Arizona State football starting the season 5-1 was not on anybody’s 2024 bingo card.
Especially after the last couple of years, back-to-back 3-9 campaigns and a recruiting scandal that led to the departure of coaches Herm Edwards and Antonio Pierce alongside athletic director Ray Anderson. The cherry on top: leaving the Pac-12 conference to join the Big 12 for the start of the 2024 campaign.
In comes new AD Graham Rossini, left to take over a mess that some expected to take years to recover from. But when the team excels the way it has following the rough patch this program endured, the Herm era has almost been somewhat of an afterthought.
Rossini joined Arizona Sports’ Burns & Gambo on Thursday to discuss what has led to the team’s overall improvement thus far into 2024.
“There’s no replacement for hard work,” Rossini said. “In the seat I’m fortunate to sit in, I get a chance to watch a lot of people put in a lot of hard work on behalf of what we’re trying to accomplish. We’re lucky that we’ve got an entire department and an entire university community that wants to pour energy and attention to what’s happening in Sun Devil Athletics and that’s been a huge lift.
“We’ll enjoy being 5-1 while we can and keep feeding off the energy we keep getting from the fans”
Rossini credits head coach Kenny Dillingham for bringing some of that energy.
After the Sun Devils upset then-No.16 Utah at home on Saturday, Dillingham was seen jumping around mid-interview with ASU students as they stormed the field, paving a way to a viral video that put the Sun Devils even more on the map if they weren’t already.
“Everybody knows how excited and proud he is to represent the Sun Devils,” Rossini said of Dillingham. “When you’ve got a guy like Coach Dillingham who’s that infectious with his energy, that proud to represent ASU, it goes to show how committed and passionate he is to be leading the Sun Devils.
“And obviously the results are speaking for themselves.”
And maybe some of the success stems from the change of scenery from the Pac-12 to the Big 12.
The Sun Devils are currently fourth in the Big 12, trailing just No. 13 BYU, No. 9 Iowa State and Texas Tech after being predicted to finish last in the preseason rankings.
Now, it’s a toss-up, and the Big 12 has many good teams, but really no powerhouse teams like the Pac-12 did with Oregon, USC and Washington, just to name a few.
“We know it’s well-balanced,” Rossini said. “I think there’s a similarity between the 16 institutions… there’s not an outlier, there’s not one school that’s so far out ahead in terms of resourcing their programs.
“We’re all trying to grow the brand of Big 12 football together.”
“We’re all trying to grow the brand of Big 12 football together.”
Arizona State AD Graham Rossini shares his thoughts with @BurnsAndGambo on how the Big 12 benefits Sun Devil football. pic.twitter.com/kQF8ikS47R
— Arizona Sports (@AZSports) October 17, 2024
This week, the Sun Devils face the challenge of starting quarterback Sam Leavitt out with a rib injury sustained last week against Utah.
Yet if ASU were to win this Saturday against Cincinnati, it wouldn’t be crazy to assume a ranking for the Sun Devils would be on its way.
Follow all the action between ASU (5-1) and Cincinnati (4-2) beginning at 9 a.m. MST on the Arizona Sports app, 98.7 or ArizonaSports.com.