The Arizona State Sun Devils hired Kenny Dillingham as head coach in November 2022, leading into his first season in 2023. While the program had been mediocre at best for the past decade, Dillingham is now entering his second full season (2024) and has been working to turn the program around after finishing 3-9 in his debut year.
While Dillingham is clearly focused on generating success on the field, the head coach believes that he could do better in terms of recruiting, specifically in the state of Arizona, and has launched a new initiative to help the Sun Devils get some of the top in-state talent.
Kenny Dillingham Teases New Plan to Bring the Best Players in Arizona to ASU.
In a recent interview with the press, Kenny Dillingham teased a new “Golden Ticket” campaign, which he believes will help Arizona State get more of the top prospects in Arizona to stay in-state and play their college ball at ASU.
Kenny Dillingham is changing up the approach to local recruiting, introducing the Golden Ticket campaign:
“[June] 15th is the first day we can talk to recruits … We’re going to change it up. We’re going to recruit the state a bit different. People may not like it. They may… pic.twitter.com/5LOMobfgZD
— Justin LaCertosa (@LaCertosaSports) June 11, 2025
Dillingham was honest about the program’s lack of in-state recruiting success, saying, “We’re trying to figure out this code to recruit the state. We’re trying to figure it out right, we’re doing everything we can. What we’re doing right now isn’t necessarily working at the highest level yet, so we’re going to change our strategy.”
The Sun Devils’ head coach then teased his new “Golden Ticket” plan, saying, “It’s going to be special to come here again. It’s going to be special. It’s going to be ‘Wow, I’m one of the few people who get the opportunity to stay in state.'”
Now, it’s unclear what exactly the Golden Ticket plan will be, but with college football programs able to talk to the 2027 recruiting class on June 15, the plan will likely go into effect then.
Based on my very limited knowledge of Willy Wonka, if I had to make an educated guess, the “Golden Ticket” campaign will be where Arizona State immediately sends offers to a select few players in Arizona once the 2027 communications window opens.
Again, that’s just a guess, and we’ll find out for sure what Dillingham has up his sleeve on the 15th, but it’s clear that Dillingham is tired of losing the top talent in Arizona to programs outside of the state.
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In the world of NIL, trying out-of-the-box recruiting strategies is almost becoming necessary for schools not named Alabama, USC, Texas, and Ohio State, so it’ll be interesting to see what the golden ticket campaign is, and if it helps Dillingham recruit the state of Arizona better.
