SunDevilSource’s Karpman: Scathing opinion on ASU football unsurprising
Jun 15, 2022, 8:31 AM
Head coach Herm Edwards of the Arizona State Sun Devils reacts after the loss to the Utah Utes at Rice-Eccles Stadium on October 16, 2021 in Salt Lake City, Utah. (Photo by Chris Gardner/Getty Images)
(Photo by Chris Gardner/Getty Images)
A section of Athlon Magazine‘s preview for Arizona State football that included scathing takes from anonymous opposing coaches became the topic of conversation around the state of the program.
SunDevilSource.com’s Chris Karpman joined Arizona Sports’ Bickley & Marotta to offer his two cents on the opinions that featured ASU being called “the biggest dumpster fire in college football” and a “ticking time bomb.”
“Actually not that surprised,” Karpman said Tuesday. “Covering college football for about 20 years now, you develop a lot of relationships with people who coach at other schools or go on to coach at other schools … last year and really subsequent to that is the most that I’ve heard from opposing coaches — people I haven’t even reached out to — (who) ask me what’s happening at ASU.”
That there were harsh opinions given to Athlon and few positives was not terribly surprising, according to Karpman.
“Why are they blowing this great opportunity they have to win the Pac-12 South, if not the conference? How come (former quarterback) Jayden Daniels has regressed so much?” Karpman was asked by other teams’s coaches. “Those things were regularly ongoing features of me covering the team last year in terms of (what) people who were actually in the college coaching community had to say.”
“To see that end up on Athlon, as harsh as it may be, isn’t that surprising. … I’m confident it is how a lot of coaches feel,” Karpman added.
These rumblings along with the impending results of the NCAA’s investigation into alleged recruiting malpractices inspire the question of why head coach Herm Edwards remains with a job as a handful of coaches around him have left or lost their jobs in the past year.
“I think it boils down to Ray Anderson as athletic director, he has a good relationship with (Arizona State University president) Michael Crow, or historically he has,” Karpman said. “That’s like a pillar in the ground that everything else sorts of orients around. It’s going to take a lot for ASU to make those types of moves. I don’t think that Anderson is going to do it on his own volition or anything like that.
“It’s gonna probably take Crow telling him it sort of has to happen, which sort of therefore means Ray Anderson has failed at the biggest, most important, most visual part of his job — and he himself would be in jeopardy of being out the door … Should an athletic director be hiring someone who he formerly represented as a client and is that a conflict of interest, or is that something that causes problems in the event that something like this with the NCAA investigation happens? I think it is.”
