Arizona State football: Coaches should take a page from Kenny Dillingham's book

Arizona State football got itself a solid head coach last offseason when it hired Kenny Dillingham away from Oregon where he was the offensive coordinator under Dan Lanning.

Not only did Dillingham turn that Oregon offense into a juggernaut and help turn Bo Nix's career around, but he got to learn under one of the top young coaches in the sport. He got to see what it takes to win at the highest level and he did a good enough job with the Ducks' offense that Arizona State jumped at the opportunity to hire him when Herm Edwards was fired.

Although Arizona State went just 3-9 in Dillingham's first year, there was progress shown and it just feels like he was the right hire. He has potential to be a really good Power Four head coach.

And he has the perfect mindset that will help him find success.

A lot of coaches complain about the new look of college football and Dillingham is having none of that. He grinded through the ranks to even get a look to be a college assistant and now that he's a head coach, he is working even harder. He spent nine years "doing anything to become a coffee boy" and that if it's hard to be a coach "then quit" he says.

That's the type of mindset I would want my head coach to have. I don't want my coach complaining about the difficulties of recruiting and winning in the NIL era. I want him working harder because of it and being grateful he's in that position.

I'm pretty sure there are plenty of head coaches around the country who could take a page from Dillingham's book and it's why I think he's going to turn Arizona State around in no time.