PAYSON, Ariz. — Arizona State head football coach Kenny Dillingham is bringing back a Sun Devil tradition first started by legendary coach Frank Kush back in the 1970s: a week of practice in the High Country.
ASU’s season opener is coming up in exactly three weeks and even though football is the focus right now, these four days at Camp Tontozona and Payson are designed to bring this team closer together.
The bonds the players build out here in the wilderness will help them create a brotherhood in between the white lines.
Dillingham worked at Memphis, Auburn, Florida State and Oregon before landing his first head coaching opportunity at his alma mater and the Scottsdale native has never experienced a tradition that embodies the spirit of Camp T.
“It's different. It's special. I've yet to be at a school that has a home away from home,” Dillingham said. “It's definitely a home away from home. Just nothing's changed here. Ever. From the bunks to the rooms to the electricity to the outlets.”
Kush passed away in 2017 but the tradition he first started some 60 years ago lives on today with a new group of Sun Devils. Only five players on this year’s ASU football roster have made the trek up to Camp T in the past.
Quarterback Drew Pyne, a Notre Dame transfer making his first trip to Camp T, is embracing the opportunity to bond with his new teammates in the wilderness where there’s little to no cell phone reception.
“Yeah, I love it. I mean, you look at this field, it looks like the Field of Dreams,” Pyne said of Sol Devils Field in Payson. “I didn't know what to expect when I came out here but being able to be in the cabins with all these guy and we legitimately don't have any cell service. You come down here and you walk down a muddy hill with your pads and every day… You know that adversity and all that builds all of us together.”
It felt like a blast as the Sun Devils were welcomed by longtime season ticket holders, loyal fans and donors like Nap Lawrence, one of the biggest Sun Devil athletic supporters who pledged $1 million on Dillingham’s first day on the job back in December 2022.
“Nap Lawrence built our football team because of what he did when the first day I got hired. We would not have a team. Point blank. Zero. We would not have a football team without Nap Lawrence,” Dillingham said. “To see him out here, that dude is as valued to the program as anybody on the field.”
Lawrence has been coming up to Camp T for decades now. He says he’s never missed a trip up north, although the Sun Devils haven’t held an open practice in Payson since 2019.
Having the support of the ASU faithful, during so much change for the program, is not going unnoticed by the coaching staff and players.
ASU football fans are welcome to come up to Camp T to watch the Sun Devils scrimmage on Saturday beginning around 9 a.m.
Follow the conversation with Lina Washington on Twitter: @LWashingtonTV. If you have a sports story idea, email Lina at LWashington@12News.com.
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