TEMPE — Kenny Dillingham often utilizes the foundational mantras his iteration of ASU football was built on to remind his team how they should go about achieving their goals.
Examples include:
– “Be a multiplier instead of a divider.”
– “Have more fun working harder than anyone in the country.”
– “Smart, tough, the ball, the team.”
In the lead-up to spring camp, many of Arizona State’s leaders brought up these mantras on their own when talking about the intensity of winter workouts.
“It goes into the little things that coach Dilly preaches about,” defensive lineman Justin Wodtly said on March 17. “Just being a good person, showing up every day with a smile on your face. It’s not hard.
“Everybody has to go through the same things … you got your gassers and your big squat Fridays and stuff like that. But if you come in with a smile on your face and you’re a multiplier and not a divider like coach Dillingham says, it makes everything around the building that much more fun and that much more easy.”
Tuesday’s practice, the first day of spring camp entering Dillingham’s third season, didn’t meet the coach’s standard but it’s visibly a much different culture of work than even fall camp before last season. It helps to have proven success giving players something to believe in if they hadn’t already bought in.
“A culture is great on a wall. It’s great, but if you can’t feel it, then it’s not real,” Dillingham said. “For me, it’s more of I want to see the culture. I don’t want to hear it, I don’t want to hear us repeat it.
“Yeah, they have to memorize it and all that, but I don’t make them repeat it very often. … What I put on there is what I would like it to be, but who we are is the culture.”
There was a clear level of Day 1 sloppiness on the field Tuesday, but from how the players operated and worked, it didn’t look too far off a normal game week practice in October just without the pads or as much physicality.
One aspect of his own that he’d like to clean up was how early referees were blowing whistles, leading players to not finish reps as well.
“So the fact that our guys are saying it and they’re having fun out here, we got to push them harder because today we did not work harder than everybody in the country,” Dillingham said. “So we got to as a staff organize it a little more to push ourselves a little harder at the end of reps.”
Sam Leavitt says Year 2 with ASU football brings different approach
By this point in 2024, Jaden Rashada was still on the roster and no starting quarterback had been established as Sam Leavitt was still searching for his first collegiate start.
Now that he’s a popular preseason Heisman pick and an apparent video game cover athlete, Leavitt knows there’s a bit more pressure on him.
sam leavitt-jordyn tyson connection is back on the menu.
worth noting it’s pretty much been three songs in today’s rotation:• we are the champions• all i do is win• lose yourself pic.twitter.com/YUC9Nkuhka
— Damon Allred (@iamdamonallred) March 25, 2025
“It’s a different approach for sure, outside noise is a factor,” Leavitt said after Tuesday’s Day 1 practice. “And then you’re proven, second year in the system. So it’s a lot of fun for me to just be able to run the show and make a lot of checks that I haven’t made in the past before and just demand more out of the guys and demand more out of myself.
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“It’s going to be a different challenge this year. We’re just gonna have to find our identity.”
He said the outside praise is nice because it validates the work he’s put in, but moving forward it only raises the standard he sets for himself. Teammates are also much more willing to follow his leadership now that the signal caller has established who he can be on the field.
Leavitt said he kicked off his offseason by skiing in Colorado after an especially long season before getting back into improvement, whether it be meditating, building strength or working on his core to try and prevent rib injuries like the one that kept him out of Arizona State’s loss to Cincinnati.
He also did a lot of film study on his own game, trying to parse through where he needed to fix his footwork, eyes or timing as well as how he’s handling ball fakes in play action. It was right in line with what Dillingham said in February the signal caller needed to work at.
kenny dillingham said sam leavitt's rhythm in the dropback passing game is the biggest area asu is hoping to improve with the quarterback this spring. pic.twitter.com/1xG1XYlrbO
— Damon Allred (@iamdamonallred) February 7, 2025
Leavitt says he’s noticed how the entire team has attacked the offseason with a similar work ethic, praising newcomer receivers like Jaren Hamilton (Alabama), Noble Johnson (Clemson) and Jalen Moss (Fresno State).
“We’re a hard-working team and we’re player led, not coach led,” Leavitt said. “So, we demand a lot of each other … so it’s cool to see everybody pick up the culture and run with it.”
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