Through Aug. 22, Sports Illustrated will count down its preseason college football Top 25 with overviews of each team. Here are the full rankings so far.
Arizona State head coach Kenny Dillingham watched the ending to the Peach Bowl dozens of times this offseason.
He saw how his Sun Devils scored 16 points in a remarkable fourth-quarter rally against No. 5 Texas and he dissected every aspect of the team’s inability to secure an upset win in double overtime by the thinnest of margins.
Yet one of the biggest takeaways, something that still gets brought up by the coach when discussing his team’s exit from the College Football Playoff, was the outside perception about the performance.
“Losing sucks. And you know, it even sucks more when people are saying good things about you in a loss,” says Dillingham with a straight face. “When you lose and people are saying positive things, that’s worse than just losing.”
You can somewhat understand where Dillingham is coming from as a head coach judged on the line between wins and losses but, sorry to say to his sensibilities, it would also do his team a bit of a disservice. It was an incredible accomplishment that the Sun Devils were not only in a double-overtime playoff game against the SEC runner-up, but were Big 12 champions in their own right. The ending may have sucked, but Arizona State sure was one of the defining stories of the 2024 season after being picked last July as the worst team in their league … all to wind up coming within a play of making it to a national semifinal.
Dillingham may not like the chatter about a moral victory instead of having a real one to ring in the new year, but those around the program should have every right to celebrate what transpired as part of Dillingham’s revival of his alma mater—including the ending.
The tricky part now is channeling all those positive vibes and raised expectations into a 2025 season that sees Arizona State not only become a trendy pick to win the Big 12 again, but to potentially do some more damage in the postseason given how wide open the sport looks at the top.
“Nothing else matters other than the work that we put in in our own building, and if we can stay focused on that, then I think we’ll be the best version of ourselves,” Dillingham says. “I show it to the kids, I show it to our team. I show where we’re ranked, I show what people say about guys on social media so they can flush it from their system, then just get back to work.”
Depending on how you look at things, ASU returns more starters than any power conference team in the country and gets the added benefit of being one of the handful of programs that returns both coordinators, a starting quarterback and their leading tackler.
If it were not for the fact they reside in the Big 12, in which every game seems to come down to the final minutes, you could probably start to talk yourself into the Sun Devils being a legitimate national title threat.
It doesn’t seem like they’re that far off from being part of just such a conversation coming into this season, which certainly is why people are saying good things about Arizona State for all the right reasons prior to kickoff.
Fast Facts
2024 record: 11–3, 7–2 Big 12
Offense: 32.9 ppg (30th in FBS), 6.18 yards per play (36th)
Defense: 22.6 ppg (37th in FBS), 5.23 yards per play (40th)
On the Headset
Kenny Dillingham, entering Year 3 in Tempe, 14–12 overall record
The 35-year-old Dillingham is no longer the youngest FBS head coach anymore (Florida Atlantic’s Zach Kittley was born in 1991 and is about to turn 34 this month), but his age remains a part of his story because of how invigorating he has been at Arizona State on and off the field. The program he took over was in rough shape, with the Herm Edwards era giving way to NCAA sanctions and a 3–9 mark that was their second worst since the end of World War II.
Yet Dillingham has been masterful at both overhauling ASU’s roster and pushing everybody around the university forward. There’s as much momentum in Tempe, Ariz., for NIL and new facilities as there has been in ages. The team might have actually been a little ahead of schedule last season even though it won the Big 12.
There’s a lot of optimism this is the beginning of a long, sustained run of excellence for the Sun Devils that makes them an annual contender in the Big 12—and by extension the CFP. That puts Dillingham in rarified air among college football coaches and gives the team plenty of stability in an era defined by anything but.
Key Returning Starter
QB Sam Leavitt, RS So.
After getting overlooked coming out of high school in Oregon and barely getting a chance at Michigan State, Leavitt has gone from a complete unknown to one of the best quarterbacks west of the Mississippi after just one season at ASU. He was named the Big 12 Newcomer of the Year. He closed the stretch run strong, posting 21 touchdowns over the final nine games that saw the Sun Devils go from a nice story to the doorstep of postseason glory (notably without top target Jordyn Tyson for some of that stretch). He is already being talked about as a potential first-rounder, and he’ll have even more on his shoulders this season as the focal point on offense.
Key Transfer
RB Kanye Udoh, from Army
There’s no denying Udoh has big shoes to fill in the backfield. Running back is one of the few positions that doesn’t have someone coming back from 2024. The 6' 0", 220-pound bruiser is not going to be the most explosive option but he will be the kind of downhill runner that is going to wear out opposing defenses—especially when the Sun Devils want to salt away wins in the fourth quarter.
Key Departure
RB Cam Skattebo, fourth-round NFL draft pick by the New York Giants
It probably won’t be long before ASU puts Skattebo in its ring of honor, which speaks to how good their former tailback was between the tackles and how much he meant to the program. He was responsible for 39% of the team’s touchdowns last season and finished just behind Ashton Jeanty nationally in rushing yards, but mostly was known for coming up with a big play just when the Sun Devils needed it. His persona off the field definitely added to his legend, but he’s the one player who the Sun Devils would have loved to get back for one more season.
Circle the Dates
- Sept. 20, at Baylor
- Oct. 11, at Utah
- Oct. 18, vs. Texas Tech
- Nov. 1, at Iowa State
Bottom Line
Arizona State will not be surprising anybody in 2025 and can rightfully be expected to get back to the College Football Playoff given all it returns from a year ago. Not having a team leader like Skattebo could hurt in some of those close games that are inherent to playing in the Big 12, but this is still a group that will easily earn the title of the league’s best. There are not a lot of sure things in college football, but there’s a lot to like about what the Sun Devils bring to the table this season.
More College Football on Sports Illustrated
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Sports Illustrated’s College Football Preseason Top 25: No. 8 Arizona State.
