Arizona State's Future Remains Unchanged Despite Arizona Loss

TEMPE -- Arizona State's 2025 season did not end how fans had hopes of it transpiring - a 23-7 loss to the Arizona Wildcats on Friday night confirmed as much.

The 8-4 mark in the regular season could be framed as a grave disappointment depending on perspective - ask head coach Kenny Dillingham and he will find the silver lining even in the face of the disheartening.

Dillingham Puts Silver Lining on Loss

"Remove yourself from this whole this moment of misery. And you guys, then I told the group, you guys have done something special. You guys took a program that was dead. You guys had them all raised their hand. Everybody who signed here when we were three and nine, which was anybody who didn't sign here this last year, raise your hand. Guys all came here when you were dead. Absolutely nobody wanted to be here. And you guys took a team and did something that hasn't been done in 12 years, going back to back eight win seasons."

Dillingham took a program that faced potentially harsh sanctions from the NCAA for the doings of his predecessor - taking a rough 3-9 season in stride in 2023 to a shocking appearance in the College Football Playoff in 2024. The 2025 season may not have gone according to plan, but the program can take solace in the obvious progress that has been made. It truly doesn't appear that there is a limit to what the program can accomplish with Dillingham at the helm in a wide-open Big 12.

Dillingham Has Faith in Roster Moving Forward

The major question surrounding the program moving into 2026 is that there are a high volume of impact players that are set to depart following the bowl game within the next month.

Dillingham isn't worried about the transfer portal endeavors or player retention efforts that are to come - he's actually quite steadfast in his confidence of the players that are going to be asked to step up in the next campaign.

"I think we're gonna have a really good chance to go get really good players to add to the program. We still have our we've done this before where we had to go get a lot of players and add them. The difference was, I feel like our depth and our young guys in our program, I feel really, really good about I feel really good about the guys who signed, so I think those guys are going to get better and better and better."

The transfer portal has afforded the Sun Devils several star players over the last three years - and it should continue into this cycle.

Martell Hughes, Adrian "Boogie" Wilson, and Jaren Hamilton are amongst the players that are set to return that will be key players in even more expansive roles heading into August.

The Sun Devils have one more game to play this season in their current iteration - the postseason bowl game - the future beyond that is translucent as long as Dillingham is at the helm under the current arrangement.

Read more on why the Arizona State men's basketball team will exceed expectations in the 2025-26 seasonhere, and on major takeaways from the Sun Devils’ convincing win over Colorado in week 13 here.

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