Arizona
Arizona State's Kenny Dillingham clear with QBs about competition
Arizona State head football coach Kenny Dillingham sat with every player during exit interviews at the end of the 2023 season, and he was honest when discussing the future with his quarterbacks.
In discussions with 2023 true freshman Jaden Rashada and redshirt junior Trenton Bourguet, Dillingham made clear his intentions to bring in another quarterback to compete.
“‘If you want to leave, leave, and if you don’t, stay and compete,’” Dillingham told them, he explained to Arizona Sports’ Burns & Gambo on Tuesday. “But if you run, you’re gonna run forever from competition. Jaden and Trenton both said, ‘Great. No issue. No problem. Let’s go, bring somebody in.’ So I went and I found the best person to go compete with them for the job.”
Dillingham searched for another signal caller and landed Michigan State transfer Sam Leavitt, who played four games as a true freshman last season.
Leavitt was presented the same set of circumstances as Rashada and Bourguet.
“I said, ‘Listen, it’s an open competition. You can ask them, I told them the same thing,’” Dillingham said. “‘Now, am I gonna guarantee you a job to get you here? No. Are other schools gonna promise you a job to get you to transfer there? Yes, they’re full of crap because nobody can promise you a job. Eventually, you’re going to have to win something. So you can come here, you know whom you’re competing versus, I’m not going to take another transfer. Win the job, point blank.’”
Dillingham appreciates the balance in the quarterbacks room with the youthful and talented Rashada and Leavitt along with sixth-year senior Bourguet. Rashada and Bourguet have remained supportive of the program on social media as transfer news breaks.
This offseason, @KennyDillingham brought in QB Sam Leavitt via the transfer portal.
How did Jaden Rashada and Trenton Bourguet take the news when CKD told them he was adding to the QB room?
Full convo: https://t.co/gwBMbOakt2 pic.twitter.com/29ZitqcfAJ
— The Burns & Gambo Show (@BurnsAndGambo) January 10, 2024
Fellow quarterbacks Drew Pyne and Jacob Conover have transferred out.
The Sun Devils have been busy in the portal with 22 incoming players, four of whom announced their commitments last weekend. Former four-star recruits defensive back Cole Martin from Oregon and running back Raleek Brown from USC are among the class.
Dillingham said ASU has become a deeper and bigger football team this offseason after injuries and talent shortages doomed his squad for much of his first year at the helm.
The head coach said he’d love to get to a place where 70% of his roster is recruited and 30% are transfers, but he also made the point that transfer portal students are not mercenaries.
“If you look at the kids we signed in the portal, only one kid does not have two to three years left,” Dillingham said. “We didn’t target portal kids to go win next year only. We targeted portal kids who had two, three, sometimes four years left to build a culture. So I don’t think I box it into portal versus high school. It’s how many years do they have left. Because some high school kids only are there for three to four years. What’s different from that and the portal kid who has three?”
Brown and Martin, for example, have three years of eligibility remaining. Leavitt has four, just like Rashada.
Dillingham said he sees Martin as a “high school transfer” from Basha HS, since he has time to help build the culture in Tempe.
PAGE, AZ (AZFamily) — A person accused of making terroristic threats toward a northern Arizona medical facility was arrested Friday morning.
Just after 10:30 p.m., police received a report of a person calling the facility and threatening to kill staff and Native Americans, according to the Page Police Department.
Authorities said staff placed the facility on lockdown until officers identified the suspect and arrested them outside their home.
The suspect was booked on charges of disorderly conduct, threatening and intimidating, and making terroristic threats. Police have not publicly identified the person.
“The Page Police Department is grateful for and supports the medical staff’s decision to put the medical facility into lockdown until the suspect was arrested and the situation was rendered safe,” the department said in a Facebook post.
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In these four-round projections, the Arizona Cardinals don’t get a tackle until the fourth round.
We are just days away from the 2026 NFL draft, and that means some final mock drafts. What direction will the draft take the Arizona Cardinals?
Draft Wire’s Curt Popejoy put together a four-round mock draft for the Cardinals. They go defense early but rebuild the offense for 2026 and moving forward, including landing their potential franchise quarterback.
Cardinals 4-round mock draft
Here are the players in the first four rounds Popejoy projects for Arizona.
- Round 1: Ohio State EDGE/LB Arvell Reese
- Round 2: Alabama QB Ty Simpson
- Round 3: Clemson WR Antonio Williams
- Round 4: Florida OT Austin Barber
What we think of the picks
The Cardinals want to trade out of the third pick and draft a tackle, so not getting a tackle until Round 4 seems unlikely, although they did meet with Barber. They do have options at right tackle for 2026 already on the roster.
Reese would be a great pick if they don’t trade back, as they badly need pass-rushing help off the edge.
Drafting Simpson seems inevitable at this point, so it has to be in a mock draft, although the feeling is they will need to go up into Round 1 again to get him.
Williams has speed and is almost six feet tall, but he does have short arms.
Get more Cardinals and NFL coverage from Cards Wire’s Jess Root and others by listening to the latest on the Rise Up, See Red podcast. Subscribe on Spotify, YouTube or Apple podcasts.
Due to significant injuries to the CB position last year which includes a shoulder surgery for Terrion Arnold, the Lions CB position scored a 6/10 need on my Lions Defensive Draft Need Rankings. Thus, an early-round selection of a young, healthy prospect like Keith Abney would not come as a surprise. He enters the draft with very low medical concern level.
Here is the excerpt from my medical report on Keith Abney:
(Ages in parentheses are at start of 2026 season and are factored into the concern level. Injury info and ages based on available public information are unverified and subject to update. Games played data courtesy of sports-reference.com.)
Keith Abney, CB (21) – Arizona State
Projected round 2-3. #43 on Jeff Risdon board Feb 19.
Concern level 0/10
There is an isolated report of a hand injury but no corroborating information. Even if the hand injury is true, that’s of minimal to no long-term concern.
His availability in his final two seasons has been perfect. Overall, Abney appears to be medically clean and is at an excellent age.
He finished college with 6 INT and 21 PBU.
For more Lions coverage, follow us on X, @TheLionsWire, and give our Facebook page a like. Follow Jimmy on X, @JimmyLiaoMD
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