Saturday was a fitting time for what Kenny Dillingham called ASU’s best spring football practice. Just as the gates closed at the Kajikawa practice fields on Thursday, an avalanche of significant news came across the second-year head coach’s desk. Aside from the decision of the NCAA penalties for violations that took place under the previous staff, Dillingham lost a tight end, his best wide receiver, and most importantly, maybe his starting quarterback from last year, all in the span of a day. As he’s shown on social media, his parting messages to his now former players remained ones of class and praise.
“I wish them nothing but the best,” Dillingham said of Bryce Pierre, Elijhah Badger, and Jaden Rashada. “I know they (Badger and Rashada) were out all spring and working their way back in. Both are really good young men, and I wish them the best.
Even with the trio of players entering the transfer portal in the last 48 hours, Dillingham knew he couldn’t dwell on the losses. When he saw his players perhaps showing such effects early on Saturday, whether it be from the parting of their teammates or the early wake-up call on a weekend, he saw a necessary uptick by the time the final horn was blown.
“Today’s practice was probably the best practice we’ve had this spring,” Dillingham remarked. “Back and forth all day, competitive juice, detail, adversity kids responded to. Kids got in their feelings; then they snapped out of it. It was a really, really good day.”
While losing Pierre reduces the number of spring scholarship tight ends to two, and Badger is the team's returning wide receiver, losing Rashada at quarterback may sting the most. Due to injury, the former four-star recruit played just three games in his freshman season and wasn’t able to showcase his full potential in his only year in Tempe. Having showcased flashes of elite arm talent until his departure, high-caliber programs such as Georgia are said to be in the running, leaving a large void under center for Kenny Dillingham.
Noting his pillar of commitment, Dillingham takes a pragmatic approach.
“If you’re one toe in, if there’s a little bit that’s not all in, you have no chance to reach your potential,” Dillingham explained. “If you don’t love to compete and have one toe in, that’s why I don’t fight for kids to stay…Everybody’s going to become a multiplier. If you get 120 kids that are multiplying each other to become better, everybody’s going to reach a higher potential than they thought they could ever be.
"But if you get some people that are going to divide, you’re going to bring anything else down. This football team will be filled with multipliers. We’re going to have people that are all in, no doubt in their mind that they shouldn’t be here.”
This mentality has rubbed off well on the players that choose to stick around.
"It's a great place to be," Michigan State transfer quarterback Sam Leavitt said. “This is an elite staff. I don’t know why you wouldn’t want to play for them.”
With his stance on the news reaffirmed and the backing of the players, Dillingham and the team have now shifted their focus to working with what they have. Trenton Bourguet and Leavitt have both started games at the power-four level, and with one less competitor, for now, in the room, the ante is up on both of them having split reps throughout spring ball. While the competition for the starting role is far from a conclusion, ASU's head coach did describe the current state of the position battle.
“If we started a game today, Sam (Leavitt) would be the guy," Dillingham stated. "But we’re not starting a game today. Like I told him, we’re bringing in somebody to beat your butt out.”
As his remarks allude to, Arizona State will look to the transfer portal for a third scholarship quarterback, which Dillingham had previously planned on before Rashada’s transfer. And such a move isn’t just to fill the depth chart with the proverbial warm body.
“It really changes nothing,” Dillingham noted. “We were probably going to bring in a quarterback regardless. We were going to bring in a wideout regardless. We had 86 scholarships, and we were going to bring in three to four guys out of the portal while planning on losing five to six naturally…I’m never going to bring in a guy and say, ‘You’re going to be depth.’ Because I’d be bringing in a loser.
"We’re going to bring somebody in here who wants to win the starting job but understands if he doesn’t win it, he better be a good teammate.”
Leavitt said that the coaching staff's confidence in him is a testament to the work he has put in. As much as he's pleased with his progress and niche in the depth chart, he did not shy away from the impending addition to the quarterback room, knowing he had been a newcomer himself just months prior.
“We're gonna bring in another guy, which I'm excited about," Leavitt said, "get to compete. I love competition, and I have to keep on getting better. I haven't played a full season since my senior year in high school. I played in only a couple of games last year. Being able to see over the line, get the timing down with the receivers, understand the concepts of the offense, and what plays (offensive coordinator) Coach Arroyo likes to call and understand what where the ball has to be in certain plays. It's a quarterback-friendly (scheme), and I have to control the offense."
With a third name to be thrown in in the near future to the quarterback mix with Leavitt and Trenton Bourguet, Dillingham reiterated that the battle for starting a signal-caller will be as competitive as ever, even with spring ball coming to a close next week. Such a mindset is shared among the locker room, a sign of productive culture continuity.
“It’s going to be another war,” Dillingham predicted. “That’s what football and what sports is about. I’m not going to concede defeat to the portal and this world that we’re in. It’s still about competition. If you’re here, get ready to be challenged. That’s what we talked about today at practice, and they loved it.”
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