Kenny Dillingham Thinks ASU Will Be The Next Clemson Or Oregon

There are traditional college football blue bloods, like Alabama, Michigan, USC or Notre Dame. Then there are the up-and-coming programs that have, in recent years played at or near the level of blue bloods despite not having the same level of historical success. 

For example, the Oregon Ducks or Clemson Tigers, who have either won championships, made playoff appearances, or routinely ranked in the top 5 or 10 teams in the country.

So what's the next program ready to make that leap? Well, if you ask Kenny Dillingham, he'll tell you it's the Arizona State Sun Devils.

What now?

Arizona State Sun Devils head coach Kenny Dillingham. (Photo by Kevin Abele/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Can ASU Be The Next Program To Become Perennial Playoff Contenders?

On3.com spoke to Dillingham this week, and that's exactly what he said.

"You can build something very, very unique," he told Steve Wiltfong. "Every 10 years, a team shows up on the map, and they’re a blue-blood to the next generation. They’re not a blue-blood to the people my age, but they’re a blue-blood to the 10-year-olds, the 11-year-olds and the 12-year-olds who you’re eventually going to recruit."

"You have Clemson this last cycle, from 2010 to 2020," he continued. "They just showed up. People think they’ve been around forever. You have Oregon from 2000 to 2010. You can go back in history and figure out which teams have shown up in which era. There hasn’t been a team in this era, in the 2020s."

Dillingham's got a point; it's easy to dismiss programs like ASU at the start of their run. Just as it was easy to dismiss Oregon or Clemson as a flash in the pan when their runs started. But all it takes is a year, or a few years, of success in order for the ball to start rolling down the hill.

ASU, in its first year in the Big 12, won the conference with a dominant victory over Iowa State in Arlington. Then had the Texas Longhorns beat, until the referees stepped in to take it away. 

All the sudden, ASU went from a 50-60th ranked recruiting class, to #19, per On3, so far for 2026. That's how it starts. And Dillingham, clearly already one of the country's best coaches, could be the guy to build on it. Quickly.