Arizona State Football: Firing Todd Graham was program’s only choice

(Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
(Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

There aren’t many coaches around college football who have bounced around quite like recently-fired Arizona State football coach Todd Graham has.

In an age when winning comes before anything else, Arizona State football has found it difficult to keep with the times. Just a few years ago, the Sun Devils were coming off back-to-back 10-win seasons under Todd Graham, but the program has plateaued and even taken steps in the wrong direction.

For this reason, the program’s athletic department decided it was time to move on from Graham after his six seasons in Tempe.

This news comes as somewhat of a shot, especially since he led the Sun Devils to a 7-5 season and a win over rival Arizona in the season finale, but it was the right move. Fans weren’t all that happy with the news seeing as Graham led the Sun Devils to their first 10-win season since 2007.

On top of that, he led the Sun Devils to a division title in 2013, but he had just one more successful season before losing seven games in 2015 and 2016 and then five in 2017.

In his first three seasons, he was 28-12, but in his final three seasons he went just 18-19. That’s a troubling trend in today’s college football which goes by a “what have you done for me lately?” business model.

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The Sun Devils want to get back to competing for conference titles on a regular basis, something that hasn’t been done since the 1970s. Unfortunately, Graham was headed in the wrong direction and the athletic department made the right choice. It’s time to find consistency.