ASU Football: Accountability is Key to 2017 Season

A whirlwind 2016 season left some feeling as if their wasn’t enough accountability within the ASU football program. That will need to be a non-factor in 2017 if the Sun Devils want to have success.

Last season head coach Todd Graham blamed himself after almost every single loss ASU football had. An admirable trait to some, but within a football program there needs to also be accountability all around. Making sure that every single coach and player is doing what is expected of them is a sometimes difficult responsibility of a head coach, but it has to be done.

After a season that saw the Sun Devils miss a bowl game for the first time under Todd Graham, there were a lot of coaching changes. The only problem with all these coaching changes is that the coaches left under their own power to take “better jobs” elsewhere, they weren’t fired. The only change Graham made was demoting Keith Patterson after two years of having one of the worst defenses in the nation.

2017 will be unlike any season Graham has experienced at ASU. If he doesn’t succeed, there is a legitimate chance that he may get fired. A way to make sure that this season is successful is to hold people accountable. If a coach screws up, let him know. While people may not like Nick Saban because he has thrown people under the bus in the past, no one can deny his success as a head coach. Sometimes it pays to not be the nicest guy around.

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This isn’t meant to imply that Graham is too nice of a guy or that he doesn’t manage his staff well, he just needs to realize the situation he is in and do something about it. Winning is key, as long as the Sun Devils are winning games no one is going to care how they go about doing it. Fans won’t care about how the football program is winning games, but as soon as they start to lose everyone begins to ask questions.

In Graham’s first three seasons as head coach, people didn’t ask very many questions. The football program was getting better and better each year so all that anyone knew or cared about was that the team was doing well. But the past two years the team hasn’t met expectations, so questions have been asked and answers have been expected.

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It has gotten to the point for Graham where the only answer people want is a victory. If he can deliver that then no one will care about anything else. If he can’t deliver that, however, then the people in charge may decide that the Todd Graham era at ASU has reached its end.

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