cordera89 wrote:Scummy Dick Douglas wrote:This is very controversial decision by Ray Anderson. Many ASU fans, myself included, think this was a very big mistake.
It is a big mistake, Winning the TCUP over Arizona, Finishing the season with a winning record and conference record. Finish second place in the south and they fired him because he wasn't winning enough. ASU AD is a joke.
If Arizona want play the same game. Arizona AD will also be a fucking joke.
ASU was pick to finish 5th in the south. Finish Second Places.
UA was pick to finish 6th in the south. Finish Third Places.
Unrealistic Expectation are killing football program.
With hesitance I agree with you both. I say "hesitance" because all I heard from Tempe offseason was "8-4 or better for Todd to keep his job." So, on paper, yes, stick to your word and fire him.
However, firing him now seems to ignore aspects of the mini-turnaround that took place in 2017 and for all practical purposes would've continued into 2018. The awful defense Todd was forced to fix was playing night and day better in certain games (Vs Utah, Vs Washington) and in many other games were playing with a consistency not seen since 2014. And I thought Todd's development of Wilkins coinciding with his strategizing the offense for Wilkins' game management was solid throughout the course of the season. On the other hand his offense went through stretches of imbalance that directly cost ASU games, specifically against UCLA, where at times Harry would disappear despite overmatching the Bruin's defensive backfield or the running game would disappear when UCLA couldn't stop their RBs.
Point is if Graham's staff were kept intact and if the more experienced roster meant more consistency I think it would've been worth keeping Graham another year. I would've liked to see how it would've gone because Graham's tenure is now the third Sun Devil coaching cycle I've experience where a coach was fired amidst moderate success; in Dirk's case I wanted to see how one more season would've turned out, but not in Erickson's.