We've had numerous conversations about the chicken and egg athletic question of what comes first...the right coach or the right athletic environment to make good things happen on a campus...
It turns out that Todd Graham is undoubtedly the right football coach for ASU, who has created a lot of excitement about Sun Devil football in only three short years...
This is significant because football pays most of the athletic bills within the athletic department of almost any big time sports happy school...
ASU had long been considered a "sleeping giant" not only because of its size and membership in the prestigious PAC but also because it had achieved a lot of success under some former coaches, especially under the legendary Frank Kush...
However, once Kush was relieved of his duties due to an inglorious scandal in 1979, the program started trending downward and continued the slide until Graham was hired in late 2011 and he was definitely the right guy at the right time at ASU...
That's definitely a significant part of the story but the other side of it relates to something the Arizona State Legislature did in 2010 that allowed ASU to create an Athletic Facilities District the next year (2011) under the vision of ASU president Michael Crow...
The Sun Devils had been behind the times in upgrading their facilities and this allowed the school to envision all sorts of athletic related things, including the renovation of Sun Devil Stadium, and Steve Patterson was hired to oversee this "operation"...
A plan was put in place to renovate SDS and to oversee the development of The District as that is what it is called at ASU...The District....
The District comprised a little more than a half section of land (330 acres) in the NE corner of the ASU Tempe Campus, where the Karsten Golf Course and some other facilities are located...
So, these things were in progress when Dennis Erickson was fired after the 2011 season and Todd Graham was hired...
Graham was unhappy at Pitt because he was not getting the support he desired from the AD that hired him for the Panther football program and because his family really wasn't comfortable in the Pittsburgh area...
As a result, Graham jumped at the opportunity presented by president Crow and others since he knew Crow would be 100% behind his program at ASU and that, better yet, plans were in place to not only renovate the football stadium but that an Athletic District was in place to fund future football wish lists put together by Graham and his staff...
So, you had a school in the prestigious PAC, that was renovating its stadium, that was putting together an athletic funding district, and had a president who loved athletics and had big dreams surrounding his athletic vision for the university, contrasted against the exact opposite at Pitt...
It was a no-brainer for Graham and his family and shows how you need both the right coach and right set of circumstances to elevate programs, I think...
From our perspective, the stars were aligned and look at what has happened in football so far as a result...ASU was lucky to get a quality coach like Graham by chance since he wasn't the top pick, and he hit the jackpot in terms of getting what ASU was putting in place to elevate the football program...
Coincidentally, the basketball hire of Bobby Hurley resulted from the Buffalo AD being a nincompoop, just like the Pitt AD had been with Graham, and Bobby also had not been the Devils first pick for its basketball coaching position...
Additionally, Ray Anderson had belatedly realized that the Sun Devils were not going anywhere significant under Herb and that a change was needed, not only in coaching, but in how he and the Devils treated the basketball program...that is that it needed to be made a priority and the money needed to be allocated in order to make it better and he is committed to doing it these days because he has the financial tools to do it...
Synergy is an overused term these days but that is exactly what has been happening at ASU recently, thanks in large part to what the State Legislature did 5-6 years ago, along with the "athletic gods" finally smiling on our Devils...
I guess you need both the chicken and the egg to make things work out in the long run...Go Devils!!!
It turns out that Todd Graham is undoubtedly the right football coach for ASU, who has created a lot of excitement about Sun Devil football in only three short years...
This is significant because football pays most of the athletic bills within the athletic department of almost any big time sports happy school...
ASU had long been considered a "sleeping giant" not only because of its size and membership in the prestigious PAC but also because it had achieved a lot of success under some former coaches, especially under the legendary Frank Kush...
However, once Kush was relieved of his duties due to an inglorious scandal in 1979, the program started trending downward and continued the slide until Graham was hired in late 2011 and he was definitely the right guy at the right time at ASU...
That's definitely a significant part of the story but the other side of it relates to something the Arizona State Legislature did in 2010 that allowed ASU to create an Athletic Facilities District the next year (2011) under the vision of ASU president Michael Crow...
The Sun Devils had been behind the times in upgrading their facilities and this allowed the school to envision all sorts of athletic related things, including the renovation of Sun Devil Stadium, and Steve Patterson was hired to oversee this "operation"...
A plan was put in place to renovate SDS and to oversee the development of The District as that is what it is called at ASU...The District....
The District comprised a little more than a half section of land (330 acres) in the NE corner of the ASU Tempe Campus, where the Karsten Golf Course and some other facilities are located...
So, these things were in progress when Dennis Erickson was fired after the 2011 season and Todd Graham was hired...
Graham was unhappy at Pitt because he was not getting the support he desired from the AD that hired him for the Panther football program and because his family really wasn't comfortable in the Pittsburgh area...
As a result, Graham jumped at the opportunity presented by president Crow and others since he knew Crow would be 100% behind his program at ASU and that, better yet, plans were in place to not only renovate the football stadium but that an Athletic District was in place to fund future football wish lists put together by Graham and his staff...
So, you had a school in the prestigious PAC, that was renovating its stadium, that was putting together an athletic funding district, and had a president who loved athletics and had big dreams surrounding his athletic vision for the university, contrasted against the exact opposite at Pitt...
It was a no-brainer for Graham and his family and shows how you need both the right coach and right set of circumstances to elevate programs, I think...
From our perspective, the stars were aligned and look at what has happened in football so far as a result...ASU was lucky to get a quality coach like Graham by chance since he wasn't the top pick, and he hit the jackpot in terms of getting what ASU was putting in place to elevate the football program...
Coincidentally, the basketball hire of Bobby Hurley resulted from the Buffalo AD being a nincompoop, just like the Pitt AD had been with Graham, and Bobby also had not been the Devils first pick for its basketball coaching position...
Additionally, Ray Anderson had belatedly realized that the Sun Devils were not going anywhere significant under Herb and that a change was needed, not only in coaching, but in how he and the Devils treated the basketball program...that is that it needed to be made a priority and the money needed to be allocated in order to make it better and he is committed to doing it these days because he has the financial tools to do it...
Synergy is an overused term these days but that is exactly what has been happening at ASU recently, thanks in large part to what the State Legislature did 5-6 years ago, along with the "athletic gods" finally smiling on our Devils...
I guess you need both the chicken and the egg to make things work out in the long run...Go Devils!!!
