‘What do you think?’: Kenny Dillingham declares ASU football has activated the Valley

TEMPE — There’s nothing like a double field storming to confirm a community is behind its team, which is exactly what No. 21 ASU football got at the end of its 28-23 victory over No. 14 BYU.

“What do you think?” coach Kenny Dillingham responded when asked if the Valley seemed activated to him on Saturday.

“Yeah, so did I,” he added after an affirmative response.

“Activate the Valley” has been a slogan for the program since Dillingham’s first day on the job, and a sellout crowd for the final installment in a perfect home season (first for ASU since 2004) was as much evidence as the 9-2 record the Sun Devils will carry into their final week of the regular season.

kenny dillingham on whether the valley seemed activated to him today (h/t @SammyNute) pic.twitter.com/XlUclS5cFx

— Damon Allred (@iamdamonallred) November 24, 2024

“These guys came off no momentum (from last season) with everybody doubting them. Everybody’s still doubting them. That’s what makes this special,” Dillingham said. “I don’t know how long I’ll be here, hopefully a long time. But I don’t know if I’ll ever have a season that exceeds expectations (more) than this year.

“Hopefully the expectations become higher, because I don’t know if there’s a way we can exceed expectations more than we’re exceeding them right now, and I think that’s special.”

Dillingham said the extensions awarded this week to offensive and defensive coordinators Marcus Arroyo and Brian Ward are proof of concept and proof of stability for the program going forward in a college sports landscape that doesn’t get a lot of stability.

He also called on fans to get into the business of buying season tickets, given a get-in price of about $200-300 on Saturday. He said a lot more games will be expensive tickets with the direction of the program and season tickets are a great value proposition.

“The culture’s changed, man. Everybody loves each other, and we’ve turned this thing around,” Cam Skattebo said after three touchdowns on his senior day. “But it’s not finished yet, because there’s still work to do in the process.”

The next step in the process is one ASU needs to take in order to earn a trip to the Big 12 Championship Game: beat Arizona.

Dillingham makes his pitch: ASU football players are deserving of NIL donations

Dillingham said the “Sun Angel Collective” hoodie he wore during the game was worn with a purpose.

“If you had fun watching (Skattebo) play and make those plays, it was there all night,” the coach said. “Because it’s a different day and age in college football, and if that was something we continued to want to do — what’s that saying — pay the man his money.

“Pay these guys what they deserve to be paid, because right now our team is underpaid. And we’re doing more with guys who just got it out the mud, but eventually you should get what you deserve.”

ASU and Arizona will square off in Tucson at 1:30 p.m. on Nov. 30. The Wildcats are out of bowl contention with their loss to TCU on Saturday, but they would love to play spoiler to their rival’s postseason hopes.