Arizona State’s football rebuild has taken on a shape that looks different from the usual offseason overhaul.
Kenny Dillingham isn’t hiding that. With more than 40 newcomers in the fold and revenue-sharing now part of the roster-building equation, the Sun Devils are leaning into a model that puts flexibility ahead of habit. The result is a team that looks like it was assembled with a very specific idea in mind: find the right pieces first, then sort out the rest.
“We’re trying to win at the highest level, and you can’t do that by building teams like everybody else,” Dillingham said. “You’re not going to be able to try to win a margin or try to bridge a gap that you may have. So what we’re trying to do is do it a little bit differently in our own way.”
That philosophy has become even more important as college football has moved deeper into the revenue-sharing era, with schools now able to make direct payments to athletes. Football gets a major share of those dollars, which gives programs another lever to pull - and another reason to be careful.
“We can’t be wasteful,” Dillingham said this week as ASU prepared for its season opener Saturday against Morgan State at Mountain America Stadium.
ASU is coming off a 6-3 conference record last season, good for a tie for fourth in the Big 12, but this year’s roster looks nothing like the one that produced it. Dillingham said the challenge is not just bringing in talent, but building around what that talent actually does best.
“You have to challenge the staff,” Dillingham said. “I know we don’t like to play in this personnel grouping, or that’s not my background or coach’s background.
Well, that’s the best personnel for us right now. So let’s figure out teams and let’s study teams that have done this in the past.”
That mindset extends to the entire operation. Dillingham said the Sun Devils have to be willing to adjust the scheme to the roster instead of forcing the roster into a fixed system.
“Are you willing to kind of adapt around what you got, and are you willing to say players matter more than schemes?” Dillingham said. “So let’s acquire the right players, and then let’s figure out the scheme later.”
He also made it clear that the personnel conversation goes beyond talent alone. The people in the building matter just as much.
“At the end of the day, the culture and the type of people you bring in for us are invaluable,” Dillingham said. “We have to be able to twist and change our schemes a little bit based on what types of guys fit us and who is on our roster.”
That new-look roster includes a quarterback room that spent months sorting itself out before Cutter Boley emerged as the starter. The Kentucky transfer has built strong relationships with Cameron Dyer, Jake Fette and Mikey Keene during the competition.
“I couldn’t speak more highly of those three dudes and the type of people they are and the type of players they are,” said Boley, a transfer from Kentucky. “Mikey’s got so much knowledge that I can learn from, and same with Jake and Cam. They’re in the building every day, long hours grinding.”
Dillingham said he wants to see how Boley handles the parts of the position that only show up when the lights are on.
“What can he handle?” Dillingham said.
“How good are they at actually seeing protections in real speed ? Do they handle tempo and live speed?
How do they handle a two-minute drill when it’s real? So I would just say, how is their composure?
In a game there’s just a little bit, a little bit different feel for those quarterbacks.”
Saturday’s opener should give ASU its first real chance to show what this new group looks like in action. The Sun Devils are favored by 43.5 points, while Morgan State opened its season with a 17-7 win over North Carolina A&T.
Dillingham said the team he sees emerge this weekend should feel like something fresh.
“If we’re gonna leave Saturday and there is going to be an identity of the team it’s not going to be an identity of old,” Dillingham said. “It’s a brand new team with a brand new identity.
We want that identity for as long as i’m here, hopefully it’s physicality and passion. Hopefully we leave and “say man we were a physical football team.””
Offensive coordinator Marcus Arroyo said the week leading into the opener has already started to show signs of a group coming together.
“We just get a chance now to transition to get to see somebody else,“ Arroyo said. “I think we put in a lot of work.
Guys are gelled. Get a chance to see some chemistry and combinations now with the guys you think of as ones and twos there and go out there and give us a good look on Saturday and get excited.”
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