The Sunday following the final Saturday of the college football regular season is a nervy time to be a coach of a mediocre to bad team. Some programs got a jump on Black Sunday by firing their coaches earlier in the season, like Tennessee, Florida, and Arkansas (this past Friday immediately after their final game).
The first, and surely not the last, to get his walking papers on Sunday was Todd Graham out at Arizona State. The Sun Devils beat rival Arizona on Saturday night at home in Tempe, but that wasn’t enough to save his job after a 7-5 season, as multiple outlets reported the news on Sunday morning.
Todd Graham has been dismissed as ASU’s football coach according to a program source.
— SunDevilSource.com (@SunDevilSource) November 26, 2017
BREAKING #ASU has just fired Todd Graham, a source has told me.
— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) November 26, 2017
Breaking: Arizona State has fired coach Todd Graham after six seasons. https://t.co/WtCx9cOEPj
— Doug Haller (@DougHaller) November 26, 2017
Graham spent six seasons at Arizona State, guiding the Sun Devils to a 46-31 record over his tenure, but over the past three seasons they faltered to a mediocre 18-19. Things really started to fall apart for Todd Graham when he changed headsets (there are probably other real reasons, but the Sun Devils were never the same without the Britney Spears mic).
Arizona State figures to immediately jump to near the top of the list of open jobs, settling in just behind Florida and Tennessee, likely ahead of (or at worst alongside) Arkansas and Ole Miss. Mike Norvell, who was the Sun Devils’ offensive coordinator prior to being hired at Memphis in 2016, is one of the hottest candidates on the market, figuring to get interest from the Vols and the Razorbacks, but Sparky will assuredly get in the mix for his services as well. Kevin Sumlin, who is expected to be fired by Texas A&M, also could be an intriguing fit in the desert.
