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Tag Archives: Penni Graham

Todd Graham Leaves Pitt for Arizona State via Text Message

Back in September I was sitting in the UConn press box with just a seat between me and Big East Media guru Chuck Sullivan.

 

Since I had been down on the field taking photos during the first half of the game, I was about 30 minutes behind on my twitter timeline. Right as I caught up to current news, my timeline started moving quickly with the news that Pitt and Syracuse were leaving the Big East for the ACC without the Big East knowing what was going on. Unfortunately Sullivan left as soon as the news broke and I didn’t get a chance to ask for a comment from the Big East.

 

 

I remember remarking at the time that Pitt was leaving the Big East without even sending a “Dear John” letter.

 

Fast forward a few months and their coach, Todd Graham is leaving via a text message and Pitt players, fans and administrators aren’t too happy. Ironic coming from the same people who were trilled with the way they left the Big East for the greener grass of the ACC.

 

Now, that’s not to say that what Graham did was right, just that sometimes you get what you deserve, and if any school deserved this, it was Pitt.

 

Now, to the juicy part of the story, here is my understanding of what happened.

 

* Multiple coaches left Todd Graham’s staff to go work for Rich Rodriguez at Arizona

* Todd Graham asked Pitt Athletic Director Steve Pederson for permission to interview with Arizona State and was denied

* Todd Graham interviewed with Arizona State anyways

* Todd Graham stopped answering calls from Pitt administrators including Pederson

* Pederson had an official stop by the Graham house and was told “get off my porch”

* Todd Graham sends a text announcing his resignation and pending move to Arizona State to his Director of Operations, Blair Philbrick, and asks him to forward to the Pitt players

 

Official text of what Todd Graham sent to Philbrick.

 

“I have resigned my position at Pitt in the best interest of my family to pursue the head coaching position at Arizona State. Coaching there has always been a dream of ours and we have family there. The timing of the circumstances have prohibited from telling you this directly. I now am on my way to Tempe to continue those discussions. God Bless. Coach Graham.”

 

It should be noted that while Graham claims that he didn’t have time to meet with the Pitt players and tell them personally, it has been reported that he and Penni did find time to do a 1 hour photo shoot for Arizona State before leaving.

 

Today’s Best

a photo of a young Todd Graham which ties in with the photo of the day below

This is my new daily post on the day’s best stories, photos and links, often with my take on the situation. I know that many people write articles on the same or similar subjects every day, these links are just the one’s I enjoyed the most.

 

Let’s start with my favorite story of the day, which is a rumor that I like to think that Mark Ennis, Michael Felder and myself started, at least one recruit believes that Mike Leach will replace Howard Schnellenberger at FAU after this season.

Next up is the Texas A&M situation. To be honest, I don’t know what or who to believe anymore, but this article by Spencer Hall of SBNation is probably the best out there. And, if you don’t like Spencer, try this one from Andy Staples or this one from Kirk Bohls who has been the guy breaking most of the news on twitter.. Reports have the Big 12 targeting Notre Dame or BYU first if the Aggies actually leave, but I think Houston is the most realistic option. However, unlike some people, I think Notre Dame is possible since they would always be a top 3 team in the league and they could still have their own TV contract.

Looks like the Baylor Bears are desperate to keep A&M around with this silly news release of the day… 

If you aren’t a fan of re-alignment, maybe compliance is for you. Here we find a story outlining how Miami is being investigated because some felon named Nevin Shapiro had his lawyer provide information to the NCAA. Some people seem to think that this will bring down multiple programs while I think it will only bring down Miami, but it is going to be big if the evidence is real. I would think something similar to the USC penalties will be coming. Not good if you are a Hurricanes fan. Here is a good breakdown by Bryan Fischer.

Staying on compliance, we have the full 136 page pdf of the new rules proposals for the coming year. The most interesting to me is proposal 2011-87, which starts on page 127, that calls for conferences without a title game to be allowed to have teams play in end of season invitational games. To me, isn’t that what a bowl game is? For what it’s worth, the proposal is by the Sun Belt, which I think is just looking for more TV money. The best proposal in the entire list would allow for schools to pay for an entire team to be at the funeral of a deceased teammate or visit a seriously hurt teammate at the hospital.

This article from Smart Football traces the roots of the one-back offense to Dennis Erickson.

Here we have ex-NCAA president Cedric Dempsey claiming that superconferences are coming and will break from the rest.

Toomer’s corner is still not looking good.

And finally, our picture of the day from Penni Graham. Alright, it is actually two pictures if you count the one above but I liked both of them.

Pitt head coach Todd Graham's bowl game ring collectiona photo of a young Todd Grahama photo of a young Todd Graham

Big East Media Days Clambake

 

Well, I can cross one more thing off of my bucket list of college football experiences, Big East media days, complete with a gluttony of food at the clam bake.

The informal event is rich with tradition and folk lore, with an unofficial annual contest between each team’s players to see who can be the lobster eating champion of the Big East. According to Sean Keeley of the Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician blog, unconfirmed reports peg former Rutgers running back Brian Leonard as the all-time champion with 9 full lobsters consumed while the official record is listed at seven lobsters. Jeremiah Warren was tonight’s winner, eating seven lobsters according to his USF teammates, although he was feeling up to the challenge of breaking all previous records until the lobsters ran out.

Of course, the entire event isn’t about just shoving as much seafood into your stomach as you possibly can; it is also about getting to know others who work for, or with the Big East. With the help of a Mark Ennis and Kevin McGuire, I was able to (sometimes) discard my shyness for a moment and talk to a few people with way better jobs than mine.

One such person was Andrea Adelson of ESPN who finally got to understand why her twitter account was blowing up with mentions the other day after my Temple Two-A-Days post was discovered by some passionate Owls fans. Quite honestly a very nice lady who had deep knowledge of the 15-20 teams that we discussed as a group, rattling off all sorts of players names from skill positions to offensive lineman and why she believed they were better or worse than the general hype.

The next person that I got to spend some time talking to was Penni Graham, wife of new Pitt head coach Todd Graham, as she was seated at our table. It was very enlightening to listen to the things that the families of coaches have to go through.

My impression before tonight was that coaches are very sneaky in the way they interview for, and eventually change jobs each off-season. It was really eye-opening to listen to some of the stories that highlighted how the deals are really completed versus how they are presented to the general public.

I certainly have a different understanding of how coaching changes affect so many people from the head coach, to the assistants to everyone’s families. While I still believe that players should have the ability to transfer penalty free after some types of coaching changes, I now place much less of the blame on the coaches for how the hiring and firing process works.

The final person that I spent some time talking to was Chuck Sullivan, the head of media relations for the Big East. As hard as Ennis, McGuire and I tried, we couldn’t pry any real trade secrets from Sullivan, but we did get a much deeper understanding for how the Big East manages internal issues and keeps both basketball and football centric schools satisfied.

It was a fun evening and something that I am glad I was allowed to participate in. Serious thanks to the Big East for allowing me to attend their media days and get to meet so many great people.