After leading his team to a Big 12 championship and College Football Playoff berth on Saturday, Kenny Dillingham’s agent was contacted by Arizona State to initiate the process of earnestly discussing a contract extension.
Athletic director Graham Rossini, upon returning to Tempe on Saturday evening, told Sun Devil Source that ASU is “committed to making it a top priority” to extend Dillingham following the historic success of the team, which has won 11 games for the first time since 1996 and will play in the first-ever 12-team College Football Playoff.
“We want Kenny to be a Sun Devil for life and he’s expressed that he wants to be a Sun Devil for life,” Rossini said of the Big 12’s Coach of the Year. “This was a special season and he’s done a remarkable job leading the team. So we are focused on having those conversations now” about his contract.
Just a few hours earlier, Dillingham told Sun Devil Source immediately after his post-game press conference that neither he nor his agent had recently discussed an extension with ASU’s leadership.
“Dr. (Michael) Crow expressed (that) at the end of the season he wants to talk,” Dillingham said of his most recent interaction with the school’s president about the subject. “We had a conversation. He said after the season, we’ll talk about extensions.”
That changed very shortly after the Sun Devils left AT&T Stadium with possession of the Big 12 championship trophy as text messages were exchanged between Dillingham’s agent and the Sun Devils to initiate formal conversations about his contract.
Dillingham made clear to Sun Devil Source that his preference is to continue leading the program long into the future.
“I love ASU. I’ve been a fan of ASU my entire life,” Dillingham said. “I grew up saying this is my dream job, this is a place that I think can compete for championships and I think we proved that today.”
Dillingham’s contract, which called for him to receive $3.95 million this year, was already extended to add one more year due to ASU’s 2023 postseason ban, caused by recruiting infractions by the school’s prior staff. He has four more seasons on his remaining agreement with automatic increases of $100,000 per year, though his remarkable turnaround in Tempe could lead to significant interest from other schools willing to pay a lot more in the coming weeks.
Indiana recently rewarded its first-year head coach, Curt Cignetti, with an eight-year contract extension that will reportedly pay him an average of $8 million per year. Cignetti and Dillingham appear to be the leading candidates for national coach of the year awards.
Dillingham said he was glad that offensive coordinator Marcus Arroyo and defensive coordinator Brian Ward had recently agreed to new three-year contracts that would pay them more than anyone in the roles in program history over the length of the term. He said that he expected some position coaches to be similarly rewarded as an additional positive step toward stabilizing the program for the future.
Dillingham earned $695,000 in bonuses for the regular season alone after ASU won the Territorial Cup. He committed to giving 20 members of his off-field staff $5,000-$10,000 each when he achieved a $200,000 bonus for ASU’s ninth win. He also is due to be paid $300,000 for winning 10 regular season games plus 10 percent of his salary, $395,000, for appearing in the Big 12 Championship Game.
With ASU’s victory in the Big 12 Championship Game on Saturday and guaranteed berth in the College Football Playoff, Dillingham is due to receive another $1.58 million in bonuses on top of what he’s already earned, as his contract calls for a payment of $395,000 for winning the Big 12 and another 30 percent of his salary for the CFP berth.
Dillingham would also earn an additional five percent of his salary with a CFP quarterfinals win and an additional five percent with a CFP semifinals win. If the Sun Devils then won the national championship, he would be paid another 10 percent of his salary per the terms of his contract.
Leave a Reply