ARLINGTON, Texas — There was just something about coach Matt Campbell and his football program at Iowa State that intrigued Kenny Dillingham.
“His culture and his realness, I think he’s one of the most real people in the sport. You see the passion and emotion on the sideline,” said Dillingham, who is in his second year as head coach at Arizona State. “That was the program that I wanted to study from because I thought that they were overachieving at that time early in his career at a high level before he had built it up. Now he’s built it up.”
The 34-year-old Dillingham has overseen a program-record improvement of seven wins over last year at his alma mater in its Big 12 debut season. The Sun Devils, who are 15th in the College Football Playoff selection committee’s most recent rankings after a 10-2 regular season that included a 7-2 mark in league play, will compete in the Big 12 championship game Saturday — against Campbell and the No. 16 Cyclones (10-2, 7-2).
The midday matchup will take place at AT&T Stadium, the home of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys.
After Dillingham became Auburn’s offensive coordinator in 2019, then-Tigers coach Gus Malzahn gave him two days to go study any team. Dillingham went to Iowa State to visit Campbell, who was only 32 when he became a first-time head coach at Toledo late in 2011, then went to his current Big 12 school in 2016.