Before An Upset Win, Dillingham Picked Up The Phone — Now, No. 24 ASU Dials Into Houston

(Photo: Spencer Barnes/ WCSN)

On Dec. 2, 1990, Arizona State football faced Houston in the now-defunct Coca-Cola Classic, a late regular season event held in Tokyo, Japan. In that game, former Cougars quarterback David Klingler set an FBS record with 716 passing yards en route to a 62–45 victory.

The single-game passing yards title belonged to Klinger until 2014, the same year head coach Kenny Dillingham began his collegiate coaching career, coincidentally, as an offensive assistant at ASU, the program he now leads. When Klingler set the record in 1990, Dillingham was around seven months old.

After a 42–10 loss to Utah, Dillingham called two veteran coaches, whose names he withheld out of respect, seeking guidance, a gesture reflecting the curiosity often seen in younger coaches. The following week, the Sun Devils pulled off a 26–22 upset over No. 14 Texas Tech. For Dillingham, it was a moment that highlighted a defining trait of his youth, an openness to learning from those who’ve been through it before.

“Sometimes you need other people outside of the building to ask questions to,” Dillingham said. “I just pick up the phone and call them and say, ‘Look, this is what we’re going through. You’ve been through everything so tell me how you would handle this.’”

Now, attention turns to Houston (6–1, 3–1 Big 12). Saturday marks the first meeting between ASU (5–2, 3–1) and the Cougars since the 1990 showdown in Tokyo. While it’s been more than three decades since the Sun Devils last saw Houston, Dillingham’s previous encounter came nearly seven years ago. In 2018, he was a first-time offensive coordinator at Memphis, the Tigers’ eighth and final win that season? A 52–31 rout of the Cougars.

Of course, the 2018 Houston team isn’t the one heading to Mountain America Stadium on Saturday. For one, the Cougars didn’t join a Power Four conference until 2023, when they entered the Big 12 — a year ahead of ASU. For another, this Houston squad is in its second year under head coach Willie Fritz, who in 2018 coached Tulane to its first bowl win since 2002.

It took Fritz and the Green Wave three years to achieve a winning season. With five games left, the Cougars need just one win to finish above .500 in his second year at the helm. Unlike Dillingham, Fritz has been coaching college football for decades — landing his first head coaching gig at Blinn College in 1993, when Dillingham was just three years old.

“Coach Fritz wins. He always has won. He is winning again,” Dillingham said. “It’s not an accident that they’re 6-1. It’s not an accident that he’s won everywhere he’s been.”

Fritz, 65, will be the second-oldest head coach the Sun Devils have faced this season — surpassed only by the Utes’ Kyle Whittingham, born just over four months earlier. Dillingham has expressed respect for both, and after the 32-point loss to Whittingham and Utah, he spoke candidly, admitting that he and ASU had been “outcoached.”

It’s easier for the Sun Devils to view the loss to the Utes as a one-off after beating the Red Raiders a week later — a team that had thumped Utah 34–10 back in September. However, two glaring issues from that loss resurfaced against Texas Tech: inefficiency in the red zone and miscues on special teams.

Had ASU shown consistent red zone success with redshirt sophomore quarterback Sam Leavitt starting, the woes against the Utes could be chalked up as an outlier. But with both Leavitt and senior Jeff Sims under center, the Sun Devils’ red zone struggles have persisted. With Leavitt last Saturday, ASU made five trips inside the Red Raiders’ 20-yard line, but managed only two touchdowns.

For the special teams unit, it’s been back-to-back weeks defined by consequential slip-ups. The first came late in the first half versus Utah — a blocked kick that Dillingham called a “turning point,” as it cost the Sun Devils a chance to make it a one-possession game. Then, with under three minutes to play against Texas Tech, sophomore punter Kanyon Floyd’s 29-yard punt was followed by a 36-yard return, setting the Red Raiders up at ASU’s 12-yard line. Texas Tech subsequently punched in a touchdown, forcing the Sun Devils into a two-minute drill.

“We’ve got to get extremely better in special teams. We’ve got to get extremely better in the red zone,” Dillingham said. “The challenge this week is focusing on us to push and get better.”

The challenge of improving in the red zone and on special teams now rests with a head coach still in the early chapters of his career. But Dillingham’s youth isn’t inherently a weakness, it shapes a leadership style grounded in humility and urgency. His approach prioritizes growth and values reflection over pride. That’s what prompted him to pick up the phone after a crushing loss, calling veteran coaches not for reassurance, but for perspective.

This mindset stands in contrast to the long arc of college football, where experience often reigns supreme. In ASU’s most recent matchup against Houston, the coaching battle featured a 38-year-old first-year head coach in John Jenkins and a 48-year-old Larry Marmie, who had already spent more than a decade in the college ranks and was in his third season leading the Sun Devils.

On Saturday, the contrast is even sharper. Dillingham will face a coach who is 30 years older and entered the college landscape years before Jenkins and Marmie squared off in Tokyo. The generational gap is striking, but Dillingham’s approach reflects a different kind of strength — one built on adaptability, self-awareness, and a willingness to learn.

“It’s just calling the people who you think has their expertise in those areas and listening because I’m still new to this,” Dillingham said. “It may be culturally, and I call a coach who I believe has an unbelievable culture and say, ‘What did you do here to establish toughness in times like this?’”