Arizona State football unveils inaugural Tillman Leadership Council

TEMPE — The Arizona State football program unveiled the first Tillman Leadership Council on Wednesday, a new way of honoring its past and present leaders.

Head coach Kenny Dillingham said the program reached out to the Pat Tillman Foundation to get the OK on rebranding the council. A patch denoting membership will be implemented on jerseys.

“When you create something like that, every single start of game or sometime within a game, that TV crew is gonna say ‘What’s the patch?’ and they’re gonna put up Pat Tillman on the screen, they’re gonna put 10 or 12 people, and it’s gonna be a way that he gets honored every single football game,” Dillingham explained.

This season, 12 players were voted onto the council by their peers, including star running back Cam Skattebo as well as two quarterbacks, Sam Leavitt and Trenton Bourguet. Leavitt, a Michigan State transfer, and New Mexico State transfer linebacker Keyshaun Elliott were the lone members entering their first seasons of ASU football.

Dillingham explained 10 members were voted in along with two younger representatives, and year-to-year counts for how large the council is will fluctuate based on how tight voting is.

In addition to educating about Tillman’s legacy and setting a standard in practices, council members are also charged with holding people accountable and relaying communications from the coaching staff.

“Some things make too much sense,” Dillingham said of the partnership with the foundation.

Multitude of starting spots still open entering fall camp

Dillingham said the quarterback competition will still be open entering fall camp, which begins with a first practice on July 31 before the team travels to Camp Tontozona near Payson a week later.

“You gotta lead, we already know all the guys in that room are workers and care, and that’s a big thing for me is your consistent work ethic. I think all the guys in that room right now are consistent, and that’s one of the best factors of a quarterback,” Dillingham said. “So now it’s can you run the offense? Sounds stupid but can you not make mistakes? Then can you make special plays? Make the play you’re supposed to make, don’t make critical plays or negatives.

“Then what’s your X-factor? When the play sucks, when we call a bad call, when the right guard gets beat, when the running back mixes up pass pro, what happens? Is it 2nd-and-18? 2nd-and-10? Or is it 2nd-and-4? … That’s 25% of the game is just X-factor moments. Hard to find in practice ’cause the quarterback’s not live.”

Leavitt, one quarterback in contention for the starting job, appears to have already won over at least part of the locker room for that leadership point, landing on the council as an incoming transfer.

“Nothing changes (entering a quarterback competition), the approach is the same: get better every single day and just try to play my best game,” Leavitt said. “Every single day trying to bring people along with me and get better.”

“I’m not like the most vocal guy, but I definitely like to say things when things need to be said,” Leavitt said of his own leadership style. “Just an innate ability for me … from a young age I feel like that’s something that I’ve just naturally had.”

Bourguet also being on the council speaks to how he has solidified his place in this era of ASU football.

“The dude was voted to be a leader of the football team … that tells you everything you need to know,” Dillingham said. “Those guys listen to him, they respect him and I’m very happy to have his leadership on our team. He’s a Sun Devil.”

Jeff Sims, an incoming transfer from Nebraska, has his name in the ring as well, coming off 30 games of power-conference experience in his last four years.

“He’s really talented and he’s a hard worker, big kid,” Leavitt said of his first impressions of Sims. “I’m excited to go to war with him.”

There isn’t much of a clearer picture outside the quarterbacks, with Dillingham pointing to several spots he’s eager to watch in fall camp.

Dillingham listed out just about every single position on the field that he could ask questions about, such as which running back gets the most reps, which receiver separates themselves, which linebackers and defensive backs can get on the field and even naming just two starters on the offensive line, Ben Coleman and Leif Fautanu.

Coaching staff utilizing EA Sports College Football 25

EA Sports College Football returned to video game markets in July and its impact on college football programs is palpable.

Dillingham has made it a useful resource for his team through customizable playbooks that the coaching staff uses similar to Pictionary or a matching game.

“What we’re doing a little bit is we’re creating our playbooks in the game for our guys to play with and the verbage isn’t the same, but if they’re bringing field blitz and playing 2 Trap behind it in the video game, we may call that ‘2 Wall’ and they’ll be able to say ‘Oh, we call that 2 Wall,'” Dillingham explained. “Okay that was a rep they got, they at least saw a picture and correlated it to 2 Wall.”

Dillingham also clarified that they don’t call the concept “2 Wall” in Tempe, but the concept works as the reverse of a “draw the play” because the video game shows you the play. In this instance, the players are identifying and correlating the play.

Safety Shamari Simmons, one of six defenders on the leadership council and the Sun Devils’ leading tackler in 2023, said he’s playing EA Sports College Football 25 “everyday,” but the defensive backs are yet to crown a positional king of the game.

“We haven’t settled it for real, and I’m waiting on them to send the invite,” Simmons said. “I definitely feel like I’m the best one.”

Simmons said Dillingham has had a hard time picking up the game after the coach was beating some of the players in Madden the prior summer, but his defensive coordinator, Brian Ward, doesn’t play at all.

“On EA, they say I can’t play no man coverage, I really gotta work on my man coverage,” Simmons joked.