Arizona State football coach Kenny Dillingham's message: Go hard or go away

It’s amazing how much things can change in a year.

Remember preseason 2022 for Arizona State football? Assistant coaches had been fired. The star quarterback had transferred. And observers and analysts were taking odds on whether Herm Edwards would make it through the season.

He didn’t.

ASU finished 3-9, including an embarrassing 2-4 record at Sun Devil Stadium, a place no one from players to fans, it seemed, wanted to be.

On Tuesday, first-year coach Kenny Dillingham had just one message for all involved: “I want people who want to be here,” he said. “This is a special place. I have a passion for this place. When people walk into this building, they’d better have a pride in it. They’d better have a passion about it.”

'We've improved the roster pretty dramatically'

He’s serious.

Then again, he’d better be.

Dillingham is getting ready to lead the Sun Devils into a season where the only thing that’s certain will be uncertainty.

“(How good will we be?) I don’t know, to be honest,” Dillingham said. “I’ve never seen the guys play football. I’ve seen them play (in) practice. But there’s a huge difference in people who can perform under the lights in a game atmosphere and people who can perform in practice.

“Is there a correlation? Yes. But there may be one or two guys who raise their games when the lights come on and one or two guys who don’t. I won’t know that until we kick off.

“We’ve improved the roster pretty dramatically. … But one of the hardest things to do is to determine as a new staff how good you’re gonna be.

“Do I think we have a chance to be good? Yes. But you’re still competing with the unknowns.”

So his goal is to control what he can control and teach his players to do the same.

That starts with attitude, effort and energy.

'Play hard, guys. Play hard'

Dillingham is pleased with what he sees, so far.

“They’ve been working hard,” he said of his players. “They’ve been holding each other accountable. And they’re hungry.”

This approach will be key to activating an apathetic fanbase that could be one of the largest in big-time sports. ASU boasts nearly 500,000 alumni. (If everybody donates $5 or buys a T-shirt, that’s a lot of money to spread around.)

Dillingham said that when he speaks with boosters and season ticket holders, he hears them say how much they love the program and that they want to know the guys in uniform feel the same way.

“Get our guys to play hard,” he said of what fans tell him. “That’s probably one of the things that comes up the most. Do they play with passion?

“I just want them to play hard. I want to watch the game and see guys caring and see guys playing with a passion. … Play hard, guys. Play hard.”

That, too, would be a big turnaround.

Related: Kenny Dillingham generating strong class in first season heading Arizona State football

'The whole program is based off success'

Blowout losses are signals of teams that quit on the field, and ASU lost five games by 14 points or more last season.

Time will tell if the first-year coach’s moxy translates to wins; but for Dillingham, that’s not the point, at least not yet.

“I never put wins as expectations,” he said. “The whole program is based off success, which is just being the very best you can be at whatever you’re doing, all the time.”

By that measure, or any other, really, there wasn’t much success last season.

But it’s amazing how much things can change in a year.

Reach Moore at gmoore@azcentral.com or 602-444-2236. Follow him on Twitter @SayingMoore.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: ASU football coach Kenny Dillingham has a message: Go hard or go away