Kenny Dillingham believes making spring practices public can "motivate" ASU players

Kenny Dillingham and the Arizona State Sun Devils capped a stellar 2024 season with an 11-3 record and a Big 12 Championship. The Sun Devils advanced to the College Football Playoff quarterfinal, pushing the Texas Longhorns to double overtime before falling short.

Dillingham, entering his third year as head coach, is making some changes based on the lessons he learned in his first two seasons. One notable shift is opening spring practices to the public, which he believes will inspire players.

"There's a reason you guys are out here other than to get you guys content," he told the media on Thursday. "Things are getting filmed. Have a day off. Lose in a one-on-one rep. It's going on social media. You can't just take a day off, because everybody's going to see it. You can't just sit out a rep. And in today's day and age, you need as many things that can motivate guys."

"Guys gotta know there's pressure on them always in practice. Practice cannot become complacent. It has to be like a game. So having 1,000 fans out here on the field watching, cheering, it just gets the energy level up. It puts the pressure on a little bit [for] some of the younger guys. ... It's what we're trying to create every day in practice, just a little bit on steroids."

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Arizona State will look to continue its upward trajectory under Kenny Dillingham

Kenny Dillingham became the Arizona State Sun Devils coach before the 2023 season. It was his first head coaching job after spending the previous season as Oregon's offensive coordinator. While the Sun Devils only won three games in his first season, they improved tremendously after moving to the Big 12 this past season.

Next season, the Sun Devils will try to prove they can consistently compete at the top of the Big 12. There is little reason to believe that they cannot have similar success. They have a significant portion of their roster returning, with the biggest loss being RB Cam Skattebo, who entered the 2025 NFL draft.

About the author

Alexander O'Reilly is a journalist at Sportskeeda from Kingston, Ontario with over seven years in the field at companies including SenShot, RVBlogger, Monarch Media, WordAgents, GSeC LLC, and IGC.

His favorite college team is Duke, and his favorite sporting memory was Duke winning March Madness in 2010. JJ Redick was Alex's favorite college player when he was young but more recently, Caleb Williams gets the nod. As the Chicago Bears are Alex's favorite NFL team, this was a perfect match.

Alex's proudest moment came when he was interviewed by a radio station in Ottawa on his opinion on recent moves by the Ottawa Senators, which gave him a confidence boost and the knowledge that he could succeed as a writer.

Aside from sports, Alex likes to spend his time playing games. He is also very passionate about running and strives to improve at the half and full marathon distances.

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Edited by Ribin Peter