Arizona State football coach Kenny Dillingham alluded to "changes" after his team turned in an embarrassing performance in a 55-19 Big 12 loss to Baylor on Oct. 3. He doubled down on that in his usual Monday press conference.
The first is a major one.
Dillingham is returning play-calling duties to offensive coordinator Marcus Arroyo.
The head coach had been calling plays since the Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl last December.
It all comes down to the head coach having too much on his plate, so he's handing that responsibility back to Arroyo, who joined the ASU staff in 2024, the year after Dillingham was appointed the head coach.
"I've been leading more on one side of the ball, obviously," Dillingham said. "I've alluded to that a lot since the end of last
year. I just want to be able to be a head coach again. I want to be able to have balance. I want to make sure our team has the one single-mind focus and passion and energy, and I think it was a mistake for me to remove myself from being the head coach, so I want to go be the head coach.
"I want to make sure when I watch our team play they have an identity, and they play the way in all three phases that I want a football team that I am in charge of to play. I've never been a believer in plays, so it was just a bad mistake by me."
The Sun Devils (2-2) hit the practice field on Oct. 6 to prepare for their final nonconference game on Oct. 10 against Hawaii (1-4). Dillingham ran back and forth between units on each side of the ball, but spent much of his time on the defensive side.
In 2024, Arroyo, 46, was a finalist for the Broyles Award, given annually to the nation's top assistant coach. He was up for that honor after helping the Sun Devils to an unexpected Big 12 championship and a spot in the College Football Playoff quarterfinal against Texas in the Peach Bowl.
Dillingham expressed his continued confidence in his offensive coordinator.
"I have the utmost confidence in this football staff, and I don't have a concern at all," he said. Same staff, that people thought was one of the best in the country. We are one of the best in the country. We're just not getting the performance.
"That's one thing that is on me because I probably pulled away from my strength and what I do well, probably hindered what other people do well, so I have to get back in control of that, and Marcus has been helping out all along, and he's a phenomenal coach. I just think I am better suited to being a head football coach."
While Arroyo may not have been calling plays, he has been coordinating with Dillingham in that regard.
"They've been as candid as they have been in the three years I have been here," Arroyo said, on the conversations with the head coach about how to proceed. "We've got a really close relationship, as does everybody on the staff. Conversations like that over the course of two decades are pretty standard. The head ball coach says he needs something, the AD or the president needs something, the team needs something, you fall in line. So over the course of two decades I've been doing this as a coordinator, that's exactly what I do."
Arroyo said the playcalling duty is just a formality. It isn't like he hasn't had a hand in that respect, and the poor showing warranted a change because the standard that has been set has not been met.
"Assistants call plays," he said. "The guys call plays. Your coaches have game plans, they call the plays. We both have mics, all the games we've been together. We built a pretty nice standard of football that I think everyone's pretty pissed off about. We're pissed off as anybody. We probably have the most to be pissed off about. We put the standard in. We're all fired up because we put this here. No one is going to be able to shake the castle. We have got a lot of work to do."
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Marcus Arroyo will take over play calling at Arizona State
