In an interview on the Burns and Gambo show on Phoenix’s 98.7 FM, ASUs’ head coach addressed a range of topics from the roster additions accomplished through the transfer portal, quarterback competition, the state of NIL and more.

Gambo: Very busy with the portal; I think I’m counting 21 Guys that you’ve been able to get. Some really good players you got a five-star running back out of USC, you got players from big time programs that you were able to add from, you added from Arizona, Florida State, San Diego State, Cincinnati, LSU, Arkansas, Purdue…Do you feel like you’ve been able to address some of the major concerns for this team going forward through the portal?

Dillingham: “100%. I think one of our biggest concerns last year was our depth. We had no depth on our football team. When we got into the second half of the game, there was a major drop off. Second half of the season, there was a major drop off because of our depth. I think we addressed that. I think we became a deeper football team. We became a bigger football team, and a bigger football team stays healthy.

“And that was another issue we had was the depth and then staying healthy. I think we addressed those needs across all positions.”

Gambo: “I think a lot of people look at offensive line and say that could that was a depth area last year. It looks like you added three offensive linemen, got a kid from New Mexico (Shancco Matautia), got a kid from Arkansas (Joey Su'a), another kid from Hawaii (Josh Atkins). How do you feel about those additions for the O-line?

Dillingham: “Huge. They’re all over 320 pounders. They’re big people, which is what we needed. And two of them were starters last year and the other one was a young buck. So, getting experience, a kid from a smaller conference that we signed last year, Leif Fautanu, who started at center and was obviously our best offensive lineman last year. So going back to the mid-major level to get one of the best offensive linemen on those teams that those coaches believed are borderline NFL guys, and put them on our roster because they have the size necessary to play at this level. I think they’re going to help us. And I think Joey (Su’a), the young buck from Arkansas, who’s originally from here, he’s gonna be able to help us as well.”

Bruns: Going in, was the offensive line identified as the most competitive position among programs when it came to finding guys, getting guys, not losing guys, competing for guys…that had to be the spot, right?

Dillingham: “100%? Nobody in the country likes their offensive line.

I’m just being honest. Nobody. Maybe in Michigan, and I guarantee you if you ask their coach, they say, ‘We could use a tackle.’ Every team says, ‘We need a tackle.’ That’s every coach in the country. So, every coach in the country, when those offensive linemen go in (the portal), they try to get them.”

Bruns: I’m a pie chart type, so pie chart this for me: in a perfect world, when you’re when Kenny Dillingham is constructing a roster, how much of that roster is guys you’ve recruited and how much of that roster is guys who are coming in from the portal?

Dillingham: “I would love at the end of the day for it to be like 70/30. 70 recruited, 30 portal. But you have to sign the best players. And I think that’s the biggest thing is people want to put portal kids in a box, in terms of being a mercenary. He’s gonna come and be here for one year, then leave. No. If you look at the kids that we’ve signed from the portal, only one kid does not have two or three years left. We didn’t target portal kids to win next year only. We targeted portal kids who had two, three, and sometimes four years left to build a culture. So, I don’t think I box it into a portal versus high school. It’s how many years do they have left.”

Burns: Do you ever think you’ll achieve that? That 70/30, do you think you’ll get there? Or does the current landscape of college football make that number really hard to get to?

Dillingham: “I think we’ll get to 70/30 of guys being in our program for three-plus years. Which means that’s including transfers, that are transferring in with three-plus years like Cole Martin, who was a four- star top 200 player in the country who went to Oregon, played there, he’s form here at Basha High School and he transferred back home. That’s a high school transfer. He’s a freshman who came back. I wrote that in my mind as signing a freshman, and he’s going to be in our program to build the culture. He’s in there long enough.”

Gambo: You brought it over 20 guys from the portal. What are you hearing from players about why they’re excited about coming here to play for you in this program?

Dillingham: “They understand that last year, we could only change so much. And we changed as much as we could. And we stabilized the program. We took a program that wasn’t stabilized. So, there was a lot of work to do.”

Gambo: But I’m just curious as to when you’re out there, and you’re talking to these kids, you’re selling them the opportunity to play, the opportunity to go play in a new conference, the excitement…what are you hearing back from them about what they like about ASU?

Dillingham: “I think one, the place sells itself. Who doesn’t want to live in Phoenix in the winter? When you come on visits, is there a better place in the country than Phoenix, Arizona? So that’s one. Two, the energy and the staff and how we all get along with each other. People feel that, and they feed on that. Three, the style of play, they love the aggressiveness on offense and the aggressiveness on defense with Coach (Brian) Ward. And the fact that our staff wants to be here because seven of them have roots in the valley naturally, so there’s not going to be a lot of staff turnover.

“And then when they talk to our players, I think this is the key to why we’ve been able to sign the class we did; we’ve had the players that play for us sell the program, not me. They’re the ones that say he (Dillingham) will never lie to you. If he tells you something that’s going to happen. He’s not always gonna tell you what you’d like to hear, but it’s gonna be the truth. Those guys on our team sell our program and that’s why we’ve been able to put together the class we have, it is our current players.”

Burns: Jaden Rashada, Sam Leavitt, a legit quarterback, ‘okay, here we go kind of moment for you in the program.? Tell me about the genesis behind that and how Rashada is reacting to that right now?

Dillingham: “I have exit interviews with every player, every coach, every person in our organization, over 180 exit interviews when the season ended. In my meeting with Trenton (Bourguet), in my meeting with Jaden, I said, ‘I’m gonna bring another quarterback to compete for the job. And if you want to leave, leave; if you don’t, stay and compete.’ If you’re gonna, you’re gonna run forever from competition. Just beat him out. And Jaden and Trenton both said, ‘Great.’ No problem. ‘Let’s go, bring somebody in.’

“So, I went and I found the best person to go compete with them for the job. And I found them, and I said,’ Listen, it’s an open competition. You can ask them. I told them the same thing.’ Now, am I gonna guarantee you a job to get you here? No. Are other schools going to promise you a job to get you to transfer there? Yes, and they’re full of crap because nobody can promise you a job. Eventually, you’re going to have to win something. So, you can come here, you know who you’re competing versus, and I’m not going to take another transfer. Win the job. Point blank.”

Gambo: Sam Leavitt’s got a lot of talent. So, it should be a good quarterback competition; you would expect that, right?

Dillingham: “100%. He’s got a lot of talent; he is young…I think we have a good balance of the youth with Trenton, who’s going to be a coach one day. And Trenton loves the program, loves this place, and wants to be a coach here when he’s done playing. So, you have that guy in the room with these other two guys, and it’s a really, really good combination just to see the growth.”

Gambo: (on what Bobby Hurley said about ASU being on the lower end of the NIL program and that he lost a few players because other programs had better NIL) Is it the same thing with the football program?

Dillingham: “Yeah, it’s the same thing. That’s the nature of the beast right now; you’ve got to be able to be competitive. You can’t use NIL to win bidding wars and all that stuff. But you got to be able to get your players enough money that they want to stay and be a part of your program. And to me, that’s the key is if you can get your own players the amount of money that they don’t want to leave, then naturally, you’ll be able to replace those players’ spots when they open it up within a number to fit our culture. But that’s our goal right now, to really fill our roster with enough money that guys don’t want to leave.”

Gambo: Are you guys behind the other programs when it comes to the NIL race?

Dillingham: “Yeah, we are. But I will say this: I know (ASU) President Crow is completely behind it. Jim Rund, the acting AD, is completely behind it. And they’re doing everything they can to make it better. And at least for football, it has gotten better. In the last two months, there have been a lot of people who have stepped up. We’re not where we want to be, but we are significantly better than where we were three months ago.

“My entire program of activate the valley is that nowadays more than it’s ever been, the valley and community of people that support your athletic program dictate how good that athletic department is. It’s never been like that. Ever. And we have the greatest advantage because we have the alumni and we have the valley who wants to see winners. We’re a frontrunner city; we want people to win. That’s why you move here and why successful people move here when they retire.

“Just Google Sun Angel Collective. That’s it. If you Google it, you go to the website; it’ll show you right there; you can pay monthly, you can make a one-time donation, whatever you want to do…you can sign up for the Pat Tillman $42 a month.

“And when you see somebody throw a touchdown pass, you know you’re a part of it. And I think that’s the thing that’s really cool now is like we need you. We won’t have a team without you. So regardless if you donate $1 or if you donate a million dollars, it doesn’t matter. Life is relative to what you can give, so give what you can give. That way, when you watch this team play, you can say, ‘Man, I was a part of this. I did something for this.’

Burns: How much was Trenton Bourguet’s decision (to be part of fundraising efforts) and his donation important beyond the symbolism? How much does that mean to you, the program, and the Sun Angel Collective what he decided to do?

Dillingham: “Trenton essentially donated money to the collective in terms of a matching agreement to try and raise more money for his teammates, which is a pretty cool deal. Like I said, Trenton's a Sun Devil through and through, and that's been an awesome stance that he's about it, and he's all about the team. And that's why he’s not only a good football player for us, but he's gonna be a great coach, a great ambassador of ASU football for a long time.”

Burns: This is an interesting time right now for the state of ASU athletics, given that there is a search for a permanent athletic director. Is that adding a layer of challenge to this because I know when the season ended, one of the first things you said was fundraising. ‘I'm gonna go out and fundraise, fundraise, fundraise.’ Has it been, I don't want to say, a handicap necessarily, but has it changed how you would like to do this knowing that things aren't as settled as they should be within the athletic department?

Dillingham: “No, because that's not how I operate. I'm gonna go do what I got to do to get where we need to get. There are no excuses. Extreme Ownership. We talk about that in our program a lot. Figure it out. And we have Graham Rossini, who's operating under Jim Rund right now, who's really boots on the ground for us. And he's done a great job communicating and helping the program stay afloat and help the athletic department in this time. But for me, it doesn't matter. There are no excuses; find a way.”

“College football is so unique. It's about the person who's not from there, the person who went to Purdue and who now lives here and has a nine-year-old boy, and you want to build something with the nine-year-old. What do you? You bring him to ASU games because that's what you did, and that's why you're a Purdue fan. You bring him to ASU games, and yeah, you're still a Purdue fan, but you're also an ASU fan. That's what activating the valley is. It's taking everybody from the valley and making them involved through their kids, through their families, through the culture of what it's like to go to a collegiate football game. And that's what I'm trying to do.

“And if we can do that here, if we you can give the experience you had in the Midwest, like how far people are from and give your kid that same experience going to an ASU game - that's activating the valley. Because what we will be in five to ten years from now will be a place people couldn't imagine we could get to go.”

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