When Kyle Whittingham took over as Utah’s football coach in 2005, Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham was still a sophomore quarterback at Chaparral High School.
While Dillingham worked his way up the ranks of college football, he took inspiration from Whittingham, who had built a rock-solid program in Salt Lake City.
Whittingham’s teams have recorded winning records in 17 of his 20 seasons as head coach, including three conference titles and an undefeated 2008 season that ended with a 2009 Sugar Bowl victory over coach Nick Saban and Alabama. He also holds the record for most coaching victories in Utah history.
Built on brawn and tenacity, the Utes identity is one Dillingham hopes to establish in the Sun Devils, who visit Utah at Rice-Eccles Stadium Saturday.
“The culture that he’s established there is elite, bottom line,” Dillingham said on Monday. “Hopefully, we’re getting closer and closer to that style, and that style is one (that) will win for the end of time.”
The two programs clash for a third time since Dillingham took over at ASU, with each winning once. The Sun Devils stunned the Utes 27-19 in Tempe last season, a victory that marked a turning point in an ASU football that had suffered through back-to-back 3-9 seasons.
The last time the Sun Devils played in Salt Lake City, however, Utah put them through the wringer in a 55-3 rout with 513 yards of total offense. It was Dillingham’s first game against Whittingham.
“Yeah, I wanted to win, but I wanted to play good,” Dillingham said of that game. “That night, we did not play our best football, and they whooped our butts. It was bad.”
That loss didn’t change his approach, though.
“The process is the same process that we did three years ago,” Dillingham said, “and it will be the same process forever here: through wins, through losses, through highs and lows.”
That echoed what Whittingham said in his Monday media conference about Dillingham.
“How he stayed the course … because he had some rough spots the first year,” Whittingham said about what impressed him most about the ASU coach. “Things didn’t go real well. I think that was the year we beat him 50-something.
“He also had a few other rough, rough games that year, but we’ve talked a few times, we’ve conversed and he’s picked my brain a little bit. And I just say, ‘Hey, if you believe in what you’re doing, keep doing it. Don’t question yourself. Don’t panic. Just keep doing it.’
“He’s been doing it and you can see the progress they’ve made.”
The Sun Devils will enter an infamously raucous environment for a night game at Rice-Eccles Stadium, but after being serenaded by cowbells throughout a game against Mississippi State in Starkville, Mississippi, they’re road tested.
However, they haven’t experienced quite the same challenge that Utah quarterback Devon Dampier poses for an ASU defense which is among the best in the country at pressuring the quarterback, registering 19 sacks through five games.
Dampier, who played at Scottsdale’s Saguaro High, is one of the most efficient passers in college football with a 72.5% completion rate, but he is also elusive. He has rushed for 258 yards on a team-high 55 carries.
“He’s a phenomenal player. I definitely should have recruited him harder, to be honest,” Dillingham said. “He just does a lot of things well, which is why he won a lot of games at Saguaro High School.”
ASU might have an advantage preparing for Dampier: Jason Mohns, the Sun Devils’ tight ends coach, was Dampier’s coach at Saguaro.
But, it seems no amount of insight will give ASU an upper hand in stopping him.
“(Mohns is) more telling us things that we don’t want to hear,” Dillingham said. “I want to hear him say, like, ‘Yeah, the kid can’t do something,’ but that’s not what he says. He can do everything.”
Dampier’s skill set wouldn’t be able to shine like it has this year if it weren’t for the men in the trenches in front of him. Cut from the same tough cloth of past Whittingham teams, Utah’s offensive line ranks as one of college football’s best.
However, a dramatically evolved ASU defensive front has passed two of its biggest tests of the year so far.
Top Big 12 quarterbacks Sawyer Robertson of Baylor and TCU’s Josh Hoover were thrown out of rhythm at various points in losses to the Sun Devils. The ASU defensive line forced multiple turnovers and made stops that gave the offense chances to win those games.
“They have a really good O-line, the physicality they’ve always had,” Dillingham said. “And now the quarterback can pull it and run off the triple option, which creates another layer of difficulty to defend these guys.”
When playing in a tough atmosphere against an elite head coach, a dynamic quarterback and one of the nation’s best offensive lines, it can feel like the odds are against a team, even as a ranked team.
And that is the case for ASU. The Utes are 5 1/2 point favorites against the No. 21 Sun Devils.
The weight in Saturday’s meeting does not just come from the on-field product or the betting odds, but the years of palpable college football lore in Salt Lake City built by Whittingham.
“We’re not playing a football team, we’re playing a football program,” Dillingham said. “A program that’s won for a long time, a system that’s won for a long time, a coach that’s won for a long time, and a place that’s won for a long time. And those are the hardest teams to beat.”
Still Dillingham, in his 10th season coaching the sport, recognizes the ebbs and flows of college football. So, before he concerns himself with a legacy like Whittingham’s, he tries to improve to 5-1 on the 2025 season.
“I stay focused one day, one game,” Dillingham said. “Who knows who’s going to be good in three weeks? I don’t know who’s going to be good in two weeks.”