I feel bad for a fair amount of Arizona State fans. They are in a tough spot. It seems more than a few are less than enamored with the hiring of Todd Graham and how Graham bolted Pitt. But here’s the thing. ASU is their school. It’s their team. They can’t really root for Graham to fail. They want their team to win. Graham is the guy that is now in charge of making it happen. He’s their guy. Now they have to talk themselves into it. And the majority will.
They will swallow the spin that Graham really does want to be in Arizona. That he is a good person who loves his family, players and god. That it is his “dream job.” Just as Rice and Tulsa were. That it really was just a timing conflict that had him not face the players. Or that he was stopped by Pitt from meeting with them. That the Graham’s really were never truly happy in Pittsburgh.
Graham wouldn’t go into details but said his family had a terrible time in Pittsburgh. And maybe Graham’s personality and high-octane salesmanship will make him the perfect solution for the complex competitive landscape in Tempe.
Details can be difficult when you are making shit up. Or in the alternative, lying — both Todd and Penni Graham — the entire time. Your choice, which way to go.
Not that Todd Graham is spineless and never willing to face people directly when he is going to betray them.
Tuesday night after he got off the phone with Steve Pederson, and was told he didn’t have permission to talk to Arizona State, he then refused to take Pederson – or anyone from Pitt’s – phone calls. Pederson was in North Carolina at some ACC meetings so, after hours of silence, he had one of Pitt’s senior administrators go to Graham’s house to see if he could at least talk to him and find out what was happening.
The administrator first went to the football complex, it was a ghost town, then went to Graham’s house out in Nevillewood. He knocked on the door, then rang the doorbell and saw Graham in the front room on the phone. Graham finally answered the door and said “what are you doing here”.
The administrator said “Todd, can we talk for a minute, we need to know what is going on, you need to talk to me.” Graham said “I don’t have to talk to anybody.”
The administrator then repeated “Todd, we need to talk.” Graham then snapped “I don’t have to talk to you, get off my porch.” and then slammed the door in his face. This is a guy who had a great relationship with Graham from a school that had laid out the red carpet to make Graham’s existence here as successful as possible.
No ASU fans will do whatever they can to rationalize it. They will just chalk it up to the nature of college football these days. Any excuse, as long as he wins.
We, however, don’t have that problem any longer.
As I said before, having watched enough of these coaching carousel things for so many other schools. Seeing so many others, I found that this one blew me away. That it may actually have been the worst. Most deceptive, creepy, biggest asshole move ever. “But, hey,” as I try to inject a little reason into things, “Maybe I’m just too close to it. This is Pitt. My school. Maybe I’m being a bit myopic. There may well have been someone who did it worse.”
Mark Schlabach on ESPN.com:
When compared to Graham, Petrino seems to have the loyalty of Lassie and Tressel seems to have the rectitude of Honest Abe Lincoln.
Graham is nothing more than a slithery used-car salesman, telling recruits and boosters what they want to hear so he’ll ultimately get what he needs to pad his résumé for a better job.
Forget the Backyard Brawl. They’ll have the Used Car Lot Brawl at Arizona State.
Graham even makes Kim Kardashian seem committed.
And Pat Forde at Yahoo!:
At Pitt, Graham worked his usual confidence game. He trotted out the same talismans and same slogans he used at his previous stops — there was a rock, and a rope, and a lot of talk about togetherness and commitment and team. He could always sell it to his audience, whether it was players, fans or media.
“The 80th time you heard the speech was just as interesting as the first,” said the Rice source. “But then when you hear it at another school and he’s just changing the names from Team A to Team B, you start to figure it out.”
You start to figure out that Todd Graham is all about himself. Not all about the team he’s coaching.
By now, Graham’s reputation has taken enough hits that Arizona State may have its Bobby Petrino — a guy who couldn’t make another abrupt job change even if he wanted to. So this may work out for the Sun Devils.
That was the amazing thing about that press conference at ASU yesterday. It was literally the same spiel from his opening at Pitt. Which is part of why he really effed up with bolting this soon. It was still fresh for people to recall. It was easy to compare — even for the Arizona media.
Graham started his media blitz today in Tempe. He’s got some work ahead of him. There’s outrage from some Pitt fans that the Arizona media isn’t going after him directly. Why in the press conference and radio interviews harder questions weren’t asked?
There’s an easy answer for that. This isn’t the NFL. Where there are rules about media and access. In college athletics, schools can and do revoke privileges (see, Steve Spurrier). Fans of the school are much more protective and prone to outrage at local “haters.” It means the media has to tread a little more carefully. Not set out an immediate adverse relationship.
Just before the insanity went down, I was finally going to get around to a story on how Todd Graham acknowledges reading the stories and even blogs and tweets (well, has it relayed to him by his wife). It struck me as refreshingly honest, since most coaches claim to never read the paper, never hear the complaints. Odds are, though, that even if true he is only reading the stuff in national media and Arizona after Tuesday.
The one thing that has me so fascinated is the pathology of Graham. That he is literally incapable of facing the people he is betraying. You would think such a piece of scum would be able to handle that with the same lies and facade. Instead, he flat out walls them off. Not returning phone calls. Not talking directly even when someone tries to see him. Not facing his players. You could see his jaw tighten when he was asked at the press conference about the way he informed the Pitt players. He did not want to even talk about it, except in terms of how hard it was for him.
“That is very hurtful. I’ve never had to endure that, and I really regret that. I really regret that I didn’t have the opportunity to (meet with the players).”
Not them. Him. Nothing about how they must have felt. Only regrets for how he feels about it. And more likely, regrets about how it makes him look.
Well, dark as things may be. He isn’t Pitt’s problem any longer. Hopefully I won’t have to write any more about him, until he has to cut the check for his buyout — or Pitt sues his ass.
Wannstedt made gameday mistakes in every single game he coached for years and years and PITT fans loved him.
I find this complaint about Fickell to be ridiculous and a real reach if that is the only thing someone can come up with to disqualify him.
Maybe Fickell has it but I’d be leaning more towards the Wisconsin dude (massive offense and very good teams the past 4-5 years) or the Delaware guy (great results with modest talent…except for the steady flow of former Pitt/PSU players).
Wanny was harshly criticized for unting inside the 40 yardline vs Bowling Green, Tino pooch punted 4 times this past yearfom the same.
Wanny was hashly criticized for calling unnecessary timeouts. Graham became famous for them (and I’m not referring to pulling his hamstring either.)
Wanny couldn’t win the close one; Graham lost 4 games by 4 pts or less. Of course this year it was all the QB’s fault … but how come Pitt was so much better in the 4th quarter last year with Tino than Pitt was this year?
In the very last game with a little over 3 minutes left, Pitt had a 6 pt lead and was trying to run down the clock. Gonzalez ran twice for 9 yards, so what did Graham call on 3rd and one? He put Tino back in called for a pass???
I swear this guy got away with murder this year, and nearly all on this site was just so enamored with him, you saw absolutely no faults.
At least until the other day …
wbb,
Yes, Graham was scum and you were right about that.
As far as the coaching decisions you have decided to compare and contrast I have an issue.
Graham’s decisions you cited were criticized and debated on this site. He was given the benefit of the doubt as a coach in the first year at Pitt.
Just as Wannstedt was. All those things you cite that Wannstedt was criticized for came after his grace period. Let me refresh:
7-6 Nebraska; 16-10 OT loss to Ohio; Blowout loss to ND in debut; penalty/punt decisionmaking in Backyard Brawl. All in his first year. All upsetting, but excused and rationalized at the time.
Dude, put the glass down and hit the pretzels! Sheesh!? By season 3, halfway through his tenure, at least half of the postings on this blog were people stroking out like Chris Farley on SNL talking about Wanny blowing games. There was a minority cadre of Wanny loyalists but by season 4-5 it was pretty damn small.
If Bradley had been hired last year, Pitt would have had a better season, and been better off as a university. Anyone that thinks that did not occur because of the recently revealed Sandusky allegations, and that Steve Pederson was prescient enough to know this was going to happen, is a revisionist historian, to put the best face on it. For those that rejoiced in the hiring of the Scammer over Bradley, it took no genius to see the guy was a phony from day one. Which Tom Bradley is not. And anyone that noticed his chronic mistakes this year and still believed he was the right person for this job, the sleaze factor aside, well . . .
The problem, in a nutshell, has been the leadership, or lack thereof, in the Pitt athletic department. It is a communicable disease. Whether it was Cas Myslinski, who tried to hire Frank Kush, who pulled a Graham on Cas in 1969, who then hired Carl DePasqua instead of Chuck Klausing, hit the Lotto and hired Johnny Majors, then had a chance to hire George Welsh but instead hired Jackie “no bull testicles” Sherrill, or Ed Bozich, who also had a chance to hire George Welsh but hired Foge Fazio, and then hired Paul Hackett when Barry Alvarez would have killed for the job, to Jeff Long who hired Dave Wannstedt when Bradley, Pelini, and even Paul Rhoads were available. Right up to Steve Pederson, who hired Mike Haywood and then Todd Graham. Not to forget, of course, Walt Harris who could not keep a lid on his own agent.
There is no way Pitt winds up with Christobal, or any other top candidate. Not in a million years. Not with the leadership that this athletic department has and had. In 50 years there have been only a handful, at best, of standout hires – Buzz Ridl, Johnny Majors, Jackie Sherrill (who started looking for other jobs as soon as he got the Pitt job), and Ben Howland. By accident, Jamie Dixon was hired.
Make your plans to welcome Coach Zook. At least he is not Bill Callahan.
smiling stevie is out of town so i gess he is not working on the coach search .
Zeise needs new sources
when they talked to fickell he said he has had no offical word on a interview what is going on.
What a miserable week…. Hail to Pitt and all of our faithful fans~ Better days are ahead.
That is where I get an uneasy feeling. I know SP is not the person for this task because he has body bags all over the college football landscape.
I sense that Pitt has another “we know who we want and we are going out to get him” searches going on. That is what you do when you don’t trust your ability to judge talent independant of your bias.
Consequently, interviews are held to appease some but has nothing to do with the decision.
Tht sadly is the “groundhogs’ day” aspect to all of this.
Pitt can recruit players, but it can’t get enough people behind the scenes to do the tasks that establish a program. Look no further than the deer in the headlights response to Graham and KB. Their feelings are hurt and they are wounded, sulking animals. They should have made it look like they kicked Graham out…but instead they are looking for another savior.
Salvation lies within folks…time to look in the mirror.
2. Cryst-boring offense, debatable recruiter, but this probably is not a stepping stone.
Cristobal- great personality, but realistically…he isn’t a long term guy, and the whole cold weather and wife stuff.
Fickell- umm i had the misfortune of being at OSU/PSU and dear god.. if you want to watch “tressel ball” with less talented team…yuck
Bradley- umm no thanks, good coach, but we passed on him once, and we just don’t need the drama-even if he’s got nothing to do with it at all. Perception = reality to recruits and their parents.
Bud Foster is the best candidate, he’s of high character, he’s a winner, he knows the region and he’s coached in the ACC-which has got to be appealing. Just be smart and hire a spread type OC and we’ll be set.
That’s some examples, I’m not going to go back through the whole year.
What I’ve tried to do on here is put forth my honest thoughts about what is happening with the PITT football program.
Because I didn’t jump up and down and criticize Todd Graham at every opportunity, like some on here have done, doesn’t mean I agreed with everything he did or was his biggest fan. I think he did some things well this last season and failed at some things also. I will not go back a week or two and revise what I felt about what I saw happen on the field and in the program over the last 10 months. And I won’t change my opinion of what I thought Todd Graham may be able to do in the next two years had he stayed just because he is pissing people off, including myself, by leaving as he did.
In reality the fact that he tucked tail and ran like a thief in the night doesn’t change the last 10 months. I though he did some good things with the team and the program and thought that had he stayed we’d have been better year by year. You may disagree.
But spare me the “you saw no faults” crap because that just isn’t true. And you never heard me say one positive thing about his gameday coaching as I felt that was a real weak point in his abilities. And you won’t find me writing about what a good man he was or anything about his personal life because I didn’t know anything about it and that didn’t concern me in regards to the football program.
Matt – you don’t remember the outrage among PITT fans when Dave Wannstedt was fired last year? I sure do. Both here and on the message boards. But this is the thing about PITT fans, they criticized DW right up until he got booted then it was “How in hell could SP do this to a PITT man?”
My point was that we seem to be willing to exclude someone who may be a good candidate just because he made some mistakes in his very first year as a HC, but were willing to put up with the same thing for years with DW. I don’t remember anyone calling for DW’s head because of the poor decisions he made, do you?
PITT wasn’t going to hire Bradley just as every other school wouldn’t touch him.
Do you think it was just a coincidence that every school he reached out to rejected him over the years?
God forbid Pitt have a coach that wants the job and is successful……. WHAT WOULD WE DO??
“sobering” comment was for DaveD, and his worry that Steve P. is still in charge of the decision.
That is what is sobering.
and this is why you would be takeing the defensive coordinator away from urban meyer and ohio state.
he was the HC at ohio state for one year and did a good job. he is a good recruter knows ohio and penna high school coachs is well liked.
is young 38 years old likes the east coast.
and it would give urban and ohio state fits
Comment by FRANKCAN 12.16.11 @ 10:46 am”
Ditto from Columbus
