Oregon Ducks offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham ‘seems to be the leader in the clubhouse’ to become Arizona State head coach, per report

Since Arizona State fired Herm Edwards three games into the season, every list of potential head coaching candidates at ASU has included offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham. With the regular season coming to a close for most of college football this weekend, Dillingham remains a serious candidate at his alma mater.

Dillingham “seems to be the leader in the clubhouse” at Arizona State, according to CBSSports.com and has had discussions with power brokers at the school, per 247Sports.

Dillingham, 32, is earning $1 million in the first of a three-year contract. His buyout of 25% of his salary is waived if he becomes an FBS head coach.

A semifinalist for the Broyles Award, Dillingham has No. 9 Oregon (9-2, 7-1 Pac-12) ranked in the top 20 nationally in total offense (511.2 yards per game, 3rd), scoring (40.2 points, 4th), rushing (222.9 ypg., 12th) and passing (288.3 ypg., 18th) entering Saturday’s regular season finale against No. 22 Oregon State.

“He’s done a great job in a leadership role there for the entire offense,” Oregon coach Dan Lanning said. “I think Kenny would be the first one to tell you when you get those awards that’s really a credit to everybody on that side of the ball, every one of those players, every one of those coaches. But Kenny does a phenomenal job day in and day out of preparing his side, really collaborating with his coaches. He would tell you it’s a group effort; whenever you get an award like that or are up for an award like that it’s really an indication of the job you’ve done and also the job of the people around you. He’d be the first one to tell you it helps to have great players and great coaches that have helped get him there.”

Dillingham is from Phoenix and is a graduate of Arizona State. He was offensive coordinator at Chaparral High School (Arizona) in 2013 and coached quarterbacks there from 2007-12 before getting into college coaching as an offensive assistant at ASU in 2014-15. He’s gone on to be offensive coordinator under Mike Norvell at Memphis and Florida State with a stop at Auburn in between and now under Lanning at UO.