Arizona State fires Graham as coach after 6 seasons
Arizona State fired coach Todd Graham after six seasons on Sunday despite a win over rival Arizona.
The Sun Devils (7-5, 6-2 Pac-12) are bowl eligible and finished second in the Pac-12 South behind USC after rallying to beat the Wildcats 42-30 on Saturday, but the program is not on the trajectory athletic director Ray Anderson wanted. Graham and his staff will remain with the program through Arizona State’s bowl game.
“I don’t judge by emotion, I judge by body of work,” Anderson said. “At the end of the day we’re still average, middle of the pack and going to a low bowl game. Frankly, that’s not what we aspire to be. I don’t think anyone on staff was satisfied with that.”
Graham, 52, has three seasons left on a contract that runs through the 2020 season and is owed $12 million.
Graham had immediate success in the desert after leaving Pittsburgh, leading the Sun Devils to three straight bowls and two 10-win seasons. Arizona State played in the Cactus Bowl in 2015 but lost that game and finished with a losing record (6-7).
“I’m a Sun Devil and I think I always will be,” Graham said. “A couple of my kids graduated from here and I didn’t build this place to tear it down. That’s what I told our players today: This place is not about one person. This place is about a set of values and what it means to be a Sun Devil. That’s something that’s really important to me.” Tennessee ends Schiano bid: Tennessee is no longer pursuing Ohio State defensive coordinator Greg Schiano to be the school’s new head coach, a person familiar with the negotiations said.
The school and Schiano were close to an agreement earlier Sunday, but the deal fell apart after widespread backlash, including a student protest and complaints on social media from state representatives and gubernatorial candidates.
Their complaints stemmed from Schiano’s background as an assistant at Penn State during Jerry Sandusky’s tenure as the Nittany Lions’ defensive coordinator. Sandusky is serving 30 to 60 years in prison for 45 counts of sexual abuse.
Court documents released last year of a deposition in a case related to the Sandusky scandal suggested Schiano might have been aware of Sandusky’s abuse against children, though Schiano says he had no knowledge of what was happening at the time.
“The head football coach at the University of Tennessee is the highest-paid state employee,” said Tennessee State Rep. Jeremy Faison, one of several state representatives who spoke out against Schiano. “They’re the face of our state. We don’t need a man who has that type of potential reproach in their life as the highest-paid state employee. It’s egregious to the people and it’s wrong to the taxpayers.” Mullen is new Florida coach: Florida hired Mississippi State’s Dan Mullen as its coach, bringing back a man who helped quarterback Tim Tebow succeed. After being spurned by Chip Kelly, who chose the UCLA coaching job instead, athletic director Scott Stricklin turned to the guy who guided Tebow to the top of the school record books and helped Florida win two national championships as offensive coordinator from 2005 to ’08. Sumlin out at Texas A&M: Texas A&M fired coach Kevin Sumlin after six seasons. The first black head coach in program history was 51-26 and didn’t have a losing season. But his first year at A&M was his best, and he never could come close to matching it. In 2012, Sumlin had a Heisman Trophywinning quarterback in Johnny Manziel and ushered in the program’s move from the Big 12 to the SEC by going 11-2. But the Aggies have not won more than nine games since. Ole Miss promotes Luke: Matt Luke, the former Ole Miss assistant coach who was named interim when Hugh Freeze was fired this summer, was promoted to full-time after guiding the rebels to a 6-6 finish.