(Photo: WCSN/Maya Diaz)
TEMPE — On April 12, the Arizona State football team spent the morning at Pat’s Run, a fundraising event for the Pat Tillman Foundation, named after the late ASU linebacker, and United States military veteran, Pat Tillman. The players put on their jerseys and spent the morning interacting with kids, including handing out medals and running with them.
“They (The Pat Tillman Leadership Council) wanted everyone to be there,” ASU head coach Kenny Dillingham said. “They wanna do that again.”
The players enjoyed starting the day at the event before heading to practice in the evening. This embodies a mantra that Dillingham guides his team by: Be a good person and have fun working harder than everyone else in the country.
The Pat Tillman Leadership Council is made up of a handful of players who are selected by their teammates to be ambassadors for the players to the coaching staff. The returning leaders are redshirt senior defensive back Xavion Alford, senior linebacker Keyshaun Elliott, junior defensive lineman C.J. Fite, redshirt sophomore quarterback Sam Leavitt, redshirt sophomore offensive lineman Sean Na’a, redshirt senior defensive lineman Clayton Smith and redshirt sophomore defensive back Montana Warren.
The main focus of the Pat Tillman Leadership Council is ensuring that everyone is doing what they are supposed to be doing, especially the little things, such as ensuring everyone is healthy and making locker room plans. This year, Dillingham is using the Pat Tillman Leadership Council to promote his message that this season is a new one, not to get hung up on last year and to stay aggressive.
Warren has been on the council for all three seasons he has been a Sun Devil, as he was not expecting to have a large role on the team. He suffered a collarbone injury the day before he was selected.
“It was an honor,” Warren said. “I thought I was just gonna get pushed aside.”
In his freshman year, Warren tried to stay present with the team as he offered his input and helped his teammates. Warren has seen himself grow at ASU as a leader who does his part to improve the team.
“I was just doing stuff, you know, just not thinking before I did most of the things I do,” Warren said. “Now I feel like I’m studying more, making sure I’m doing the right thing, being more thoughtful about the stuff I do.”
Warren credits Alford and ASU defensive coordinator Brian Ward as motivators who keep him on the right path. Likewise, Na’a learned from Alford, along with Elliott and former ASU center Leif Fautanu on how to be a leader.
“(I teach them) what to do with different people, or different backgrounds, personalities,” Alford said. “How to lead this person, how to reach this person, and so forth.”
Alford felt honored to be seen as a leader and influential. Alford’s leadership styles are vocal and by example, correcting players when he needs to, making him confident in his leadership abilities. Alford instills a positive mindset in himself so he can be so confident and allow himself the season he wants to have.
Alford saw himself having a breakout season in 2024 after missing back-to-back seasons, one with injury and one with transfer eligibility. He set his career highs in solo tackles, pass deflections, and beat his assisted tackles by a wide margin. Alford played 14 games last season, his career high.
“I had to be a self-starter and have a lot of positive self-talk,” Alford said.
Unlike Alford, Na’a is more reserved by nature, but being on the Pat Tillman Leadership Council has helped him progress as a leader. After spending two years as a younger guy on the council, Na’a feels more comfortable as a leader.
Na’a tries to close the gap from younger to older players so that they are ready to play, which is something offensive coordinator Marcus Arroyo often mentions. Na’a has found a role as a middle guy, as he was one of the younger guys and knows how to catch up to the veterans. As a middle guy, Na’a is still learning from guys like graduate offensive lineman Ben Coleman, as Na’a is practicing on the first team offensive line.
“There’s a lot of good knowledge from those guys,” Na’a said. “There’s new things you can get better at every day.”
Both Na’a and Warren saw times when they were thrust into the starting lineups when the team was not expecting to need them.
Na’a saw playing time in his true freshman year, starting in over half of the season due to numerous injuries. He learned that football is a next man up mentality and is ready to play, which he preaches in getting caught up to the veterans. The whole staff echoes the thought to players from Dillingham to offensive line coach Saga Tuitele.
Warren saw playing time in ASU’s postseason, replacing former Sun Devil safety Shamari Simmons after a targeting play that saw Simmons miss the closing stages of the Big 12 Championship game and the first half of the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl. Being on the council gave Warren the feeling he needed to play as well as he could, as he had seen little action in the past two years.
Alford described leading Arizona State’s run as “challenging” as he had to make sure he was doing the right things before making sure the rest of the team was doing the right things. He fully grasped the concept that the level of work that one puts into something is the level of result one will get out of it, which is closely tied to Dillingham’s rule of having fun working harder than everyone else in the country.
All three players emphasize their roles as leaders by doing their job in an exemplary way and fixing small mistakes in practice, which has set the tone for the Sun Devils in the past like the deep run ASU went on last year and will continue to set the tone as the team will hope to go on a similar run this year.
“There’s an expectation to get things accomplished at a high level,” Dillingham said. “It’s non-negotiable.”
