Arizona State Sun Devils head coach Kenny Dillingham seems like a man who is contemplating staying at his alma mater.
Earlier this week, the Associated Press reported that the search firm leading Michigan’s hiring process for a new head coach reached out to representatives of Dillingham
. Before, and especially after that report came out, the noise surrounding Dillingham becoming Michigan’s next head coach has only heightened.On Tuesday, a reporter told Dillingham there’s “panic” from the Arizona
State fanbase as to whether he’ll remain with the program. Dillingham was asked if he wanted to put the rumors to bed, and his response was far from definitive.
“I think my job is to try to do whatever I can for the people who are with me, right. The people that are in the foxhole, the coaches that are in the foxhole with me,” Dillingham. “I gotta do whatever I can to fight for those people, for my family, for everything from that perspective. I love it here, I’ve said it since day one. That’s absolutely never changing, absolutely never changing.”
While some may view this as a way for Dillingham to leverage a pay raise and more funds being pumped into the program, it could also mean he’s interested in the Michigan job and the resources it’d bring. Dillingham currently has a $5.8 million base salary at Arizona State, which Michigan could greatly increase. And from an NIL perspective, Arizona State is unfortunately still archaic and is losing top talent to the transfer portal on both sides of the ball, including quarterback Sam Leavitt.
If ASU is to return to the College Football Playoff, which they made last season, a monumental shift will have to take place in the form of a cash infusion to the program to bolster player and staff retention and recruiting as a whole. Dillingham, an ASU alum, has called Arizona State his “dream job,” but if he dreams of winning a national championship, a new job at the University of Michigan might be his best bet.
