OT: Dennis Erickson to be fired at ASU
Dennis Erickson is expected to be fired as head coach of Arizona State. The announcement is expected Monday morning. Houston's Kevin Sumlin is the leading candidate for the job opening.
http://arizonastate.scout.com/2/1133083.html
If Sumlin is offered and accepts the job, expect the Pac-12 South to have very high powered offenses. Rich Rod vs. Sumlin should be very exciting matchups.
November 27th, 2011 at 2:57 PM ^
There is a legitimate upheaval going on around the NCAA with coach firings today
November 27th, 2011 at 3:04 PM ^
Ron Zook for replacement. Zooker vs Rich Rod once a year!
November 27th, 2011 at 3:09 PM ^
...they'd presumably do so now, and not after the Sugar Bowl?
November 27th, 2011 at 3:15 PM ^
Good call and very good question. I've heard talks that they will offer him this week. There is no guarantee he will take the job though.
November 27th, 2011 at 3:21 PM ^
They should hire Urban Meyer. He'd do well there.
November 27th, 2011 at 3:37 PM ^
...with the coeds.
November 27th, 2011 at 3:41 PM ^
He would have some serious Talent to work with then.....
Man do I miss Tempe
November 27th, 2011 at 3:56 PM ^
I hear he said it's his dream job!
November 27th, 2011 at 3:40 PM ^
This would make for watchable Pac-12 South action that didn't involve USC, in my opinion.
November 27th, 2011 at 3:42 PM ^
November 27th, 2011 at 3:46 PM ^
I don't like this rumor for my Devils. Feels like Koetter all over again.
November 27th, 2011 at 3:49 PM ^
You have to go back to John Cooper to find a coach who won more than 56% of his games there. Bruce Snyder took them to a Rose Bowl, was a play away from winning a national title, and got fired four years later. Dirk Koetter left behind a fantastic Boise team and got fired despite going to bowl games in each of his last three seasons. Dennis Erickson won a national title at Miami, a BCS bowl at Oregon State, and yet still couldn't do better than about .500 at ASU and just got fired.
For a guy like Sumlin who is a hot commodity, taking that job seems like it has all sorts of potential to end up killing his career.
November 27th, 2011 at 3:54 PM ^
Dennis Erikson is old and needs to retire. He won back in the 80s and 90s, things have changed. His one good season at ASU was his first year. He never reloaded on talent and NEVER developed players. ASU has potential to explode with the right coach.
From the weather to the women, ASU needs a coach that can recruit and take advantage of the opportunity.
November 27th, 2011 at 4:05 PM ^
He went 11-1 in 2000 and won the Fiesta Bowl at Oregon State. What is so different about football now as compared to then?
I do think his team this year underachieved, especially down the stretch, but it isn't like the guy is some scrub. The fact is, the school has had three widely respected coaches in a row (Koetter is still an OC in the NFL and had success at Boise, Snyder won national coach of the year awards, posted the best season in school history, and had a winning record at Cal before that) and none have been able to sustain at much better than .500. Why would a recruit choose to go to ASU over a place like USC, Oregon, UCLA, Washington, Stanford, or Colorado, aside from the "OMG Hotties!" factor? How many recruits can you get in a state with half a dozen 4-star prospects every year?
I guess I just don't see any reason to view the place as a sleeping giant, while apparently the fans view it as such and will be disappointed with anything that resembles the historical norm.
November 27th, 2011 at 4:21 PM ^
What's different? Dennis Erickson is eleven years older for one thing.
November 27th, 2011 at 4:28 PM ^
He won the national title that year. The game of football has not changed in any dramatic way such that someone who was successful then can't be successful now.
Also, the point isn't that Erickson shouldn't be fired, I don't see any problem with canning him at this point. I'm just pointing out that no matter who they get the expectations are probably going to be higher than the potential performance, and that is a bad recipe for a coach who is thinking about taking the job.
November 27th, 2011 at 5:09 PM ^
Erickson is 64. Stoops is 50. That's not a great comparison. It's hardly unthinkable that at this point, Erickson might not have the energy/passion he once did. He's two years older than Lloyd Carr when he retired, and four years older than Bo was.
November 27th, 2011 at 5:32 PM ^
That is what I was responding too, by pointing out that he won more recently and that things in fact haven't changed that much in college football.
I have no problem with them booting his old ass out the door if he can't get it done any more, but his lack of success has nothing to do with some giant shift in the college football landscape.
November 27th, 2011 at 4:29 PM ^
I agree that these coaches underachieved. My point is that with the right coach, ASU should be able to pull some top talent from surrounding states (Texas, Arizona, SoCal). and by top, I don't mean the best in the state, just respectibly ranked. They also should not have a problem pulling guys from the north with the weather always being so nice.
Why is it a sleeping giant?
ASU doesn't even sell out games as of now. With a student body of 60,000 and plans to reach 100,000 within the next 10 years, a hard-working coach with community involvement and a winning record could definitely change that.
Tempe is located smack in the middle of Phoenix and Scottsdale. A very desirable location with very desirable weather. With the desirable weather comes desirable ladies. I don't know if you've been to Tempe, but the "OMG Hotties!" factor is an absolute factor.
The stadium is built into a mountain. "A Mountain" to be precise. There are even possible plans to tear down the current stadium and built a new one in its place.
All that, plus ASU has some fresh new uniforms that should appeal to recruits.
I just think a guy with a knack for team and community building could do extremely well at ASU.
November 27th, 2011 at 5:04 PM ^
is way behind Oregon, Stanford and USC for recruit appeal. I'd even put Washington ahead of them.
ASU gets the leftovers, always have, always will.
November 27th, 2011 at 5:13 PM ^
Currently those other schools are more appealing. I'm talking about potential here.
And I could not disagree anymore on getting the leftovers. Ask Vontaze Burfict if he was a leftover.
November 27th, 2011 at 5:43 PM ^
does not an argument make.
November 27th, 2011 at 5:56 PM ^
I could go on. But I'm really not in the mood to go through ASU commitments from the last few years and look at offers. Sure they get "leftovers" from Texas and California, but they get some that have huge offer lists as well. ASU also has a decent amount of players in the NFL.
To make the statement you made is just stupid.
November 27th, 2011 at 6:39 PM ^
- Southern California 42
- California 32
- Oregon 25
- Utah 20
- Oregon St. 18
- UCLA 18
- Arizona St. 17
- Stanford 17
- Arizona 14
- Colorado 14
- Washington St. 12
- Washington 9
The Cal list is amazing, maybe the best from any school. Others are longer (SC, Ohio, LSU), but Cal's has real quality and there's somebody to fill pretty much every position on the field. They'd have to play a 3-3-5, though, so maybe that wouldn't work so well.
November 27th, 2011 at 5:16 PM ^
good fucking riddance. He tanked against some stiff competition in WASU, UCLA and the always strong Arizona. So glad he is gone. Tony Dungy has actually been rumored to be the next ASU head coach...its his dream job :)
November 27th, 2011 at 5:29 PM ^
I think one could argue Arizona State is historically the best football program never to win a National Title. They probably should have two, were one play away in 1997, and have several #2 finishes. They were a power before Arizona and ASU moved to the Pac 8.
They certainly have the alumni and student base to build new facilties and at least compete regularly with USC for the Pac 12 South.
November 27th, 2011 at 7:39 PM ^
Has Ron English's name come up as a possible replacement? If I'm not mistaken he was either a db coach and/or D coordinator for the Sun Devils before jumping onto Lloyd's staff. While I despise ASU from my years in Tempe and their mostly apathetic fan base, I'd love to see Ron take his career to next level...
November 27th, 2011 at 8:10 PM ^
English was the DB coach--he'd never been a coordinator before Michigan. He also was a grad assistant in an earlier stint in Tempe.
November 27th, 2011 at 8:15 PM ^
A bit of googling turned up this thread on scout:
November 27th, 2011 at 9:03 PM ^
and probably irrelevant for that reason, but ASU does have one former coach who was very successful there: Frank Kush.
Coached 1959-1979 (fired halfway through '79 season)
176-54-1 (76% winning percentage)
Six seasons of 10 wins or more
Four finishes in the top ten
11-0 in 1970; #6 AP poll
12-0 in 1975; #2 AP poll
6-1 bowl record
Yes, their competition for most of his tenure was the old WAC, so I'm not trying to make the case that he was the equal of his contemporaries at bigger-name schools, but four of his bowl victories were Fiesta Bowl wins over Florida State, Missouri, Pitt, and Nebraska. That's a pretty good record at any school.
I suspect that the legacy of his on-field accomplishments plays a major role in the expectations in Tempe, at least among older fans. He was fired as a consequence of being accused of abusing a player (no, not sexually) and then trying to cover up the investigation. He was vintage old school, and his coaching and conditioning methods were legendarily harsh, sort of an Arizona version of Bear Bryant's Junction Boys era.
And he's a Sparty; played on their NC team in '52.
November 27th, 2011 at 9:20 PM ^
I should have posted the title of that Scout link and not just the link address:
RON ENGLISH = KUSH II
November 27th, 2011 at 9:39 PM ^
The field in Sun Devil Stadium is named after him. Frank Kush field. He is still active in the community and guest speaks at ASU classes. I met him a few years ago. Awesome guy.