Playing chess helped Kenny Dillingham become football coach at Arizona State

One of Kenny Dillingham's favorite games is chess.

It's a game he taught himself in middle school and one he has excelled at since then. Part of the mastery comes with making one move to set up another and being able to see three or four moves ahead.

Dillingham's end game has always been leading the Arizona State football program, one he grew up worshipping. He attended his first game when he was just 6. That was back in 1996 and it was the Sun Devils' 19-0 upset of No. 1 Nebraska in what was the storied Rose Bowl season. Quite an introduction indeed.

Mere days after Herm Edwards was named head football coach in December of 2017, Dillingham texted an area sports reporter and said he was going to be the next head coach at ASU. The reporter got a chuckle out of the lofty aspiration coming from a then untested 27-year-old who was an assistant on Mike Norvell's staff at Memphis.

But now that prophecy has come to fruition.

Dillingham was 32 when he was named the Sun Devils head coach, making him the youngest to direct a Power Five football program. That was eight months ago. Now 33, he is embracing a difficult challenge. His team makes its debut on Thursday against Southern Utah at American Mountain Stadium.

The Sun Devils are looking to redeem themselves after a 3-9 showing last season, with Edwards departing after the third game. Dillingham now has his dream job, but he is not getting wrapped up in that thought of it. There is too much to do.

"It's one of those situations where you’re happy you are where you are at," he said. "It’s not something you process very often You just walk down the hall and see guys you know, appreciate and care about in the building and you’re like, `This is pretty cool.' We’re doing what we said we always wanted to."

Dillingham says every job he has taken helped position himself to be able to pursue his dream job when it opened. After Memphis he made stops at Auburn, Florida State and Oregon.

Last year Dillingham was serving as offensive coordinator at Oregon where he jump-started a resurgence for quarterback Bo Nix. Although he was working in Eugene, Dillingham said he was keeping an eye on what was going on in Tempe, more because he was a fan than anything else.

As soon as Edwards departed Dillingham's name began surfacing as a candidate for the position, but he still had a job to do.

"Nobody hires you unless you do a good job," Dillingham said. "Nobody keeps a job unless they do a good job so you can have a long term vision for what you want but you can’t let your long term vision distract you from the daily task it takes to get there.

"If you don’t do a great job, it doesn’t matter, so I never let those situations blind me. It was just, do the very best at what I’m doing right now. That’s the only way I can achieve a goal that I set 12 years ago. Just maximize today and it sounds cliché but that really is how I am."

Perhaps no one knows Dillingham better than Charlie Ragle, who serves as ASU special teams coordinator and associate head coach, but coached Chaparral High School when Dillingham played there. When Dillingham, a former linebacker, sustained a serious knee injury, Ragle encouraged him to consider coaching. Dillingham did so, helping out the junior varsity and freshman teams, while he was still a student in high school.

Ragle remembers calling Dillingham when he was only a couple of years removed from high school.

"He changed his voicemail. Used to say, `Hi this is Kenny, whatever.' He changed it to hello you've reached Ken.' It was him wanting to grow and mature and be where he wanted to be. I listened to it, then left a message and said `You're not Ken. You're still Kenny. Quit trying to grow up so fast.' That just epitomizes his mentality. That's him trying to think ahead. He's playing chess when everyone else is playing checkers. But that's why he is where he is today."

ASU athletic director Ray Anderson has talked about what he was looking for in a head coach — someone younger and more in touch with the changing landscape of the college game was a big part of the equation. Dillingham checked those boxes. He also had the benefit of already knowing the ins and outs of the Valley, it's high schools, its coaches and athletes — something previous regimes did not.

Then there are his energy and passion. Players say they very much relate to their young coach

"The first time I met him, it was over a FaceTime, kind of when I hit the (transfer) portal," wide receiver Xavier Guillory said. "Coach Ragle called me and gave the phone to (Dillingham) and he was like so energetic, I thought he was like the GA (graduate assistant) or something. I’m thinking, `Is this really the head coach?’ That was my first impression of him. Always the same energy though, every single day, never changes."

Football practices can be a bit monotonous, particularly in the spring when there isn't a game on the horizon. Dillingham will push his team to pick up the pace or intensity when he senses those are lacking. He also works in some lighter moments. There have been respites for some good old-fashioned competitions which have included field goal kicking opportunities, once for coaches and once for linemen.

One recent fall practice was halted while linemen tried to throw a football into a garbage can 20 or so yards down field. All failed miserably.

There was a 15-minute dodgeball game during a practice at Camp Tontozona. Then the next day came a one hour tournament with players and coaches divided into 10 teams as part of what Dillingham dubbed the "Sun Devil Olympics."

"The one day we had the offensive linemen throw balls in the trash can that was Joey Ramos' idea. He was like, `We should have a throw off. We just joked around about it before practice," Dillingham said. "It has nothing to with football. It’s about giving them a break in practice. Also, culture building, having fun and enjoyment. I’ve talked about the science of dopamine and enjoyment and all that stuff. It all goes together."

Senior tight end Messiah Swinson said Dillingham is different from other coaches he's had in the past.

"He does a good job of implementing some fun into this. It's not forced," Swinson said. "A lot of times a coach comes in and brings a new regime and a new culture and its forced. When he came in it wasn't like that at all. I'm thankful that's the culture he brought here."

Dillingham's wife Bri, a former competitive gymnast and ASU dance team member, admits her husband does not like idle time. The two have been married for five years and have a 17-month old son, Kent. They dated as far back as high school and even lived in the same neighborhood.

"He has always been very energetic, has to be doing something," Bri said of her husband. "He likes challenges. He'll try anything and he hates to lose."

Among the other things the first-year head coach has mastered — card tricks. He first learned two in high school, then continually added to his repertoire. Players are impressed.

"He's really good at the magic tricks. I still haven't figured out how he does it," junior nickel back Jordan Clark said.

Of course, you can not take the athlete or the competitive nature out of the coach.

"We have a basketball hoop in the team room and he thinks he can shoot but he can't really shoot," Swinson said. "In the morning before meetings and stuff guys will be in there shooting and he tries. One day he came in and he had a calf strain and he's limping. He tries, which is cool."

Dillingham plays golf but has been known to only use a putter, even off the tee.

"My best coach story? When we went golfing and he used the putter the whole time," junior tight end Jalin Conyers said. "And he beat a couple of us. There were four or five of us and we played a scramble. He’s on the tee with a putter and he’s hitting 150 yards. I’m dead serious, full swing. It was crazy."

While Dillingham is an intense competitor, he doesn't take himself too seriously when lighter moments happen.

"He tripped on his flip flops walking down the stairs. That's just his personality. He’s quirky and he’s ok with that. He gets super juiced up, amped up," senior defensive lineman Michael Matus said. "He always gets on us for wearing Adidas gear that you get. He came down stairs one time and I was looking at him and said coach, `Those shorts there, I don’t see three stripes on them.’ This is probably 2 minutes before the meeting. So he sprints up the stairs, puts new shorts on and runs back down and isn’t late for the meeting."

He ripped his pants after his introductory press conference when he went to meet with the team.

"I only recently found out about that," Bri laughed.

The fact that Dillingham hired his former high school coach Ragle to work on his coaching staff might show that his coaching career has come full circle. Ragle is not surprised his protege has achieved so much at a young age.

"His emotional maturity was way beyond anyone 17-years-old. He just had a feel, and there is a difference between having a feel for football and just situational awareness," Ragle said. "He obviously had a knack for being a good football coach but his emotional awareness, emotional intelligence is what has gotten him to where he is at for sure. The great ones always have the ability to assess the room, see what its made up of and understand where they're going, how they're going to get there and who they're going to get there with."

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Coach Kenny Dillingham brings energy, competitive fire to ASU football