Sarkus
1742
So Arizona State finally hired a new head football coach - they grabbed Todd Graham, fresh off one 6-6 year at Pitt. Graham had success at Tulsa before that, though.
I don’t like coaches that jump from a major program after just one year. Welcome to Club Kiffen coach Graham.
Sammich
1743
Not to mention the way he went out:
Graham alerted the Pittsburgh players of his decision via text message released from the athletic department.
“I have resigned my position at Pitt in the best interest of my family to pursue the head coaching position at Arizona State,” Graham said.
“Coaching there has always been a dream of ours and we have family there. The timing of the circumstances have prohibited from telling you this directly. I now am on my way to Tempe to continue those discussions. God Bless.”
maybe it’s the RichRod influence
Families always seem like a get out of jail free card for coaches. I realize that if you use the deathbed reflection metric, they’re more important than, say, a 9-5 job. But I’d say the interests of those players are nearly as important.
Like everything else, it’s probably the school’s fault. They want to make a big splash with an upwardly mobile coach to please alumni. I bet those tend to be the disloyal ones.
I guess the players will get over it.
Sarkus
1745
Graham doesn’t look that good, really, which kind of tells you that Arizona State was pretty screwed in terms of options. He spent two years as a RichRod assistant, spent 3 years as a successful DC at Tulsa, went to Rice as head coach for only one year before returning under controversial circumstances. Then four good years at Tulsa before last year at Pitt. If I was an Arizona State alum I’d be uncomfortable with the hire.
I feel sorry for the Pitt players at the least. Remember, Pitt forced Wannstedt out, then hired Haywood, who lasted two weeks, then grabbed Graham. So in just over a year they will be looking at their fourth head coach.
Sarkus
1746
The NCAA ruled on Ohio State today and gave them harsher penalties then Ohio State had earlier offered to take on their own. So they have a bowl ban next year, probation through the 2014/15 season, and lose three scholarships (82 instead of 85) through the same season.
Plus the 5-year “show cause” on Tressel, of course!
That Akron job is looking pretty good now.
Sarkus
1749
There are also those NFL Colts rumors.
RDansky
1750
SDSU was brought in as a travel partner for Boise State, so teams headed west could play them in sequence and only have to make one insanely expensive west coast swing per season. It’s still insane, just slightly less insane than it seems on the surface.
At 65, Norm Chow finally gets his chance at being the head coach… at Hawaii. Oh, well, there are fewer nicer places to be when you’re old.
My office neighbor was not happy about that selection.
robsam
1753
Until the Japanese come back to finish the job.
The Pac 12 and B1G just announced a pretty far reaching partnership. Starting in 2017, they’re going to go for interleague play. Each Pac 12 school will play a B1G school every year. They’ll cross-promote the heck out of it on their respective television networks. They’ll also do much more in other sports. But this is a big deal. It’s almost a 24-team superconference with essentially two 12-team pods. The B1G will switch to an 8-game conference schedule, but the Pac will stay at 9-games, which means we’re talking about some heavyweight scheduling.
In one fell swoop, Larry Scott just cemented the relationship with the Pac 12’s traditional counterpart in the crazy conference upheavel to come while also ensuring ways to generate even more crazy money.
But, yes, I will laugh my ass off when the Penn States and Ohio States gets stuck going to Pullman and Corvalis.
How does quarter to three seem to always beat me on this sort of stuff?
Also, the Big Ten was already on an 8 game conference schedule, though I thought they planned on expanding it to 9.
Still, my gut reaction is this is a great move to spice up the Big Ten’s somewhat lackluster first four games. Sure, you’ll have a couple of the heavy weights managing to play other conference heavy weights (Penn vs. Alabama, OSU vs. Miami (FL)).
However, no should call this a 24 team conference. That’s just being obtuse. Its a way to generate buzz for both conferences, and insure more signature match ups.
Sounds like a pretty cool deal. They already do it so some extent in CBB with stuff like the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, which is pretty good every year.
— Alan
Man, the Holiday Bowl is hilarious. Which team wants to lose more? Cal keeps giving the ball to Texas, and Texas cannot do anything with it. The meltdowns on their respective boards is priceless.
Big Ten was planning on expanding it to 9 but backed off to 8 after this was announced - since this would remove the ability for the schools to schedule a Home-Home series with another OOC school (i.e. Notre Dame).
I’m really interested in how this affects ND’s response to all this - the noose is tightening every year and this move makes ND’s scheduling much tougher
RDansky
1759
Hmm. This also kind of screws the MAC, which could be counted on to upset a couple of Big 1x teams every year
Looking forward to the Baylor / UW game tonight.
Just thought you all should know.
