When Arizona State head coach Kenny Dillingham was the offensive coordinator at Auburn, he had a unique opportunity to take a few days to go out and study a college football program.
Of the 130 or so FBS programs to pick from at the time, Dillingham chose to come to Ames.
“I had the ability to go study at one program in the country,” Dillingham said during his Big 12 championship game press conference in Tempe. “I had two days that at that time, coach (Gus) Malzahn would let you go and study with the team. And I alluded to this first before (the) Cincinnati (game) because the defensive coordinator at Cincinnati was the linebacker coach at Iowa State, and I chose to go visit Iowa State. That was the program that I wanted to study from because I thought that they were overachieving at that time early in his career at a high level before he had built it up.”
The year was 2019, and Iowa State was coming off of an 8-5 season that ended with a trip to the Alamo Bowl against Washington State.
The move will come full circle when Matt Campbell and the Cyclones square off with Dillingham and Arizona State in Saturday’s Big 12 championship game.
“Now he’s built it up,” Dillingham said of Campbell’s program. “Now they’re achieving at a high level consistently. And, I wanted to go just study. And what I took away was the realness of the culture. I was like, man, he’s over here joking around with a dude, and then he gets to the front of the room and demands respect. And I’m like, man, this culture that he created, I feel like is sustainable. I feel like this is a winning formula.”
It’s paid off for the Sun Devils head coach, who’s in his second season at the helm of the Arizona State program.
Dillingham’s team started 3-0, and then finished the season with a 7-1 mark in its final eight games, beating three ranked teams in the process along the way.
The 10-2 season comes a year after Arizona State finished 3-9 with one of its wins being against Southern Utah.
“So all the X’s and the O’s I learned – and I studied that stuff – but I was really trying to get a vibe and a feel for how (Campbell) did create that culture,” Dillingham said.
It’s started to rub off on Dillingham, who’s one of the most unique college coaches in front of the microphone.
But the Campbell-ness in him rubbed off when he was asked later on what winning the Big 12 championship would mean.
“I mean, at the end of the day, I guess winning is the determining factor for best teams, but I think what our goal is, is to be the very best version of ourself,” Dillingham said.
Sound familiar?
“I’m going to say that from now until forever, and then people are going to get really bored of asking those questions, because I’m going to say the same thing for a long time,” Dillingham said, putting his own spin it.
The respect and similarities are all there between Dillingham and Campbell, and when the two passionate coaches square off Saturday, there are sure to be fireworks.
“It’s one thing, of course, to turn a program around another thing to repeat that for years to come,” Dillingham said. “Yeah, his culture and his realness- I think he’s one of the most just real people in the sport. I mean, you see the passion, emotion on the sideline like you see it like it’s not fake. It’s real.”
