A look back: The tenures of Todd Graham and Rich Rodriguez in AZ
Jan 9, 2018, 2:52 PM | Updated: 5:14 pm
(AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Now that college football is over for 2017 following Alabama’s stirring 26-23 overtime win over Georgia in Atlanta, we thought it was a good time to take a look back.
Not just a look back over the last season, but to the tail end of 2011, when the Arizona State Sun Devils and Arizona Wildcats both ushered in new eras with coaching hires. ASU lured Todd Graham from the University of Pittsburgh, where he coached the Panthers for only one year. A month earlier, Arizona tabbed former West Virginia and Michigan head coach and CBS Sports Network analyst Rich Rodriguez to take over the program in Tucson.
There was a connection between the coaches. Graham served as a linebackers coach and co-defensive coordinator on Rodriguez’s West Virginia staff in 2001 and 2002.
Through the six-year tenures of each coach at his respective school, there were similarities throughout, starting with the tenure length itself. The two were hired 23 days apart and fired 37 days apart.
Here’s a closer look back at the last six years for both men in the Grand Canyon State.