re confidently speaking in the lead-up to the Peach Bowl.

The demonstrations of authenticity that won over the players, however, were much more emotional.

“When he first got here, I realized he was a little different. Just like, even when seeing him crying in the press conference, like, when he first got here. You could tell it’s a different type of passion,” linebacker Caleb McCullough said. “Then he got here, and the stuff he was preaching he was really trying to live by.”

Arizona State's Shamari Simmons and C.J. Fite on when they realized Kenny Dillingham was different from other coaches. pic.twitter.com/7x16rgdK7b

— Arizona Sports (@AZSports) December 28, 2024

“I was a highly recruited guy, so, you know, seeing different coaches talk to you different ways can sometimes get old, but I could tell that everything he said was real,” safety Xavion Alford said. “From even when I was in the transfer portal, our first conversation we had he wanted to know about me as a person, like he didn’t care about, you know, the football side.

“Obviously when it comes to football, him knowing me as a person you naturally want to play harder for him, naturally want to do everything for him.”

Alford added the energy Dillingham brings to every part of the program from the best player to a staff member and always creating relationships as people is what makes the program special.

Follow along with Peach Bowl coverage on 98.7 FM and ArizonaSports.com with kickoff at 11 a.m. MST.