Kenny Dillingham fires back at college coaches complaining: 'Yeah, it's hard. Then quit.'

Kenny Dillingham did not mince words about the state of working as a coach in college football these days.

With guys leaving for the NFL as assistants, and even assistant jobs in college football, there are questions about profession. With the transfer portal, NIL and other factors still in its early days and evolving, coaches are bailing, make no mistake.

However, Dillingham fired back at anyone leaving and the Arizona State coach is here to stay.

“I literally spent nine years of my life doing anything to become a coffee boy,” Dillingham said, via Sarah Kezele of AZ Sports. “So, don’t give me the ‘Oh, it’s hard to be a coach right now.’ Yeah, it’s hard. Then quit.”

Some recent examples, and they don’t necessarily reflect Dillingham’s comments, are Ryan Grubb to the Seahawks and Chip Kelly to Ohio State as the OC.

Grubb was the OC at Washington and was expected to follow Kalen DeBoer to Alabama in the same role. However, he ended up going to the Seahawks as the OC under new coach Mike Macdonald.

The bigger example might be Kelly. He left his head coaching job at UCLA for a coordinator gig with the Buckeyes. That was a little more stunning on the surface.

Now, Dillingham said don’t complain about how it’s hard to be a coach right now. Kelly didn’t necessarily do that, but the situation at UCLA seemed dire. The school was expected to fire him right before or after the end of the season. However, that didn’t happen.

Now, he has less pressure as a CEO coach and program runner at Ohio State. He’ll simply just coach football.

Dillingham went 3-9 in his first season at Arizona State and is definitely undergoing quite the rebuild. The former Oregon offensive coordinator has a big task on his hands as the Sun Devils move to the Big 12.

Things are looking up though. In the new 16-team league, Arizona State had the No. 9 recruiting class in the Big 12, per the On3 Industry.

Dillingham has 19 recruits in the class, including one four-star prospect. For Sun Devils fans, they are well ahead in recruiting when compared to rival Arizona.

So if it’s hard, Dillingham is going to do it anyway because he said he was built for a job like this. Perhaps expectations will grow, but if ASU is patient with the coach, maybe some success will come along the way in the Big 12.