Kenny Dillingham on Arizona State's confidence entering Peach Bowl: 'Those guys have a lot of self belief'
Kenny Dillingham has said it all season: Arizona State is a player led program.
Dillingham lets his players be themselves — and most importantly they police themselves.
ASU's offensive stars — running back Cam Skattebo and quarterback Sam Leavitt — have made headlines this week for talking about how much confidence they have in themselves. And Dillingham is all for it.
“I think people want to put personalities in a bubble," Dillingham said on Monday. "I couldn’t disagree more with that. I want our guys to be themselves."
On Tuesday — one day before Arizona State (11-2) faces Texas (12-2) in the Peach Bowl — Dillingham was asked again about why his players have so much confidence in themselves. And his answer was very revealing.
"I'm a firm believer in say what you believe and I'm not going to prevent our players from saying what they believe.," said Dillingham. "Those guys have a lot of self belief because there was a point they were the only people who believed in themselves."
The Sun Devils were picked to finish last in the Big 12 and projected to win fewer than five games by the oddsmakers. They've been underdogs in almost every game they've played. And Skattebo and Leavitt were under-recruited, overlooked players coming out of high school. They have had to scratch and claw to get to where they are. So, yeah, it stands to reason that Leavitt, Skattebo and the rest of the ASU football team have a sizable chip on their shoulders.
"They continue to keep saying that people are going to try to stop me.. There's nobody out there that can stop me," Skattebo said on Monday. "We played in 13 games, and I've been the target on each one, so I'm not too worried. We're going to play our game and play ball and see what happens there."
On Tuesday, Dillingham explained the origin of Skattebo's comments.
"What [Skattebo] is trying to say is 'my entire life I was the only one who believed in me. I'm not changing that,'" said Dillingham. "So now if you ask me the question and I give you a real answer it kind of gets twisted into this this cockiness or confidence, when the reality is without him believing that his entire life he wouldn't be in the position he is."
And despite being 11-2 and the Big 12 champions, the lack of belief in Arizona State continues. Texas is favored to win their New Year's Day College Football quarterfinal matchup by 12.5 points.
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Ben Sherman has been covering the sports world for most of his journalism career, including 17 years with The Oregonian/OregonLive. One of his favorite memories was covering the 1999 Fiesta Bowl - the first BCS National Championship Game - at Sun Devil Stadium.