This man came in for the HC cap. Said give me 2 years to reform. Then managed to make Arizona State one of the top teams this year. Kenny Dillingham took over the Sun Devils back in 2022. Now, naturally, being his first year and all, it wasn’t great. Sun Devils ended the year with a 3-9 run. Now, would you take this team seriously anymore? Yeah, after they get a 10-2 run and manage to land on the 15th spot on the CFP ranking list, you will notice them. Behind this massive success, though, will forever be the name: Kenny Dillingham. The Sun Devils are now fighting it off against Iowa State for the Big 12 Conference title, despite who wins it. One thing is for sure.

Kenny Dillingham is gonna be a very rich man. When he first got the coaching job at Arizona, his contract was capped at $3.85 million. Now there would be annual incentives and additional increases that applied manually, but compared to other head coaches, it wasn’t something massive. The entire contract is 5 years, and it is reported that by the end of it, Kenny would be making around $4.25 million. We also have to keep in mind that he made around $1 million with the Ducks, and his salary was $625k while he was the OC at Florida State.

Currently, though, Kenny is the highest-paid employee in all of Arizona, so that says something. Pin-pointing his overall net worth is a complicated task as we do not have access to all of his financial information. However, we can still delve deeper into his contract with Arizona State and figure out how much more the HC can make other than the 4.25 million we mentioned before.

First of all, let’s talk about wins. On the contract, it is reported that if the Sun Devils managed to snag a 12-win season, then Kenny would be rewarded with around $1.4 million. Seeing how they ended 10-2, this won’t be happening.

However, he will end up getting a $50k bonus. See, the contract clearly states that if he is named “Coach of the Year” then he is liable for a $50k reward. Now, Big 12 has awarded Kenny with the Chuck Neinas Big 12 Coach of the Year. And well, he deserves it. Going from 3 wins to 10 has to be the biggest change in the program’s history. But hey, we all know that Kenny is going to be one rich man if Arizona State manages to get into the playoffs, and it’s starting to feel like that future is close.

Sun Devils riding into the playoff picture?

While many of us would’ve loved to see the Buffs vs Sun Devils showdown, we have to settle with the Iowa State game. However, the Devils are leading this one. With the 3rd quarter in, Arizona State is up by 21 points on the board. The Cyclones are still stuck at 10 points, and it looks like their offense has slowed down considerably.

Going from dead last in the Big 12 to clenching a title win? Yeah, this is a playoff-deserving team. If Kenny manages to seal the deal here, Arizona State will easily grab the 12th spot in the playoff bracket. This will be done over the limp body of the Miami team. But hey, people would rather see the Sun Devils over a Hurricanes team who think they are the real deal just because they won against 10 unranked opponents.

Still, this is wishful thinking at best. Over there Boise State already grabbed their title win. Now with the Clemson and SMU game waiting, only one can have the 12 spot. We shall see who finally gets it.