ASU Football Coaching Search: Fans, pundits react amid Edwards-to-ASU reports

(Photo: Jack Harris/WCSN)

Less than a week into Arizona State’s search for a new head football coach, 63-year-old ESPN football analyst and former NFL coach Herm Edwards appears poised to be hired in coming days by the Sun Devils.

According to reports from both SunDevilSource.com and DevilsDigest.com, athletic director Ray Anderson has already settled on Edwards to be Todd Graham’s replacement in Tempe, and just needs approval from university president Michael Crow before making the move official. According to the reports, Crow is scheduled to meet in-person with Edwards and Anderson this weekend before making a final decision. Anderson has allegedly had the deal lined up for days.

Edwards’ and Anderson’s relationship goes back years, to when Anderson represented the coach as his agent during his NFL coaching career.

Edwards’ name exploded onto the ASU coaching search scene on Tuesday afternoon, after reports indicated Edwards was being considered a strong candidate for the position.

While the former New York Jets and Kansas City Chiefs head coach is apparently gaining approval from inside the athletic department, his public perception hasn’t been pretty among the ASU fan base.

Since the initial rumors of his candidacy sprung, Sun Devils fans have reacted strongly. Twitter polls conducted by azcentral sports, SB Nation site HouseOfSparky.com, and popular ASU football podcast “Speak of the Devils” host Brad Denny all indicated negative responses from respondents toward the possibility of Edwards being hired by the university.

Edwards took to the airwaves on Wednesday, explaining his interest in the job and which of his qualities would make him a strong candidate.

While appearing on ESPN’s SportsCenter Wednesday morning, Edwards was asked why – nine years after his last coaching job with the Kansas City Chiefs – he felt compelled to go after the position at ASU.

“At heart, I’m still a coach. Always a coach,” Edwards said. “It has to be the right fit. Coaching is about fits and this is a place where (ASU athletic director) Ray Anderson is there, I know the man. We have the same kind of philosophies on things we want to do so I’m going to go down and have a conversation.

“I’ve been involved in football [since my last head coaching job]. I sit here and talk about football, analyze football. The pro side, but also the college side when you think about the draft. I coach the Under Armour All-American game every year for 8 years. Believe it or not, that is one of the funnest weeks I have.”

Later in the morning, Edwards called in to Arizona Sports 98.7 FM’s show “Doug and Wolf” to further address his interest in coming to Tempe.

“It’s an opportunity,” he said. “This is one that there’s a connection with the AD there, Ray Anderson and myself, that I owe him to come down there and speak, and so that’s where it’s at.”

Edwards also addressed how he would deal with recruiting, handling expectations and taking on an already in-place staff centered around ASU coordinators Billy Napier and Phil Bennett.

“I just think there’s a mutual understanding of what we’re trying to achieve,” Edwards said when asked what his communication will be like with Anderson.

SURPRISED REACTIONS

Though his current career is in the media, Edwards’ public statements were unusual – not often do coaching candidates for such high-profile, Power 5 jobs go public before being officially hired.

It sparked a wave of reaction from fans to media to former players, including one that used to play for Edwards.

Jay Taylor is a college football color commentator for ESPN3. During his playing days, the former defensive back was coached by Edwards both in college at San Jose State, where Edwards was a defensive backs coach from 1987-89, and in the NFL with the Kansas City Chiefs, where Edwards was again his position coach from 1993-95.

Taylor praised Edwards as a coach during an interview with Cronkite Sports on Wednesday, but was still not expected to hear his name associated with ASU.

“[Edwards was a] very positive coach that won’t yell at you, but wants to teach you the game and how to excel at it,” Taylor said via electronic message. “Each coach is very different so as a player you learn to pull out what you need. Where his style helps more is guys know he’s been on their side before so when he speaks, guys know he’s been through it. So you’re more apt to go out and produce.”

Despite the personal connection, Taylor, a former Arizona Cardinal and Phoenix native, admitted he found it surprising that his former coach was even being considered for the job with the Sun Devils.

“I just thought they would be going for a coach that is more current and a big time recruiter,” he said. “It would be a great hire but I just thought because of what’s been going with the program they would be going after a coach that just left a major place like Texas A&M.”

A large portion of ASU’s fan base feels the same.

Ryan Tolman, a long-time Sun Devil football season ticket holder and high school volleyball coach in the Valley, thought Edwards’ name was interesting, but not the right fit for what the program needs post-Graham.

“I love watching him on ESPN. He is exciting, his interviews are always insightful. He’s a big personality. My only concern as a fan is that he’s really never coached at the college level,” Tolman said. “The big question mark from my perspective is can he navigate those waters [of college football] at 63 better than someone else we can get that is younger and more in tune.”

That sentiment was echoed by ASU graduate and current Times Media Group sports editor Greg Macafee. “I don’t know if would actually work out for the team,” he said. “But it is definitely an interesting prospect.”

For some supporters though, no one Anderson hires will undo the ill-will caused by Graham’s firing, a move deemed unnecessary and unfair by a sizable chunk of Sun Devils fans after a progressive 2017 season.

“Firing a winning coach is never good. It’s not right. It’s not going to end up well,” said Rob Reyes, an ASU graduate better known by his social media alias, JediASU. “If this hire is not perfection, this is going to be a disaster on many levels not only for the program, but also for Ray Anderson.”

Reyes, who has over 5,000 followers on his Twitter account, felt the program was promisingly rebuilding under Graham. One of his biggest concerns moving forward is that Anderson has set up ASU’s next coach – whom Reyes claims no preference toward – to fail, thanks to the self-imposed lofty expectations Anderson pronounced during his press conference last Sunday: top-3 finishes in the Pac-12 and top-15 finishes in the country.

“If you’re going to reduce it down to this person delivering on these metrics, then that’s all I’m going to care about,” Reyes said. “That’s all I am going to care about and that’s all I am going to call you out on…If you don’t deliver on those metrics, you’re not doing the job that Ray Anderson condescendingly told me to follow.”

Though he will still support the student-athletes and team as a whole, the die-hard ASU fanatic says this coaching turnover has soured his commitment toward his alma mater.

“I don’t think I’m as vested as I was 100 hours ago [before Graham got fired], and that makes me sad because I was vested 100 hours ago. But now it’s changed.”