Collegiate Stadiums

Collegiate Stadiums

NCAA FBS College Football Stadiums, Attendance, Stats, History & Travel Blog

Tag Archives: Rich Rodriguez

Daily Huddle 5-17-12

A collection of college football photos, stories and links from around the web.

Get your #MACTION shirt over at no2minutewarning.com

One of the coolest t-shirt ideas in a while, Kevin is selling #MACTION shirts over at no2minutewarning.com. They come in your favorite teams colors or you can customize it in any color design you want.

The hot topic of the day was how relegation would work in the NCAA with football. Not sure it fits the American sports culture, but here is the post by Bill Connelly (@SBN_BillC).

SMU has fired their athletic director, Steve Orsini, immediately and right now no one knows why.

Remember the Alabama fan who thought it would be funny to stick his junk in the face of a passed out LSU fan in New Orleans, then post the video on youtube? Well, now he is facing felony charges for sexual battery.

Clemson running back Mike Bellamy has been ruled academically ineligible.

Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione was very open in this interview about his views on a playoff and how to preserve the regular season.

Kameel Jackson may be suspended from the Oklahoma team, but he is not going to transfer.

A column by George Schroeder on the problems Rich Rodriguez is going to face at Arizona.

Robert Steeples has decided that he will play at Memphis after leaving Missouri last month.

The Notre Dame football team appears to have a drinking problem as wide receiver DeVaris Daniels was cited for consumption of alcohol as a minor.

Good news for Pitt as it appears that Ray Graham will be ready for fall camp. The injury happened right in front of me and it was non-contact and nasty looking. I’m happy to see Graham be on a fast recovery schedule.

Ray Graham lines up for what would be his final play in 2011

Ray Graham is tackled after falling down injured. You can see every player for both teams looking at him due to Graham immediately screaming in pain

A more zoomed in picture of the pile

USC linebacker Simione Vehikite has been ordered to spend a year in jail.

Michigan is going to get new uniforms again for 2012. I’ll reserve judgement till some pictures leak.

Arkansas is also getting new uniforms with gradient numbers. People always have to mess with good things and make them ugly.

A small photo of the new Arkansas uniforms

A horrible zoomed in version of the same photo

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.