The Sun Devils just finished the season 7-5 and 6-3 in the conference. Some of these schools need to learn to temper their expectations. In addition, they beat their rival this year. 
"Arizona State fires coach Todd Graham after six seasons"
- Thread starter K OKeefe
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Wow fans with higher expectations than 7-5 and a crappy bowl. The audacity
If one looks at his record while at ASU they are very similar to the numbers posted by Coach Ferentz at Iowa.
Eno will transfer to some dumpy school in Texas to be "closer to home"
The most shocking part of this is that he stayed at a school for 6 whole years. He was probably looking to move on elsewhere anyway.
Not exactly. Graham has a losing record over the last three years. And still it was a dumb decision by ASU to fire him.
Since 2012, when Graham was hired by ASU, both guys have 46 wins- plus Graham has back-to-back 10 win seasons makes it a wash. Coach Ferentz has one double digit win season in the same time frame. Both coached their teams to their conference championship games.
No, he was fired because the school believes that he should have been able to sustain his double digit win totals. Todd Graham was a victim of his own success and real/unreal (depending on your perspective) expectations of the administration. Graham was obviously trending in the correct direction after his two losing seasons.
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Haha. ASU has had 3 coaches in since 2001. All have had brief success. The Sun Devils are an example of school that always thinks it can do great with the next coach, but never does.
The fact that he is a quality human being probably didn’t factor into the decision.
https://sports.yahoo.com/ncaa/footb...players-do-not-take-it-well?urn=ncaaf,wp11501
https://sports.yahoo.com/ncaa/footb...players-do-not-take-it-well?urn=ncaaf,wp11501
The thing I see happening is that there will be lots of schools overpaying for their next football coach. Great if you're in demand.
I expect to see some unexpected moves from established coaches that see the potential for a significant upgrade in compensation. And I also think some shit canned coaches get a pardon... and end up with some pretty good gigs.
I expect to see some unexpected moves from established coaches that see the potential for a significant upgrade in compensation. And I also think some shit canned coaches get a pardon... and end up with some pretty good gigs.
Perhaps two Orange Bowls with one win, two conference championships, two 8-0 conference seasons, plus a Rose Bowl and an undefeated regular season, coming a 4th-down stop away from the CFP, cuts KF a bit more slack.
I'm not a tremendous fan of KF, just countering your apparent assertion that KF and Graham have the same ground to stand on.
Not all coaches get fired because of just record and I've got a feeling this is case here
I did not assert that Todd Graham has the same coaching pedigree as Coach Ferentz. I merely pointed out the similarities between the two programs since 2012. Can you deny that both have 46 wins since 2012 or that both coaches took their respective teams to their conference championship games? By the way, I am not calling for Coach Ferentz to be fired. I think Iowa would be a fool to fire Coach Ferentz. The guy is a solid coach who produces respectable teams on a regular basis.
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The Sun Devils just finished the season 7-5 and 6-3 in the conference. Some of these schools need to learn to temper their expectations. In addition, they beat their rival this year.
They are looking at Kevin Sumlin when/if he is let go from A&M.
I heard Arkansas is looking @ Sumlin as well. I believe Sumlin's style will play better in Tempe.
Eno will transfer to some dumpy school in Texas to be "closer to home"
Who is Eno?
If you are 7-5 & your players are not arrested for shoplifting on a road trip, I think you are doing a good job.
I think that the money Iowa is paying Coach Ferentz will look like a bargain when the dust settles on coaches salaries over the next couple of seasons.
When you have to go back almost 15 years for most of your headlining accomplishments, maybe that takes some of the shine off of them.
Graham is a jerk. When he was at Tulsa and they played Houston one year. The CUSA officials couldnt control him. The Big 12 top officiating crew was off that week. They brought in that crew to work the game. There were no issues. He was issued a sideline warning 2 minutes into the game. he left Rice and Pitt after one season at each place. Not sorry to see him go.
Not arguing that one bit. But you could go back 100 years and not see any of that on Graham's resume. Again, I've got my issues with KF, but despite some similar black and white stats over the past 6 years, Graham is no KF.
They didn't have a new OC or start a new QB on O ... thus, it really wasn't a "transition" year for ASU. Rather, instead, it was a make-or-break season for ASU ... and losing to SDSU and a mediocre Texas Tech team (at the start of the season) almost made Graham's bed for itself.The Sun Devils just finished the season 7-5 and 6-3 in the conference. Some of these schools need to learn to temper their expectations. In addition, they beat their rival this year.
Even though the Hawks didn't meet my expectations of 9-3 this season ... those expectations were made before we had 2 SR starting O-linemen get lost for the season. Furthermore, despite being hit by injuries ... our secondary play arguably exceeded my expectations.
Having 26 passing TDs in a "transition" year when you're changing your O ... AND you're playing what many consider to be one of the toughest schedules in the B1G ... I'm willing to postpone judgement of our new OC.
Lastly, unlike Graham ... Ferentz's seat wasn't even moderately warm following the '16 season. Thus, why is the ASU example even applicable? Besides, if you even listen to Graham's spewage ... like Fleck, he's a bit of a salesman .... I'm sure that his routine wore thin on the big-money ASU boosters. In contrast, while Ferentz may not necessarily always excite our big boosters .... nor does he grate on them either.
5 Top 10 finishes? 3 years ago a 12-0 run? Wow, he had a tremendous amount of success!! Congrats to him!!
Previewing Arizona State Football’s Offense for 2017
Even as the Sun Devils have gone through significant schematic changes in each of the last two offseasons, Todd Graham says the philosophy has not changed. “We’re a spread, no-huddle, 11 personnel, run, play-action pass team,” the ASU coach says. Though that may be factually true in a broad sense, the Sun Devils looked substantially different in 2016 following a coordinator change, and they will again in a transitional 2017. Former Alabama wide receivers coach Billy Napier has replaced Chip Lindsey, as Lindsey bolted Tempe for the same role at Auburn after just one season.
https://athlonsports.com/college-fo...otball-2017-sun-devils-preview-and-prediction
Not to be argumentative, but it is interesting how many of these schools, (not traditional powers), change coaches every three to five years, and almost all of them have done little more then tread water. This off season will be another of major turnover, and will be interesting to go back in 5 years or so, and see how many of these teams have actually made significant improvement.
Fair enough ... of course, offensive output really didn't appear to be the problem for ASU in 2017. Besides, Graham's reputation centers around him being an offensive innovator and mastermind. Thus, how much would change in terms of terminology, reads, and the like? Given their output ... I doubt that there was a huge transition in that regard.
Previewing Arizona State Football’s Offense for 2017
Even as the Sun Devils have gone through significant schematic changes in each of the last two offseasons, Todd Graham says the philosophy has not changed. “We’re a spread, no-huddle, 11 personnel, run, play-action pass team,” the ASU coach says. Though that may be factually true in a broad sense, the Sun Devils looked substantially different in 2016 following a coordinator change, and they will again in a transitional 2017. Former Alabama wide receivers coach Billy Napier has replaced Chip Lindsey, as Lindsey bolted Tempe for the same role at Auburn after just one season.
https://athlonsports.com/college-fo...otball-2017-sun-devils-preview-and-prediction
But sure ... I mis-posted concerning their coordinator situation. I should have looked that one up before posting. Thanks for the correction.
You're right. It's eerily similar over the past six years. Iowa was 7-5 and 4-5 this year. He's 7-5 and 6-3 this year. ASU is going to have a hard time finding a good coach this offseason. I mean, it's ASU, what do they expect to happen there? They've never been a great team. Those ten wins seasons they had under him are about as good as they'll ever be and I don't see a new coach doing better than he has in an improving PAC12. They'll regret letting him go because they'll be worse in the years to come.
Just to play devil's advocate, how many programs have had the same head coach for 7+ years, then that coach suddenly took them to the next level?
For example, every single coach from previous CFP teams got his team to 10 wins within 4 seasons. That won't change this year, no matter how things shake out. And not all of them inherited programs that were in great shape already (including Dabo, Dantonio, Peterson, and yes - Saban). Add in other BCS national championship coaches (Gene Chizik, Mack Brown, Les Miles, Urban Meyer (FL), Pete Carroll, Saban (LSU), Jim Tressel, Larry Coker, Bob Stoops, Bobby Bowden, Phillip Fulmer) - same thing.
I guess my point is that from an Athletic Director's standpoint, if you're goal is "the next level," and your current guy hasn't approached that goal in his first 4-6 years, chances are it ain't gonna happen. And the only way to see if it is possible to reach that goal is to try somebody else.
Previewing Arizona State Football’s Defense for 2017
After running his own defense for 11 seasons, Graham is handing the keys over to veteran coordinator Phil Bennett, who last had the same job at Baylor. ASU finished last nationally in passing yards allowed in each of the previous two seasons, a failure particularly stunning when contrasted against what preceded it. The Sun Devils had consecutive 10-win seasons in 2013 and ’14 and placed five members of their secondary on the first- or second-team all-conference teams over that span.
https://athlonsports.com/college-fo...otball-2017-sun-devils-preview-and-prediction
Yep, but much easier to recruit at ASU.....You are right though and I don't think he should have been fired based on his performance.
Not at all ... look at what surrounded him at Tulsa ... and the approach to the game he brought to Pitt. He didn't enter the Pitt gig known for D.Previewing Arizona State Football’s Defense for 2017
After running his own defense for 11 seasons, Graham is handing the keys over to veteran coordinator Phil Bennett, who last had the same job at Baylor. ASU finished last nationally in passing yards allowed in each of the previous two seasons, a failure particularly stunning when contrasted against what preceded it. The Sun Devils had consecutive 10-win seasons in 2013 and ’14 and placed five members of their secondary on the first- or second-team all-conference teams over that span.
https://athlonsports.com/college-fo...otball-2017-sun-devils-preview-and-prediction
What attracted folks to Graham was the explosive offense that Tulsa implemented.
While Graham may be a defensive micromanager - at P5 schools, his Ds haven't been terribly impressive.
Interesting point. Of course KF could have been the outlier there as well. Had we stopped MSU on 4th and goal, the Hawks are in the CFP at least in his 17th year. I know a day late and a dollar short, but damn we were so close.
We've already seen a reinvention of Kirk ... and that produced the 2015 season. Obviously, a favorable schedule helped .... but anything can happen on any given Saturday. Iowa throttled OSU this year, Syracuse beat Clemson, and Pitt beat Miami.
Kirk's reinvention was reminiscent of Penn State's reinvention back in 2005 ... and that was with Paterno at the helm. Given Kirk's respect of Paterno's program (at least before all the Sandusky stuff came to the forefront) ... it's not surprising that Kirk managed to pull a comparable turnaround.
Similarly, if you consider Iowa's personnel and schedule through the coming seasons ... there's no reason to suppose that Iowa couldn't pull off a more great seasons.
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