CBS Sports: Arizona’s Rodriguez, ASU’s Graham in top 30 of NCAA coaches
Apr 2, 2015, 10:23 PM | Updated: 10:53 pm
There’s going to be constant comparisons between Arizona and Arizona State, especially when it involves football. This time the question is who has the better coach.
According to CBS Sports, Arizona has the slight advantage with Rich Rodriguez over ASU’s Todd Graham.
CBS Sports ranked all 66 of the coaches in the Power Five conferences. Rodriguez was named the 23rd best coach in the Power Five.
23. Rich Rodriguez, Arizona: Had things gone better at Michigan, Rodriguez would be ranked a lot higher. Still, the job he did at West Virginia and what he’s doing right now at Arizona are enough to warrant finishing this high. We can only wonder if he’ll try his hand at another “blue blood” should the chance come along.
That’s just better than ASU’s Graham, who came in at No. 29.
29. Todd Graham, Arizona State: Graham has taken a lot of flak for his job-hopping, but you know what? Schools don’t want to hire you if you’re not a good coach, and schools want to hire Graham.
Last year, Rodriguez won the Pac-12 Coach of the Year award and earned his first 10-win season since 2007, when he was the coach at West Virginia. He also got his first win in three tries over Graham and the Sun Devils. That victory sent the Wildcats to the Pac-12 conference championship game for the first time. In his 13 years of college coaching, he owns a 102-62 record, including a 26-14 mark at Arizona.
Graham earned the Pac-12 coach of the year honors in 2013 and is coming off back-to-back 10-win seasons. In his nine years, he has a 77-41 record, including a 28-12 three-year run at ASU.
According to the rankings, Rodriguez and Graham are the fourth and fifth best coaches in the Pac-12, respectively. Washington’s Chris Petersen was ranked No. 12 and took the top Pac-12 spot, despite an 8-6 record in his first year. Petersen also lost to all four of the other Pac-12 coaches ranked in the top-30 (Oregon’s Mark Helfrich at No. 14 and Stanford’s David Shaw at No. 20) last year.
Alabama’s Nick Saban earned the top spot on the list and is one of six SEC coaches ranked in the top 10. Urban Meyer of the defending champion Ohio State Buckeyes is No. 2 on the list. New Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh, despite not coaching a game for the Wolverines yet, is the ninth best coach in the Power Five.
