As June starts to roll into July, and July eventually leads us to the start of fall camps at the beginning of August, the 2023 college football season will be here before we know it. What a season it projects to be in the Pac-12 Conference, as well. With a handful of College Football Playoff contenders, and a group of Heisman Trophy candidates leading their prospective teams, we could be set up for one of the best football seasons out west that we’ve seen in decades. To help get us prepared, we at Ducks Wire wanted to go through each team in the conference and give a comprehensive breakdown of each school, breaking down their 2023 outlook. Welcome to our Pac-12 Previews. New editions will be published every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday leading up to the start of fall camp.
When you talk about rising stars in the world of college football coaching, Kenny Dillingham has a chance to be the poster boy before long. After acting as the offensive coordinator at Memphis, and then Auburn, and then Florida State, Dillingham finally became a well-known play-caller in his single season with the Oregon Ducks, where he joined forces with QB Bo Nix and led one of the most prominent offenses in the nation.
A year later, he’s got his chance to really make a mark on the sport, with an opportunity to bring the Arizona State Sun Devils back into prominence.
That will be no small task.
After the firing of head coach Herm Edwards last season left the Sun Devils down in the dumps, there is a spark of life that can be felt throughout the desert. Dillingham’s catchphrase of “activate the valley” is starting to pick up steam, and be it in the recruiting game or via the transfer portal, the roster is starting to look much improved from what it did a season ago.
Will that result in more wins for ASU in 2023? I wouldn’t be too optimistic in that sense of things. However, there is energy that is starting to take root in Tempe.
Here is our full 2023 season preview for Arizona State.