It's been almost a decade since Herm Edwards has coached a football team for a full season, and last night we broke word that Herm is a strong candidate for the opening at Arizona State. Shortly after news started to circulate, Edwards confirmed that he will interview for the Sun Devils job this weekend.
To publicly lobby for the job, and to silence critics questioning why a coach who has been away from the sidelines for a decade would want to launch themselves into the 24/7 world of college football and recruiting, Edwards joined the Doug and Wolf 98.7 show to state his case.
The biggest question on everyone's mind for any NFL coach wanting to get into the college game after spending so much time away from the game is centered on recruiting and the nonstop, constantly evolving nature of it.
With that in mind, Herm offered up the following answer on his view on recruiting;
"Recruiting doesn't scare me. I'm not afraid of walking into a parent's home and telling them exactly what we have to do to develop their young man. Do you think I'm worried about talking to a mom or dad?"
Edwards also went on to share that he has to travel 6,000 miles a week to come in and do his job as an ESPN analyst and how that's in line with the demand of being a college head coach and the travel required to recruit top talent.
Ewards has gotten a small taste of returning to coaching the past eight years as a coach in the Under Armour All-America Game working with some of the top high school players in the country.
Athletic director Ray Anderson noted at the press conference following the dismissal of Todd Graham that he'd like to keep defensive coordinator Phil Bennett and offensive coordinator Billy Napier, which could be an interesting sticking point for some interested in the job. Edwards shared that he doesn't necessarily view Napier and Bennett as "Todd Graham's guys."
“I don’t know if they’re Todd Graham’s guys. They’re football guys. Football guys are married to football, in the end. You keep good coaches."
“You don’t get rid of them because they’re somebody else’s guy. Coaches belong to football," Edwards shared with Arizona Sports 98.7.
How the Arizona State search ultimately plays out is going to be interesting to see, but one thing is for sure after hearing Herm's radio appearance today - he's serious about the opportunity to return to coaching and fired up about the opportunity, that not only Arizona State presents, but also to prove his personal doubters wrong.
Stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest on this one, as well as all coaching changes.