Oregon Coaching Profile: Kenny Dillingham
In the coming weeks, ScoopDuck will publish profiles on each member of Dan Lanning’s Oregon coaching staff. First up: offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham, the first of Lanning’s official hires at UO.
The following is a review of Dillingham’s coaching career, complete with offensive stats for each season.
Early days
“Dilly” has coached offenses since his days as a high school student. After tearing his ACL in his senior season of high school, Dillingham coached the JV squad at Chaparral High School in Arizona.
By age 21, Dillingham was OC at Chaparral, commanding the No. 1 offense in the state while pursuing a degree from Arizona State. This was also when Dillingham first met Mike Norvell, who was the OC at ASU at the time.
Arizona State
One year later (2014), Dillingham was on Todd Graham’s ASU staff himself as an analyst. The Sun Devils started 8-1 and finished 10-3 in a loaded Pac-12 South.
| Year | Role | PPG (CFB Rank) | Yds/Play | QBR (most used) |
| 2014 | OA | 36.9 (17th) | 5.9 (46th) | 145.7 (T. Kelly) |
| 2015 | OA | 34.6 (31st) | 5.8 (52nd) | 136.1 (Bercovici) |
ASU finished 17th and 31st in total offense during Dillingham’s two years on staff. He then followed Norvell to Memphis, spending one year as a GA (though he was effectively the quarterbacks coach).
Those PPG numbers were top-five in the Pac-12 both seasons. ASU finished ranked No. 12 in 2014.
Memphis
Dillingham was then promoted twice in as many seasons: first to QBs/TEs coach, then to offensive coordinator. He was one of the American Athletic Conference’s best recruiters during his time at Memphis.
| Year | Role | PPG (CFB rank) | Yds/Play | QBR (most used) |
| 2016 | GA | 38.8 (15th) | 6.3 (31st) | 152.6 (R. Ferguson) |
| 2017 | QBs/TEs | 45.5 (2nd) | 7.4 (3rd) | 161.2 (R. Ferguson) |
| 2018 | OC/QBs | 42.9 (7th) | 7.1 (4th) | 150.7 (B. White) |
(Data from sports-reference.com)
Dillingham was known as a great recruiter at Memphis, but his on-field results were even better. From his UO bio:
With Dillingham coordinating the offense, Memphis broke program records for both total yards of offense (7,324) and rushing yards (3,919) in 2018. The Tigers ranked fourth nationally in both total offense (523.1 YPG) and rushing offense (279.9 YPG), seventh in scoring offense (42.9 PPG), and second with 48 total rushing touchdowns. Memphis had two 1,000-yard rushers in a season for the first time in program history, with unanimous all-American and Doak Walker Award finalist Darrell Henderson ranking second nationally with 1,909 rushing yards and 22 touchdowns.
Dillingham’s full University of Oregon bio is available here.
Auburn
Dillingham got his first big promotion in 2019, accepting the OC job at Auburn — keep in mind that at this point he’d spent just one season as a college football OC.
At the time, Dillingham was the youngest OC in the SEC at age 28. His head coach, Gus Malzahn, retained play-calling duties, though.
| Year | Role | PPG (CFB Rank) | Yds/Play | QBR (most used) |
| 2019 | OC/QBs | 33.2 (28th) | 5.7 (68th) | 125.0 (B. Nix) |
(Data from sports-reference.com)
Throwing an inexperienced QB into SEC defenses can be a death sentence, but these numbers are respectable.
Dillingham secured the highest-rated recruit ever at Auburn — 2020 four-star ATH Wesley Steiner — over SEC rivals Alabama, LSU, and others.
He also helped score the most points on Nick Saban out of anyone, ever: 48. Auburn has only put up more Iron Bowl points one time, in 1969.
Florida State
Norvell got the head coaching gig at Florida State in 2020, where Dillingham followed to be his OC. Things didn’t go as well as they did in Memphis.
| Year | Role | PPG (CFB Rank) | Yds/Play | QBR (most used) |
| 2020 | OC/QBs | 25.8 (86th) | 5.6 (73rd) | 128.6 (J. Travis) |
| 2021 | OC/QBs | 27.6 (74th) | 5.8 (72nd) | 148.9 (J. Travis) |
(Data from sports-reference.com)
The biggest questions about Dilly as a coach have understandably come from his time at FSU. There are plenty of excuses — awful defenses, tons of injuries, drive-killing penalties — but at the end of the day, the numbers aren’t great.
Still, Dillingham coordinated an explosive offense that improved as the season went on in 2021.
He also pulled some of his best recruits to Tallahassee during his two seasons there: eight of his 10 four-star recruits committed to the Seminoles.
Final thoughts
The question of why Dillingham would leave mentor Mike Norvell is worth asking. My best guess is that he’s looking to step out of Norvell’s shadow and truly take the reins of an offense.
People have criticized Dillingham for his lack of play-calling experience. In response, I’d point to comments from him and Norvell last season.
After starting 0-3, Dillingham and Norvell opened up about their collaboration in preparation and play calling. They ended the 2021 season 5-7, losing to Florida by three points in the final game.
Overall, it seemed like their collaborative process wasn’t working.
Whatever the reason, Oregon poaching Norvell’s right-hand man is super relevant, especially from a program as prestigious as FSU. Two years ago, Dilly was one of the hottest young coordinator names in college football.
Note that whenever Dillingham had the same starting QB for consecutive seasons, they showed improvement. I’d also include Mike Bercovici in this, who took about half of ASU’s snaps in 2014.
With solid talent at his disposal (and hopefully avoiding some injuries), there’s no reason Dillingham can’t succeed at UO — while bringing some sorely-missed excitement and explosiveness in the process.
