TEMPE, Ariz. — Defeat is not an option for ASU football's new head coach.
"Well, for one, I like to win," Kenny Dillingham said. "I HATE losing."
It's clear Arizona native Dillingham is passionate about coaching the Sun Devils and it's his vivaciousness and competitive spirit that leads the way.
"I want to play and play and play and play until we win," Dillingham said. "That's what motivates me. That's how I am driven. That's how I've always been. It's not fun beating someone you're better than. I want to be on the team that has to crawl and scratch and fight and compete to win the game."
This is the exact man you want fighting on your side and the players feel the daily energy that pours out of the coach each time he steps into the building.
"His energy and his passion for us, it carries onto the team," linebacker Travion Brown said. "He brings juice; he brings energy; he's a competitor. He's a real down-to-earth competitor."
You may ask, where does this unique competitive nature stem from? All from family game nights back when Dillingham was a young boy.
"We just competed in everything we did," Dillingham said. "We competed in hearts, in spades, in dominos, in Mario cart; that's how I was raised. There's no fun, like watching a movie, great, that's boring I am going to fall asleep. No offense to movies; I am going to fall asleep. Put me in a spades game, I will be awake all night. I'll never leave the table because that's just how I was wired."
And it's that intensity Dillingham hopes the team can channel on the gridiron in moments of adversity.
"What's competitive is when you rise up to those occasions," Dillingham said. "The only way you can do that is if you are prepared for adversity and if you are okay to say, 'I am going to give it my all and fail.' It's okay to fail as long as you respond and that's what this camp has been about. You are going to fail and I want to see you respond."
Coach's message is blatantly clear and time will tell if his passion will be enough to carry the Sun Devils to several victories in the upcoming season.
ASU opens the season on Thursday, August 31, inside Mountain America Stadium against Southern Utah.
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