ASU coach Kenny Dillingham agrees to extension, touts 'stability'
Arizona State football fans can reactivate the Valley. And Michigan is still looking for its next head coach.
Coach Kenny Dillingham has agreed to an extension, which The Arizona Republic confirmed early Saturday, Dec. 20, to stay with the Sun Devils .
The deal could move to as many as 10 years, ESPN's Pete Thamel wrote, with an average annual salary of $7.5 million. It still must be approved by the Arizona Board of Regents, but that is typically just a formality.
Most important for Dillingham, given his statements over the past week, is the report that his staff will receive a major pay raise with a pool of money of around $11 million. All but one of Dillingham's on-field assistant coaches came in with him. Wide receivers coach Hines Ward joined Dillingham's staff after the first season.
"Our staff wins," Dillingham said. "I've said this over and over again, people always reading into the words I say, I just say the truth, right? Our staff is what got us to this point. Our players are what have gotten us to this point.
"This isn't Kenny Dillingham's program. This is our program, I'm just a piece of it, and they're a valid piece, and I think they deserve to be taken care of at a high level."
Dillingham, a native of Scottsdale, has always talked about this being his dream job and gets choked up about it when he is asked. Despite that, he also didn't exactly shut down rumors about his name coming up in that Michigan coaching search, which had led to some anxiety in the fan base worried about a potential departure for a program with seemingly more resources.
Many speculated that a deal was close. Dillingham had started using a hashtag in recent social media posts SunDevil4Life, something he had stopped doing in the past few weeks.
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Given Dillingham's loyalty to the program, it was fitting that he spoke to the media after practice in front of the Pat Tillman statue at Mountain America Stadium.
"Yeah, it's been something we've been working on for six weeks, so it's good to finally get it done," he said. "I've said from the start, my goals and objectives of being here and what I want to do, and I think it just shows that we're continuing to head in that direction and college football, I've said it multiple times, is absolutely chaotic and nuts right now.
"So there's got to be not just what somebody's doing one year, not what they're doing in two years, you've got to have a plan to be able to stay aggressive in this thing for three, four, five years down the road because you don't know when it's going to end. If you don't have that, then you're just a ticking time bomb for failure."
A week ago, Dillingham talked about his comfort with Arizona State while referencing the rumor mill that has consistently placed him at the top of major college openings -- Michigan being the latest, and the opening to which there seemed to be the most traction.
"I think that's cool, I guess," he said. "I mean, that's one of the best programs in the country, one of the best logos in the country, I think everybody can agree there. It's one of the best jobs in the country, and I think everybody can attest to that.
"That doesn't change how I feel about here. That doesn't change that my sister is my next-door neighbor. That doesn't change that my parents live three doors down. That doesn't change that my son's best friend is my sister's daughter. So none of that changes. It is one of the best jobs in the country because of the brand. It's going to be a good opportunity for somebody."
Athletic director Graham Rossini underscored the importance of reaching an extension with Dillingham during his weekly call with Arizona Sports 98.7 Dec. 18, on the Burns and Gambo afternoon show.
"There's a lot going on around the Valley, around our fan base," Rossini said. "I'm hearing about it as well. I'm not going to talk about contracts publicly, but I'm happy to talk about the leadership in our program, and I'm one of the many thousands of people who also agree that Kenny Dillingham is the right leader of our football program. Leadership matters. We had tremendous leadership in place with Coach and his staff. It's an exciting moment for our fans."
The coach is under contract through 2029, with an extension he received a year ago, but other suitors were calling. His name came up each time there was an opening at a major Division I program, but the Michigan opening seemed to be the most serious overture because it is such an elite brand.
He and his agent were forwarded details on a new contract right at the end of the regular season. The parties spent the past few weeks going back and forth over some of the details.
Dillingham took over a 3-9 program that was on NCAA sanctions courtesy of the previous coaching regime and has lifted ASU to a record of 22-16 since, including a Big 12 championship and a College Football Playoff appearance last season.
ASU (8-4) takes on ACC champion Duke (8-5) in the Dec. 31 Sun Bowl.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Kenny Dillingham agrees to extension to remain at ASU
