"Other teams have captains; we have members of the Pat Tillman Leadership Council."
Spoken by Ben Coleman, a former offensive lineman and current football radio host for ASU, this concise yet meaningful statement summarizes a central tenet of Sun Devil football.
In 2024, coach Kenny Dillingham announced he would be renaming his athlete leadership squad the Pat Tillman Leadership Council to honor the fallen veteran, with peers voting on who will become members of the council. In doing so, Dillingham fundamentally altered the meaning of being a leader on the ASU football team.
To be a captain for ASU football signifies embodying a legacy far bigger than a title can encompass, with players continuously paying homage to the late Pat Tillman through their role on the eponymous council.
Coleman was elected to the PTLC for the 2025-26 season and described the feeling of taking on this position as "the highest honor."
"To be able to wear that jersey on Saturday, everybody can see that you're one of the guys, that they believe that your character exemplifies even just a fraction of what Pat Tillman was," Coleman said.
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Members of the PTLC for the current football season include junior quarterback Cutter Boley, senior running back Kyson Brown and senior defensive back Montana Warren. Seniority and role within the team both appear as key factors for those elected.
However, assistant defensive line coach Vince Amey emphasizes that these attributes are not enough to embody the role that the council requires, and its members must go above and beyond to prove to both coaches and peers that they deserve to wear the patch on their jerseys.
Amey played for ASU as a defensive lineman from 1994-97 and was a teammate of Tillman.
He recalls how Tillman taught him to "have no fear" and described him as both a "good friend" and "a brother."
This sense of camaraderie and courage — and the legacy they hold within ASU football — is something Amey tries to instill in members of the PTLC.
"They really won't ever understand who he was because they didn't know him like that," Amey said. "If we can continue to talk about who he was and what type of guy he was, and what kind of privilege and honor it is to be named on this council — they might not understand it right away, but over time, they will."
Coleman sees this tradition of emphasizing Tillman's legacy as a way that coach Dillingham has worked to establish a broader culture and lofty standard for ASU's football squad over the past few seasons.
Dillingham's confidence in the PTLC is clear, as he allows them to make decisions ranging from the mundane to the consequential. Members might weigh in on what jerseys they want to wear or what they think is best for the team, depending on what the situation and their teammates require of them.
"All the stuff that is vital to a team, they make those decisions," Dillingham said.
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PTLC members are given this space to represent their teammates' perspectives in weekly meetings with Dillingham during which their opinions are taken into account in an open dialogue between coach and council.
"They understand what it means and the role that they have and the voice that they have with the team," Amey said. "They meet with Coach Dillingham once or twice a week, and we take their opinions and we roll with them."
The loss of two PTLC members to injury — sixth-year linebacker Zyrus Fiaseu and senior tight end Khamari Anderson — may present issues of depth in key positions for ASU. However, Dillingham said other players on the team are constantly stepping up and helping lead.
This respect from coaches and teammates — this weight given to their voices and presences — speaks to how integral the PTLC is to ASU football as a whole.
Each season represents a new opportunity for Sun Devil football players to prove themselves on and off the field, whether that be through playmaking or leadership.
The creation and perpetuation of the Pat Tillman Leadership Council ensures that captaincy is not simplified to mere statistics or traditional leadership, but is continuously representative of a larger tradition within ASU football: to uphold the standards of an incomparable and unforgettable man.
"There's a lot required and expected out of you to maintain the image of not just yourself but the football team, Arizona State and then also Pat Tillman,” Coleman said. "You're a representative now of somebody. You have a responsibility and a duty to fulfill, day in, day out."
Edited by Char O'Neil, Alan Deutschendorf III and Sophia Keeling.
Reach the reporter at bcsmit41@asu.edu.
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Brooklyn Smith is a reporter for the Sports desk at The State Press. She is majoring in English Literature and Economics. This is her third semester with The State Press.
