ASU coach Kenny Dillingham calls on Arizona HS football coaches to keep top recruits home

The first order of business for new Arizona State football coach Kenny Dillingham on Sunday was to have a Zoom conference call with as many Arizona high school coaches as he could.

More than 100 coaches joined the Zoom call with Dillingham and another ASU coach with big local ties, Shaun Aguano, who served as ASU's interim head coach after Herm Edwards was let go early this season.

The call's emphasis was, "How do we win the state in recruiting?"

"He just emphasized how important the state of Arizona is to him and wanted to make sure we all had some input on how best to approach in-state recruiting," Scottsdale Saguaro coach Jason Mohns said. "Arizona is his No. 1 prority and building relationships with the coaches is going to be a point of emphasis.

"It was a great opportunity for us to ask questions, give input and hear his vision for the program."

Also on the call was Gilbert Higley coach Eddy Zubey, who has one of the top 2025 quarterback recruits in the nation in Jamar Malone II, who has carried the Knights to the 5A semifinal this week.

"The first two weeks of recruiting, he said, no ASU coach will leave the state,'' Zubey said the coaches were told by Dillingham.

"That was cool to hear," Zubey said.

Dillinghman, a 2008 graduate of Scottsdale Chaparral High School, where former Firebirds coach Charlie Ragle was a major coaching influence in his life, also asked about summer camps and 7-on-7s, Zubey said. He wanted to know what the high school coaches thought of them and what they can do to make them better.

"As high school coaches, we just asked him not to blow smoke and be honest with us about our kids," Zubey said. "If they aren't good enough, that's OK, just tell us. Don't say you are still evaluating them. Be transparent."

Under Edwards, ASU showed strong initial interest in numerous Arizona high school football players, as young as freshmen, but many of those were not followed up with a firm scholarship offer.

"I was pretty outspoken when ASU hired Herm Edwards and knowing that he was not going to recruit Arizona players," said Lakeside Blue Ridge coach Jeremy Hathcock, who formerly coached at 6A Mesa Desert Ridge. "While he (Dillingham) needs to have a national presence, I believe that he will go after in-state kids more than any other coach that has been at ASU.

"He understands that getting in-state kids creates a different kind of passion and effort playing for your home-state school. When Charlie Ragle was at the UofA (as an assistant), he was always big on out-recruiting ASU and now I believe there will be a fight between the two schools to get the best players."

Now Ragle is leaving his one-year head coaching stint at Idaho State to join Dillingham's staff at ASU, another move to help keep the best in the Valley from leaving home.

ASU currently does not have a single in-state high school senior committed to the Sun Devils from the 2023 class. The early signing period is three weeks away. So Dillingham and Aguano, who was retained after serving the last 10 games as interim head coach, hit the ground running.

Dillingham has proven to be a great recruiting closer. A few years ago, on the eve of National Signing Day, he got Perry quarterback Chubba Purdy to flip from his Louisville commitment to Florida State, during Dillingham's time as an assistant coach with the Seminoles.

He spent this year at Oregon as the offensive coordinator and helped turn Bo Nix loose after he came over through the transfer portal from Auburn.

The NCAA's age of the transfer portal and the NIL (allowing players to profit from their name, image and likeness) has been a major player in recruiting, so the elite of the elite are the ones that ASU needs to score out of the 2023 class. Those would be guys like Chandler defensive tackle A'mauri Washington and Peoria Liberty defensive end My'Keil Garnder, who both committed to Oregon. Mesa Red Mountain 6-foot-5 wide receiver Ja'Kobi Lane is committed to USC, as well as Phoenix Pinnacle offensive tackle Elijah Paige.

One five-star recruit still out there is Pinnacle 6-6 wide receiver/tight end Duce Robinson, who could wind up playing baseball if a Major League Baseball team calls his name in the first round of the draft next summer.

Top 2024 recruit, Chandler quarterback Dylan Raiola, is committed to Ohio State and made that announcement before his junior season. Competing with schools like that will remain a challenge for ASU.

"This is a really exciting hire for ASU," Florence coach Jesse Hart said. "Really like that he is a young local guy who understands Arizona high school football, the NIL, and the transfer portal. I think it will always be difficult to get those high 4- and 5-star recruits from Arizona to stay. The lure of the SEC, Oregon, and Ohio State is a tough obstacle to overcome.

"I do hope he really focuses on getting those high 3-and 4-star local recruits and develop them into elite football players at ASU. Also very happy to hear he is keeping Shaun Aguano on at ASU."

Chandler coach Rick Garretson echoed those sentiments, saying that keeping Aguano on staff was a huge first step. Aguano led Chandler High to four state titles in five years, before Garretson took over the program and led the Wolves to state titles in the first two years of the Open Division. Aguano was ASU's running backs coach under Edwards.

"Kenny will do a great job with in-state recruiting," Garretson said. "He already made sure of that by retaining Shaun Aguano."

Rio Rico coach Jeff Scurran, the Tucson area's most successful high school football coach, called the hire "interesting."

"For us down south, this is a mysterious hire," Scurran said. "We knew and liked Coach Aguano. We all particularly liked how he gave former Marana QB (Trenton) Bourguet his chance. But while a few in the Phoenix area do know Coach Dillingham, we just don’t understand why they would make a no-name hire in the wake of the obvious improvement at the UofA, especially with the resources available in the Phoenix market.

"The irony of the decisions at ASU is that our state has gone from being under-recruited to highly over-recruited, thanks on no small part to high school coaches and Coach Aguano, in particular. Bringing in a national unknown in the age of NIL deals and athletes looking for instant fame and fortune, is an interesting strategy in the minds of many of us."

Goodyear Estrella Foothills coach Mike Welch believes hiring Dillingham will have little impact on high-caliber in-state recruits.

"Until the Pac-12 can compete regularly with the SEC and Big 12, kids will leave Arizona for those places," Welch said. "Kids don't care what ties a coach has to their state. They want to win and play in big-time games. They want to be in the spotlight. At this time and in the near future, ASU cannot offer either. Had ASU hired Deion Sanders, it would be an entirely different story."

Chandler Hamilton coach Mike Zdebski will see how Dillingham can impact recruiting. Several of Hamilton's top defensive players have committed to the University of Arizona, including safety Genesis Smith and linebacker Taye Brown from the 2023 class. Arizona coach Jedd Fisch prioritized in-state recruits when he took over the struggling program after the 2020 season.

"He (Dillingham) was upfront and honest about how recruiting is at this point and time with committable offers and the early offer process," Zdebski said about the Zoom call. "Creating trust and building relationships will take time with the high school coaches and student-athletes in the Valley but it is a good start.

"Kids making decisions about playing in state versus nationally won't change based on family preference. As more players choose to stay in state and the rosters get to that 50% number of in-state kids, that will eventually have an impact on player decisions.

Zdebski cited one other factor, however, that will weigh on decisions made by top in-state recruits: "The unknown NCAA sanctions will also weigh in on recruiting in the near future."

ASU has been under investigation by the NCAA for more than a year over possible recruiting violations that involved hosting high school athletes during the COVID-19 dead period. Five ASU assistant coaches departed the program amid the investigation and last year's recruiting class was thin, while several notable players departed through the transfer portal, among them quarterback Jayden Daniels, who now plays for LSU.

To suggest human-interest story ideas and other news, reach Obert at richard.obert@arizonarepublic.com or 602-316-8827. Follow him on Twitter @azc_obert.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: ASU coach Kenny Dillingham calls on Arizona HS football coaches