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Arizona State officially announces Kenny Dillingham as its next head football coach

Screenshot 2023-07-18 at 4.54.37 PMby:Riley Gates•11/27/22•

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Oregon OC Kenny Dillingham, an Arizona native, is a top candidate at Arizona State. (Cameron Parker/Scoop Duck)

Following the midseason firing of head coach Herm Edwards, Arizona State has found its new head football coach. The Sun Devils have hired Kenny Dillingham as the next man in charge moving forward.

On Sunday afternoon, Arizona State took to Twitter to announce the exciting news for the program.

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“Sun Devil nation, please welcome ASU graduate Kenny Dillingham back to the desert,” tweeted Arizona State. “Welcome home Coach!”

It’s the first head coaching opportunity for the 32-year old coach. After starting his collegiate coaching career as an offensive assistant under then Arizona State offensive coordinator Mike Norvell — who he followed to Memphis and later was hired by at Florida State — he then also held the position of offensive coordinator at Auburn and his during most recent stop at Oregon, which he parlayed into his new head coaching gig.

Now, he’ll hope to rebuild an Arizona State program that has been dealing with the fallout of a disappointing tenure under the aforementioned Edwards.

Hired as the head coach of the Sun Devils ahead of the 2018 season, Edwards had early success during his time at Arizona State. The Sun Devils won 15 games in each of Edwards’ first two seasons and went to bowl games. A COVID-impacted season in 2020 saw Arizona State struggle to a 2-2 record but it bounced back with an 8-5 record in 2021. While Edwards had success on the field, his tenure was clouded with recruiting violations and an investigation into the program.

Arizona State started 1-2 this season and fell to Eastern Michigan by nine points in the third game of the season. That led to Edwards’ dismissal. Edwards ended his Arizona State tenure with a record of 26-20 and 1-2 in bowl games.

Nevertheless, Kenny Dillingham has a wealth of potential as a head coach, and it’s easy to see why the Sun Devils are bringing him back to Arizona State.

On3’s Stephen Samra contributed to this article.