The good and bad of Herm Edwards’ coaching career: By the Numbers

It’s been quite a while since Herm Edwards was seen on the sidelines with his Motorola headset — 2008 to be exact. Now the Arizona State head coach candidate could enter back into the college football scene for the first time since 1989.

With Edwards being almost a decade removed from coaching and no college football head coaching history to go off of it may be difficult to envision what kind of coach he would be for ASU, but it’s worth a shot.

Below are trends, statistics and team rankings of the coaching seasons Edwards had with the New York Jets and Kansas City Chiefs in his tenures.

The Good

4 – Edwards had four winning seasons as a head coach, three of them coming with the New York Jets. In the first two years of his career, he produced two winning seasons with a 19-13 record. All four of those teams made the postseason.

22 – Despite not being a coach for a long period of time, Edwards has 22 years of experience as a coach or a scout. In addition to his head coaching stints, the 63-year-old was an assistant head coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, defensive backs coach and scout for the Kansas City Chiefs and defensive backs coach at San Jose University.

3 –  Edwards spent five seasons as a defensive backs coach so it’s almost expected that his teams would be great defending the pass. His secondaries had an eye for the ball as three of his teams have finished in the top-10 in interception takeaways. In four seasons, his teams finish in the top-ten in passing defense.

5 – Offensively, the Sun Devils rarely turn the ball over, only coughing it up 11 times all season. Edwards’ teams were no different. His teams finished in the top-10 for the least amount of fumbles lost and interceptions thrown five times.

The Average

16.9 – Edwards’ offensive lines have been inconsistent through his coaching years with two of his teams finishing in the top-10 with the least amount of sacks. In two other seasons, his teams finished in the top-three in sacks allowed. The average rank for sacks allowed among all his teams is 16.9.

17.8 – The average rank for Edwards’ overall defenses through the seasons is 17.8. His team’s defenses have only ranked in the top-10 one time through eight seasons but finished four times in the top-10 in team takeaways.

The Bad

0 – Edwards has not coached an elite passing offense in his years and has never had his team finish in the top-10 in that mark.

25.6 – As good as Edwards’ pass defenses were through the years, his running defense was just as bad. Besides one season where his team finished in the top-10 in fewest rushing yards allowed, his run defense, on average, ranked 25.6 in the league. Five of those seasons they wound up finishing in the bottom-four in that mark.

5 – In the last three seasons, ASU has accumulated 109 sacks as a team, the second-most in the Pac-12, only trailing Washington with 111 sacks. Edwards’ teams have finished in the bottom-10 in sacks five times in his eight seasons.