Below is a chart of offense, defense and total production of the Arizona State University Sun Devils football program during Graham' tenure as head football coach, along with who would be the lowest ranked team during this time period (in purple) and the average team (sky blue). As you may notice, the first three season saw a program that was in the top third of the FBS and the last three years was a below average program. All rankings in this blog come from my Complex Invasion College Football Production Model. More details about the program under Graham are after the chart below, including a link to his employment contract are below.
Todd Graham [2012-2017]
2012
The Sun Devils were 7-5 during the regular season under Graham's first year at the helm of the football program and bowl eligible, where they defeated #66 ranked Navy (62-28) to finish 8-5 overall. Arizona State played against an "easier" strength of schedule (SOS) as compared to the "league" average SOS, meaning that their SOS was between one and two standard deviations above the "league" average SOS. The Sun Devils best game again was their victory over #61 ranked in-state rival Arizona (41-34) and their other five victories were over teams that were ranked 100 or higher. Arizona State's worst loss was to #93 ranked Missouri (20-24). Arizona State had the #24 ranked team in total production with the #25 ranked offense and the #34 ranked defense from the Complex Invasion College Football Production Model.
2013
The Sun Devils were 10-2 during the regular season under Graham's second year at the helm of the football program; playing #27 ranked Stanford in the PAC-12 conference championship game, losing by a score of (14-38). The Sun Devils were bowl eligible and lost to #61 ranked Texas State (23-37) to finish 10-4 overall. Arizona State played against a "tougher" strength of schedule (SOS) as compared to the "league" average SOS, meaning that their SOS was between one and two standard deviations below the "league" average SOS. The Sun Devils best game again was their victory over #9 ranked Wisconsin (32-30) and their worst loss was to #60 ranked Notre Dame (34-37). Arizona State had the #24 ranked team in total production with the #18 ranked offense and the #49 ranked defense from the Complex Invasion College Football Production Model.
2014
Arizona State finished the regular season at 9-3 under Graham's third year at the helm of the football program (bowl eligible), and defeated #41 Duke (36-31) in their post-season bowl game to finish 10-3 overall. Arizona State played against an "average" strength of schedule (SOS) as compared to the "league" average SOS, meaning that their SOS was plus or minus standard deviation of the "league" average SOS. The Sun Devils best game again was their victory over #20 ranked Stanford (26-10) and their worst loss was again to #83 ranked Oregon State (27-35). Arizona State had the #35 ranked team in total production with the #19 ranked offense and the #81 ranked defense from the Complex Invasion College Football Production Model.
2015
The Sun Devils were 6-6 during the regular season (bowl eligible), and were defeated by #33 ranked West Virginia in their post-season bowl game by a score of (42-43) to finish 6-7 overall. Arizona State again played against an "average" strength of schedule (SOS) as compared to the "league" average SOS, meaning that their SOS was plus or minus standard deviation of the "league" average SOS. The Sun Devils best game again was their victory over #26 ranked Washington (27-17) and their worst loss was to #55 ranked Washington State (24-38). Arizona State had the #81 ranked team in total production with the #40 ranked offense and the #106 ranked defense from the Complex Invasion College Football Production Model.
2016
Arizona State again finished the regular season at 5-7 and was bowl ineligible. The Sun Devils again played against an "average" strength of schedule (SOS) as compared to the "league" average SOS. The Sun Devils best game again was their victory over #70 ranked UCLA (23-20) and their worst loss was to in-state rival #107 ranked Arizona (21-24). Arizona State had the #116 ranked team in total production with the #79 ranked offense and the #123 ranked defense from the Complex Invasion College Football Production Model.
2017
At the time of Grahams departure, the day after the Sun Devils defeated their in-state rival Arizona and finishing the regular season at 7-5 overall and bowl eligible and playing against a "tougher" strength of schedule (SOS) as compared to the "league" average SOS. The Sun Devils best win was against #2 currently ranked Washington by a score of (13-7) and their worst loss was to #94 currently ranked UCLA by a score of (37-44). Currently Arizona State has the #85 ranked team in total production, with the #47 ranked offense and the #99 ranked defense from the Complex Invasion College Football Production Model.
2017 NCAA FBS Head Coach Changes
Minnesota and Tracy Claeys
California and Sonny Dykes
Oklahoma and Bob Stoops
Mississippi (Ole Miss) and Hugh Freeze
UTEP and Sean Kugler
Oregon State and Gary Andersen
Georgia Southern and Tyson Summers
Florida and Jim McElwain
Tennessee and Butch Jones
UCLA and Jim Mora
South Alabama and Joey Jones
Arkansas and Bret Bielema
Nebraska and Mike Riley