Former Arizona State head coach Todd Graham hired by Hawaii

The University of Hawaii announced Tuesday night they have hired former Arizona State head coach Todd Graham as the program’s new head coach.

Graham coached ASU for six seasons from 2012-17. He was fired after the 2017 regular season and finished his tenure leading the Sun Devils with a 46-31 record. Graham has taken the last two years off coaching collegiately.

He took the Sun Devils to the postseason in his first four seasons, winning the Fight Hunger Bowl (2012), losing the Holiday Bowl (2013), winning the Sun Bowl (2014) and losing the Cactus Bowl (2015). ASU missed a bowl game in 2016 before winning seven games and returning to the postseason in 2017, where they lost in the Sun Bowl after the school had fired Graham and hired Herm Edwards as his replacement.

Graham set high expectations for the program through his first three seasons in charge, where he led ASU to a combined 28-12 mark, including two 10-win seasons in 2013 and 2014 with a Pac-12 Coach of the Year award in 2013. He followed that run up with disappointing 6-7 and 5-7 years the following two seasons, before a 7-6 mark for the final year.

This will be the fifth school Graham is a head coach for. He spent one year at Rice in 2006 where he won Conference USA’s Coach of the Year honor before spending five years coaching Tulsa, the last of which in 2010 when he had a record of 10-3 and won the Hawaii Bowl.

Graham only lasted one year at Pitt the year after, going 6-6 before moving on to Tempe in 2012. His overall record is 95-60.

Edwards as Graham’s replacement has back-to-back winning seasons of 7-6 and 8-5. Edwards recently won his first bowl game with ASU, the Sun Bowl, which was the same bowl game Graham lost in his last game as coach.

Graham will be in familiar territory quickly. His Rainbow Warriors start the season in 2020 on the road against none other than the University of Arizona in Tucson.

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