When head coach Kenny Dillingham was hired on as Arizona State’s head coach, the program and the scope of collegiate athletics were amid a historic shift. In August of 2023, just before his first season as head coach, ASU announced it would join the Big 12 conference to begin the 2024-25 season. Rather than sulk in what was in the longstanding PAC-12 affiliation, Dillingham and the program discovered an opportunity to unlock new doors.

In an eye-popping statistic, 211 players in the National Football League call Texas their home state, accounting for over 8% of all players in the league. When it comes to producing football talent, the Lone Star State is the cream of the crop. With the Sun Devils' migration into a conference amongst four Texas institutions, the hashtag #Texas2Tempe was engineered with the intent of recruiting high school talent from Texas in bunches.

“You have to adapt,” Dillingham said in August 2023. “I'd like to say I had since you've noticed how we've been recruiting in that region since we got here. We knew that was an option and made sure we diversified where we were recruiting in this class, that way we were ready for whatever decision was made. The Big 12 allows us to get into different homes that maybe they didn't want to come to play for us because of the region.”

ASU didn’t miss a beat in attracting Texas talent, using a combination of high school recruits and transfers to assemble a program record of 22 Texans, a mark previously capped at 14 players.

To attract and retain this many Texas-born players, Dillingham first collected a staff that would aid in his efforts, hiring high-level recruiter Bryan Carrington, a Houston native, as the next defensive backs coach at ASU. Carrington has coached at the collegiate level since 2015, starting as a recruiter assistant for the Houston Cougars. He progressed to Texas and Southern California before moving to Texas Christian as an offensive analyst and recruiting coordinator. A position he held during the 2022 season when TCU finished 13-,2 qualifying for the College football playoff for the first time in school history. As a Sun Devil, Carrington has been a staple of the #Texas2Tempe movement, with eight of his defensive backs residing in Texas.

“I'm familiar with playing in four big 12 championships,” Carrington said. “But this one means a lot more and trying to get in that Winner's column.

“I think it's the pinnacle of what we've been trying to build here with the Texas to Tempe movement. It's more so this entire team taking Tempe to Texas now and getting to play in Jerry's World for the Big 12 title. It's sentimental for everyone obviously the kids on our roster from the state of Texas. So, it's going to be familiar territory for some of our Texas guys, but being a high school football player in the state of Texas, you dream about playing in Jerry's world, so for the Big 12 title to be in Jerry's world for us to be recruiting a pipeline called Texas to Tempe I mean it's the cherry on top.”

The Texans have established the backbone of ASU’s success story in 2024. Defensive back Xavion Alford and Wide receiver Jordyn Tyson are two of four Sun Devils to make the All-Big 12 First team. Fellow Lone Star State native CJ Fite qualified for the second team as well.

“Texas got dawgs that's where the best football is you know in the country,” Alford said. “I feel like Texas High School Football definitely prepares you for the next level. My high school did a great job with me; over time, it developed me as a player and got me ready to come play at this level. I would say Texas football is the best in the country no matter where it is, Dallas, Houston, or East Texas I feel like it's very competitive and it really gets you ready for college.

“I had to play 15 games before I played in the Championship; a lot of teams might have to play 10, 12, or 13 games. I played 32 games in two years, so that gets you ready to really play high-level football at the next level, so I don't think there's anything like it.”

Poetically, the 2024 season culminates at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, the home of the Dallas Cowboys, where No.12 ASU faces No.16 Iowa State in the Big 12 Championship. Multiple players, including defensive back Keith Abney II and offensive lineman Josh Atkins, are Dallas natives playing in their home city, and many others have participated in high school football playoff games in Jerry Jones World, adding unprecedented levels of comfort for a game of this magnitude.

“It's right up the street, 15-20 minutes, so this at home for real,” Atkins said. “There's a lot of people on the team from Texas, so that also helps me feel more comfortable.”

The prospect of playing in the Big 12 Championship game is a full-circle moment for the Sun Devils. As Carrington described best in 2023, “Now in the Big 12, you have to have a footprint in Texas, or you're going to get beat by that team in Texas at Jerry's World, where the Big 12 Championship is.”

“I’m from Dallas, so it's going to be crazy,” Abney said. “Just going on that field but I played on that field before so we just going to go out there you know we know what's on stake with this game but we going to come out there and just do our thing.

Carrington described this matchup as the ‘Pinnacle’ of the Texas to Tempe movement. That doesn’t, however, mean the Sun Devils are slowing down anytime soon. With six of its 21 committed players in the class of 2025 fleeting from Texas, the movement is not only in motion but thriving.

“It's what you sign up for,” Carrington said. “All these guys that bought into our vision this is what they signed up for, to play for championships and it being our first year in the Big 12 what better message to send to the guys that we want to pass the torch to. That goes for recruits that just signed with us today and guys in the 2026 class 27’class and beyond.”

For ASU, the #Texas2Tempe movement began as a call to action for prospects and potential transfers, as the recruiting tactics resulted in exponential success, gaining more traction each year. The success of the Texans in Tempe, along with all the benefits staying in the Valley has to offer, the message will continue elevating the program to new heights in the Lone Star state.

“Showing that you can be out here in 70° weather in December competing for a championship in one of the best cities in the country to live,” Dillingham said. “That's available, that's an option you can do that. On a national stage being able to show that not only the lifestyle here is great, the development here is great. What else would you want other than those things?

“I think it really puts this brand on a national stage, people care about ASU look at the last few games it's sold-out crowds the crowd rushing (the field) the care level is there. Then you say the development you took a guy like Jordan Tyson and Coach (Hines) Ward helped develop him into a thousand-yard receiver, and that's just one of the many guys, and you can compete for championships while living here that's an unbelievable situation for College Athletes.”

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