TYLER BASSETT

Arizona State needs to button it up

Dec 6, 2011, 6:00 PM | Updated: 6:01 pm

Arizona and Arizona State will go into the 2012 season
with new head coaches.

Arizona found their guy and Arizona State is still
searching for theirs.

Arizona’s search was for the most part quiet. The public
has been given a play-by-play of Arizona State’s and it
hasn’t been exactly what they want to hear.

On October 10, Arizona dismissed head football coach
Mike Stoops.

Athletic Director Greg Byrne called a press conference an
hour before the dismissal became public. At the presser he
told anyone watching or listening that it was the last
time he would talk about the search until a
coach was being named.

“After today, I won’t speak any more about our search
until we have a new coach,” Byrne said on that day. “In
today’s world of instant information a lot of times there
is a lot of information that’s inaccurate that gets out
there and sometimes it’s accurate. I want you to know
unless you’re hearing from us and you’re hearing from me,
that will be the only accurate information you can count
on.”

In the 42 days that passed, we heard a few rumors and
possibilities — even on this site –, but nothing felt
concrete and you read no reports of the job being offered.

Chris Petersen? Sure, the interest was there people said,
but it quietly went away in a hurry.

There was a New York Times
report of a meeting with Urban Meyer but
everyone knew that must be a mutual meeting of someone
Meyer knew or was being briefed about.

After that, not much.

Maybe the lack of attention had to do with the actual
season being played.

Regardless, Arizona State was not that lucky and they are
getting destroyed publicly by some for supposedly
butchering this
hire worse than Jason Garrett handles time management at
the
end of a game.

There have been different reports of who is conducting the
search, people the job has been offered to and who is on
the short list (which in my eyes at this point is a long
list because the names don’t fit on my two hands).

The school has recognized the negative publicity and
tackled
it Monday in the form of a written statement.

The statement,
coming from President Michael Crow, came in the
form of an email to media members, alumni and current
students.

What I gathered from the release was Crow telling Sun
Devil fans you have spoken, and spoke loudly. We hear
you and want to let you know we are on the same page as
you. This is a time consuming process. Let us do our due
diligence and find the best possible coach to lead the
football program into the future. Give us time.

They needed to reiterate all of the above because it
hasn’t been pretty over the past 10 days.

At this point it is going to take a great hire to please
Sun Devil Nation. The fans are restless.

This has to be weird coming from a media type, but I think
the best thing would be to stay tight-lipped and let
information be known when it’s needed to be known — like
when a new hire is made.

All these leaks of information, twists, turns, rejections
and follow ups with dollar amounts being tossed around is
not what fans want to hear.

They want to get their guy and look towards the future
while trying to forget the immediate past.

I definitely think a good hire can be made and a good
coach will be leading the Sun Devils next season.

It’s taking time and it may take more time.

The best thing to do is not let it turn into gossip that’s
the
equivalent of who Johnny is taking to the Winter Ball.

TY’s Outtakes

What I learned this week…

We’re going with the dictionary this week.

dipsomania \dip-suh-MEY-nee-uh\, noun:

An irresistible, typically periodic craving for alcoholic
drink.

Another word for alcoholism. Now you know.

Tweet of the week…


@Lane_Kiffin:
Happy 30th Birthday Britney!
@britneyspears

Is your coach wishing the Britney Spears you grew up
gawking over a Happy Birthday over social media? I didn’t
think so.

Suggestion of the week…

The more I get taken into the locker room, the more I like
coaches. Why is that? Because that’s where they’re real.
None of the behind a microphone and in front of a backdrop
BS we usually have to listen to.

As far as I’m concerned, LSU is the 2011 National
Champions. … Beat Oregon, beat West Virginia, beat
defending champ Auburn, beat Alabama in the “Game of the
Century” on their field, beat Arkansas and beat Georgia.
The worst they end up is losing to the No. 2 team that
they already beat. Either play a third time or line up
the resumes like we do all year long thanks to the BCS.
I’ll
take LSU’s every time.

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