Kenny Dillingham's coaching career started in high school at age 17

Arizona State coach delivered a postgame interview for the ages after Utah win, and an ACL injury jump-started his career

Arizona State Sun Devils head coach Kenny Dillingham started his coaching career while a student at Chaparral High School. / Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

Footage of Arizona State Sun Devils head coach Kenny Dillingham hopping around with students after an upset win over Utah captured the beauty of sports.

Serendipity is a big part of Dillingham's path to becoming the youngest full-time head coach in college football (Utah State's Nate Dreiling has the "interim" tag).

Dillingham tore his ACL during his senior year of high school at Chaparral in Scottsdale, Arizona, ending his playing career and starting his role as head coach of the JV team at age 17.

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So despite being just 34 years old, Dillingham has been coaching half his life.

By age 21 he was the varsity offensive coordinator at Chaparral while studying at Arizona State, finding time to attend Sun Devils football games and practice the field-hopping technique he showed off Friday night:

Kenny Dillingham is the youngest head coach at a Power 4 school… can you tell?

The youngster is FIRED UP

pic.twitter.com/NdI494mVRs

— Unnecessary Roughness (@UnnecRoughness) October 12, 2024

"It's kind of crazy. I was one of these guys. I was doing this! I was doing this!" Dillingham says in his postgame interview while hopping around with students after Arizona State beat Utah 27-19.

Dillingham attended his first Arizona State game when he was 6, and it happened to be the Sun Devils' 19-0 upset win over then-No. 1 Nebraska in September 1996.

“What do I remember? Nothing, other than my face was painted," Dillingham told ASU News in 2022. "I had a (Jake Plummer) jersey on, and I was sitting there eating nachos. That’s about it.”

Here's a list of all 10 coaching jobs Dillingham has had over the past 17 years from high school through college, with his age when he started at each one.

1. Chaparral High School (JV coach)

Age 17

2. Chaparral High School (varsity offensive coordinator)

Age 21

3. Arizona State (offensive assistant)

Age 24

4. Memphis (graduate assistant)

Age 26

5. Memphis (quarterbacks coach)

Age 27

6. Memphis (offensive coordinator)

Age 28

7. Auburn (offensive coordinator)

Age 29

8. Florida State (offensive coordinator)

Age 30

9. Oregon (offensive coordinator)

Age 32

10. Arizona State (head coach)

Age 33

As Ferris Bueller said in 1986, four years before Dillingham was born: "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."

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-- Mike Swanson | swanson@scorebooklive | @sblivesports