Arizona State is poised to hire former NFL coach Herm Edwards as its new football coach provided school President Michael Crow agrees with the selection.
Crow is returning from a trip to Asia and will meet with Edwards and ASU Vice President for Athletics Ray Anderson over the weekend. If all goes well, an announcement could be made early next week.
It's been less than a week since ASU's decision not to retain Todd Graham, but Edwards' acceleration from an Anderson adviser to presumptive top candidate speaks to the close relationship between the two long-time friends. When Anderson was an agent, before working as an NFL executive, he represented Edwards.
Indications on Wednesday, as Edwards made the rounds on national and local sports talk radio, was that he would be offered the job unless Crow vetoes the move because of negative feedback from key boosters . The fact that Edwards never was a head coach on the college level, or coached at all since 2008, are concerns for some in the ASU community.
Edwards acknowledged that he is interviewing with ASU, and there was nothing to suggest his media tour was designed to misdirect the public in order to hide another candidate.
"I've gotten a lot of calls in my career here on television (as an analyst), answered them and said no thank you," Edwards said on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM. "This is one that there is a connection with the AD there, Ray Anderson and myself, that I owe him to come down there and speak. That's where it's at."
A source close to ASU described Edwards as "itching to get into coaching again" and anxious to work with Anderson.
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