ASU coach Kenny Dillingham on travel, improvements, Big 12 projection and chicken parmesan

LAS VEGAS — Arizona State football coach Kenny Dillingham has never been one to shy away from the media. Quite the opposite — he embraces it. The Sun Devils' second-year head coach talks to the local media after every practice, which is not common in Division I programs.

Earlier this week he was at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas where 500 or so members of the media, local and national, gathered for the first Big 12 media event since the four schools from the Pac-12 joined the conference. Dillingham was as energetic and articulate at the end of the day as he was at the start.

Here are some quick hits on topics he talked about:

What he learned over his first year as head coach

At 34, Dillingham is the youngest head coach at an FBS school, which was also the case when he was hired at 32. Now that he completed his first year, Dillingham was asked what he learned throughout 2023. It came down to delegating some things rather than having a hand in everything.

"What I learned is I've got to trust the people around me to do football more, and I've got to remove myself a little bit from that and not get as involved in game weeks," he said. "Just because I love it so much, it's why you start coaching. But now that my role is different, that's one thing I learned, I've got to remove myself a little bit. I have to trust if I ask someone to make Italian food and he makes chicken parmesan, that I'm going to like the chicken parmesan. I didn't want him to make meatballs, and if I wanted him to make meatballs, I should have told him to make meatballs. And I have to trust that. I think that's the biggest thing I learned is I'm not the smartest guy in the room and to trust people."

Expanded coaching staff

The NCAA recently altered rules to allow coaching staffs to use those in the position of "analyst" to coach on the field, which previously was not permitted. The proposal does not change the number of off-campus recruiters. FBS teams remain limited to 11 staff members and FCS teams remain limited to 13 staff members. who may participate in off-campus recruiting activities.

Dillingham sees that move is hugely beneficial and will make changes on his staff to reflect that.

"It’s overdue. People who can stand there can actually coach. It makes too much sense. What it really does is it helps organization of scout teams, prep teams, efficiency in practice," he said. "You can be really really efficient. You can be precise. What people forget is we have so many more players than on a pro roster. We have 120 players with less guys than can coach actually coach players. So we have twice the players with less coaches for players that need more development. That never made sense. Now we’ll get actually a ratio that’s 5 to 1, 6 to 1 player coach that we can actually coach all of the guys efficiently, especially throughout the season because that’s the hardest time to develop because how do you find time to coach."

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Travel could be good in one regard

Much has been made of the difference in travel with the new conference. ASU does not have the burden of going to Central Florida or West Virginia this season. It's furthest trip is Cincinnati.

Teams will fly home immediately after a Saturday game to get back before midnight. The NCAA mandates a day off and if a team gets back before midnight it will count Sunday as that day off, so it can begin preparations for the next game on Monday. Getting back after midnight means Monday would be the off day. Playing in a different time zone gives the team more of a cushion.

Dillingham said that the time difference could work the opposite going the other way. For Pac-12 games, ASU usually departed on Friday but if game times are earlier than 6 or 7 p.m. for the Big 12 contests the team might have to leave Thursday instead.

"Instead of losing an hour we're gaining two hours so if we play a 7:30 game it's really a 5:30 kickoff, we get back a little bit better so I do think on the back end we gain some time. But on the front end of we're playing early, two to three time zones away, we may have to go out a day earlier," he said.

A notable improvement in strength

Dillingham has emphasized getting better from a size and strength standpoint. That appears to be the case.

"Last year we had two guys who could squat over 600 pounds," he said. "Now we have six. Last year we had, I think it was 44 guys on our team, squat 400 pounds. Now we have upwards of 65, somewhere in the 70s. So our size and strength of our football team was something that we focused on. Now that we've kind of hit our summer goals from that perspective, I'm excited to see it translate to football."

Didn't take issue with his team's projection

The Big 12 preseason rankings came out earlier this month and the Sun Devils were predicted to finish last in the 16-team conference. No players were singled out as first or second-team individuals. That might seem a bit harsh but Dillingham did not have a problem with it. Based on recent history, who else should be slotted there.

"I'm not against it. It's the worst three-year stretch in Arizona State history," he said. "Our job is to change it. We can either talk about it or we can read it and be pissed off about it and change it. But it's just not going to happen by people saying, 'Oh, that's not true.' Well, it is true. So if you want to change it, change it. That's kind of the message to the team."

Wins won't define a successful season

Dillingham was asked what would a successful season look like. With his tenure still in its infancy, Dillingham is set on putting the foundation in place.

"This is a very cliché answer, but success in our program is being the very best you can be all the time at whatever you're doing. That's it," he said. "That's all we want to do. We want to get better. We want to grow every single day. There's not a win total. There's not a goal like that. It's just be the very best we can be at everything we do."