‘A Once In a Lifetime Experience’ — Arizona State HC Kenny Dillingham Embraces London’s College Football Takeover
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As the Arizona State Sun Devils and Kansas Jayhawks recover from their transatlantic journey, the debate surrounding college football’s international experiment continues apace.
The inaugural Union Jack Classic at Wembley Stadium ended in a 24-17 victory for the Sun Devils, but against the backdrop of renewed criticism, the significance of the trip extended far beyond the final score for Arizona State head coach Kenny Dillingham.
Kenny Dillingham Raves Over Arizona State’s London Experience
For Dillingham, the London trip was about giving his players something they might otherwise never experience. And as he reflected on the week in the immediate aftermath of Arizona State’s victory, it was clear that the human element was already beginning to outweigh the game itself.
“I’ll probably remember more as I get told more stories,” Dillingham responds when asked by reporters about the experience of the week in London.
It is a wonderfully Dillingham answer. Rather than talking about the win, the preparation, or the unique challenge of taking a college football program across the Atlantic, his mind immediately turns to his players and the experiences they had away from the football field.
“I know it sounds crazy, like our guys going out into Richmond on Monday and Tuesday, and how we had 15 guys, I guess I got told, on scooters,” Dillingham tells me. “And my wife was out on like a Wednesday, and she was like, ‘I saw 15 of your players scootering around.'”
Chuckles ring out around the press conference room, a testament to Dillingham’s ability to command a crowd with both his trademark intensity and measured humor.
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It is also a reminder that, for all the talk about the business of international college football, these are still young men experiencing a foreign country for the first time.
Dillingham’s players weren’t simply transported from Tempe to Wembley, asked to play a game, and sent home. They were given the opportunity to experience London, and the response from inside the Arizona State locker room was overwhelmingly positive.
“I think for me it’s more just getting, being able to reflect on like, their stories and how much fun our players got to have here, and the experience our players got to have here,” Dillingham explains.
“We had multiple players that are like, ‘Man, I want to come back now. I love this place, this place is awesome. London is awesome. I want to come back and spend a summer or spend a Christmas out here.'”
It is a far cry from the relentless rhythm of a typical college football game week, where student-athletes juggle the demands of the classroom with the rigors of practice, meetings, and film study.
Instead, Dillingham watched his players discover a city thousands of miles from home and, in some cases, immediately begin planning their return.
Arizona State’s decision to establish a London campus adds another dimension to the experience. The Sun Devils are not simply dipping their toes into the international waters before returning to Tempe; the university is establishing a permanent presence in the UK.
Dillingham’s Desire to Bring Every Sun Devil To London
There was, however, one condition Dillingham considered non-negotiable before Arizona State agreed to play in London. Everyone was coming.
“Most people, some people never get to, you know, cross the pond their entire life, they’ve never done it,” Dillingham explains, throwing in an attempt at the cockney accent that is the stereotypical calling card of a Londoner.
That reality shaped his thinking when the game was presented to him.
“If we’re going to do this game, we’re bringing all 105 players,” he says. “I’m not going to let one player miss out on this opportunity.”
In an era when college football can sometimes feel increasingly transactional, Dillingham’s insistence that every player experience London was rooted in something much simpler: this was an opportunity that belonged to the entire program.
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It did not matter whether a player was a starting linebacker, a second-string quarterback, or someone who might never see the field at Wembley. They were going to London.
And Dillingham was not prepared to have one of them watch the experience unfold through somebody else’s Instagram account.
There is something distinctly human about that approach. The value of a college football program is not solely measured by the players who score touchdowns or make tackles on Saturday afternoon. It is also found in the relationships, experiences, and memories that remain long after the final whistle.
Dillingham wanted his players to have those memories.
College Football is Family, Even Across the Pond
The same principle applied to the families.
A college football season places enormous demands on the people surrounding a program, and an international game only magnifies them. If players were going to be separated from their families in the middle of the season, Dillingham wanted those families to have the chance to experience London alongside them.
“And then I wanted to bring families,” Dillingham says. “I said if we’re going to go and take our husbands away in the middle of the season from our families, our families are going to have a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
That meant turning a potentially exhausting football trip into something closer to a shared family adventure. And, according to Dillingham, Arizona State’s administration was on board with his vision from the outset.
“To their defense, they didn’t flinch,” he adds. “They stepped up, they covered the costs, and they made it an experience that I think everybody and every family member, every player, will remember for the rest of their life.”
There is a reason he keeps returning to the word “experience.”
Because that is what Dillingham believes college football should be capable of providing. Not simply an opportunity to play football at a high level, but an opportunity to see places, meet people, experience cultures, and develop away from the sport that consumes so much of a student-athlete’s life.
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That does not mean the criticism of overseas college football should be ignored. There are legitimate questions surrounding the concept, and American fans have not been shy about asking them.
The most obvious concern is the loss of a home game. College football is inseparable from campus culture, and removing a Saturday from Tempe, Lawrence, or another traditional college town inevitably changes the experience for supporters who would normally fill the stadium, tailgate, and spend money in the surrounding community.
Then there is the travel.
Arizona State and Kansas were not simply taking a short flight to another state. They were crossing the Atlantic during the season, with all the disruption to sleep schedules, preparation, and recovery that entails. For supporters, meanwhile, traveling to London can turn a Saturday afternoon football game into a considerably more expensive international holiday.
Yet, Dillingham’s experience offers an important counterpoint.
The value of the trip was not necessarily visible from the upper tier of Wembley, but in the players who wanted to return to London, and the families who experienced the UK together.
Those moments will not appear in the box score. But they are precisely the moments Dillingham believes make the trip worthwhile. The Arizona State head coach has one particularly important piece of advice for any coach who finds himself taking his team overseas.
“Let your guys experience it.”
It sounds obvious. Yet, in the intensity of a college football season, it would be remarkably easy for an international trip to become little more than an unusual change of scenery. Hotel. Practice. Meetings. Game. Airport. Home.
Dillingham wanted something different.
“Don’t cheat them,” he says. “If you’re going to bring your team out here, don’t cheat them of the experience.”
That philosophy perhaps explains more about Dillingham’s enthusiasm for international college football than any statistic could.
He knows there are questions surrounding the logistics. He knows that playing overseas does not necessarily offer a competitive advantage. He knows fans will continue to debate whether a conference game belongs in London rather than on campus. But he also knows what his players experienced.
Some crossed the Atlantic for the first time. Some brought their families. Some discovered a city they now want to return to. And, for at least 15 of them, that apparently involved a memorable scooter expedition through Richmond.
College football is increasingly global, and the sport’s international expansion will continue to raise difficult questions about tradition, economics, and competitive balance. Those questions deserve to be asked.
However, Dillingham’s perspective is a useful reminder that the people at the center of these experiments are not conference executives or television networks. It’s the players.
And for Arizona State’s 105-man roster, the Union Jack Classic gave every one of them something unique.
“They just got to do something they’ve never done and maybe would have never done in their entire life,” Dillingham says.
For the Arizona State head coach, that is the real value of college football overseas. The 24-17 victory over Kansas will live in the record books. The memories made in London, however, may stay with his players for considerably longer.
This article originally appeared on Pro Football Network.
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