Is Todd Graham Among Nations Best?
By Tony Fischer
When the Arizona State Sun Devils won the 2014 Sun Bowl they gave head coach Todd Graham his fifth 10-win season in nine years as an college football coach.
The Sun Bowl victory pushed Arizona State’s record to 10-3, giving them their second consecutive ten win season for the first time in school history. It took some of the sting out of a disappointing season for the Arizona State Sun Devils who were in contention for the National Football playoff before the wheels came off at the end of the season.
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Despite not playing for a conference championship, the future is bright for the Sun Devils who could be ranked in the top 10 when the AP releases their final poll. The main reason for their success has to be attributed to Graham who has made the Sun Devils perennial contenders for the Pac-12 championship.
Graham has improved Arizona State’s recruiting with his latest class achieving a rank of #21 in 2014. Arizona State had not landed a top 25 recruiting class since 2008, the season following Dennis Erickson’s 10-3 record.
That said, every knowledgeable college football fan knows that it takes more than recruiting classes to build an elite program. In order to be considered an elite program, you have to win and win often.
Consistent winning is something Graham has brought to the table in Tempe. Consistently achieving 10 wins are one of the hallmarks of a winning coach, but does achieving back-to-back 10-win seasons make Graham one of the best coaches in college football today?
After taking a quick look at the numbers one could argue that the Sun Devils head coach has achieved that level.
Through his nine-year coaching career Todd Graham has five 10-win seasons, a 5-2 record in bowl games and winning percentage of .650. Those numbers stack up favorably with four other coaches considered to be elite in the game today.
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*SOS is strength of schedule as calculated by Sports-Reference.com
Graham has the least amount of coaching experience on this list but is on pace to become one of the games greats. Some of the other coaches on this list didn’t become great until they began coaching elite programs and Graham is following this same trend.
A prime example of this is Nick Saban. Seven of Sabans’ 10-win seasons came while coaching the Alabama Crimson Tide. Saban would not be considered the great coach he is today if not for the Crimson Tide.
Graham seems to be tracking in the same direction. Now, that’s not to say Graham should be considered on par with Saban, but he is one of the best coaches in today’s college game.
Now, it’s up to ASU to keep him from being lured to another power conference school.