The Arizona State HC Kenny Dillingham is pulling some coaching staff to fix a major problem area on the field last season: special teams. The word around Tempe is that Sun Devils are officially moving on from Charlie Ragle to younger options for the 2026 campaign by flexing Dillingham’s NFL ties.

On January 3rd, college football senior insider Peter Thamel hopped onto X and shared the Sun Devils’ latest coaching moves:

“Arizona State is promoting Jack Nudo to special teams coordinator and bringing in former NFL punter Mike Scifres to coach the specialists.”

First up is Jack Nudo. He’s being promoted to the official special teams coordinator role. Nudo isn’t totally new to the job, though; he stepped in as the interim coordinator for the final five games of the 2025 season. He has prior special teams experience coaching at places like Cal, East Carolina, and Austin Peay.

Nudo actually showed some promise during his short interim stint, notably calling for a successful fake field goal for a two-point conversion against West Virginia.

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Not going to lie, it was only a matter of time before they pulled a move like this. Kenny Dillingham even called them a “constant problem throughout the season.” The special was so bad they actually missed eight field goals out of 30 attempts and also missed two extra points during the season, which is like 73.3%.

Their return game wasn’t much better; they were tied for 117th in kick return average with 17.3 yards per return and 56th in punt return average at 9.4 yards. The overall punting game was poor as well, averaging only 39.2 yards per punt.

This is where Mike Scifres comes in. Scifres was an elite punter in his day, mostly for the San Diego Chargers. He’s coming in to coach the specialists, which means he’ll be working closely with the kickers and punters. With ASU’s offense and defense showing some promising signs at times in 2025, fixing these hidden yardage opportunities and ensuring reliable kicking could be a major factor in the team’s success going into the next season.

Sun Devils’ 2026 special teams outlook

With the coaching positions now sorted, the Sun Devils now have to look at the players for those roles. Especially after a mass departure on special teams.

Several important players are out the door. Their main kicker, Jesus Gomez, is done with his college eligibility. The punter, Matt McKenzie, is hitting the transfer portal, which means ASU needs a new guy for that job, too. Plus, their top two return guys, Zechariah Sample and Raleek Brown, have also decided to transfer.

So what do they need? Pretty much everything. They need a consistent placekicker who can make critical field goals and extra points without any drama. They somehow need to solid punter. The Sun Devils also need a solid punter. Their only remaining punter, Kanyon Floyd, isn’t the guy unfortunately, as he was ranked 123rd out of 148 punters in the FBS. Plus, a long snapper would be a luxury.

However, the good news is they are already putting in the work to lure in Mateen Bhaghani from UCLA. The former Bruins kicker is good as they come. Perfect on the extra points and also made around 83% of his field goals. His best kick is 57 yards. The word on the street is he’s visiting Tempe on the weekend.

Nudo and Scifres have their work cut out for them and a long off-season ahead to see what went wrong.