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Former Chiefs head coach Herm Edwards could resurface at Arizona State

By Matt Conner

CINCINNATI - DECEMBER 28: Head coach Herm Edwards of the Kansas City Chiefs watches the action from the sidelines during the NFL game against the Cincinnati Bengals on December 28, 2008 at Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
CINCINNATI - DECEMBER 28: Head coach Herm Edwards of the Kansas City Chiefs watches the action from the sidelines during the NFL game against the Cincinnati Bengals on December 28, 2008 at Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) /
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Herm Edwards might get back into coaching with rumors that the TV analyst is making a return to the college ranks at Arizona State.

Nearly a decade has passed since Herm Edwards roamed the sidelines for any team of any kind as a coach. His tenure as head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs ended in 2008 and was the last stop of his coaching career before television came calling.

Now it appears that Edwards is thinking about dropping the comforts of studio life for the excitement of coaching once again with rumors that he’s interviewing at Arizona State.

The Sun Devils fired Todd Graham from the position earlier this week as the college coaching carousel shifted the jobs of several.

Last year, the Sun Devils finished at 7-5. It was the most wins for the school in the last three years under Graham, and the middling sort of record was the reason he was fired. However Graham also enjoyed tremendous success in his first three years on the job. His overall record of 46-31 is a very strong mark for Arizona State football which could signal impossibly high standards for the Pac-12 school.

Consider the records of those who’ve gone before Graham:

  • Dennis Erickson, Graham’s predecessor, had a five year record of 31-31.
  • Dirk Koetter, now head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, had a 6-year mark of 40-34.
  • Bruce Snyder was at ASU for 9 seasons and finished at 56-45, but had only 2 seasons of more than 6 wins. His career win percentage is also lower than Graham.
  • Larry Marmie had a four-year record of 22-21-1.

In other words, going back 30 years to 1987, no coach had done a better job in Tempe than Graham.

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So what does that mean for Edwards? The ESPN analyst would likely want to make sure that ASU was the perfect fit before jumping back into coaching. The job is closer to his childhood home in San Diego than others, but the expectations there could be a bit much unless that appealed to Edwards’ feelings of pride as he relished the challenge

For ASU, the question should also be “why?” For a coach removed from the sidelines for the last 10 years, the move would already be a stretch. But let’s also consider the fact that Edwards has never ever coached in the college ranks other than serving as defensive backs coach for San Jose State in the late ’80s.

As a coach overall, Edwards struggled in the NFL with a 54-74 overall record after four seasons with the New York Jets and three seasons with the Chiefs. His tenure in K.C. ended horrible with a four-win and then a two-win season that left the team as the NFL’s worst. (It didn’t help that his starting quarterbacks that year were Tyler Thigpen and Damon Huard.)

Edwards is undoubtedly a coach with a lot to share, but is he a good head coach? Hard to say. Could he be a great college coach? Sure, but that’s a serious gamble for both parties.

Either way, it’s interesting that Edwards is feeling the itch after 10 years out of the game and it will be interesting to follow his path to see how he handles the return.

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