Herm Edwards, Sun Devils Staff Ignore Outside Noise

It's been a wild 12 months for Arizona State's football program.

News leaked of ASU facing an NCAA investigation in June of last year, and the dominoes that have fallen since include a number of high-level recruits and coaches previously on the staff departing the program.

Five of those coaches officially left earlier in the winter, as the Sun Devils look to shape and mold another team with fresh faces and ideas leading the charge on both sides of the ball.

In a recent interview with SiriusXM Radio's Ryan Leaf and Guy Haberman, Arizona State head coach Herm Edwards spoke about the rotating door of coaches as he heads into his fifth season at ASU.

“I just think it’s a culture that we’ve built there. Coaches leave all the time; that’s just a part of it. They advance and they go, I mean that’s what they do. Our whole system is to bring young coaches in," said Edwards.

"Our first year, Danny Gonzalez and our secondary coach both left, Danny became a head coach after only two years, our secondary coach is at Syracuse right now, Coach (Tony) White is a coordinator. So, we’ve had a bunch of guys. I’ve never had a whole staff that stayed over two years; they just leave. And that’s OK, because you want to advance guys. So players are used to that, and I think they’re used to this which is that we don’t get involved in all the outside noise. We don’t."

While one could argue Edwards and his staff have done a solid job of bringing the outside noise themselves, he was adamant the Sun Devils were focused on simply becoming a better football team.

He said, "It’s a pretty focused group and it's got a great leadership group of about 10 guys that really have an influence on this football team. So we’re pretty much solid, we really are, it’s a fun group to be around. We appreciate each other, we respect each other and we just go about our business.”

His recent comments mirror the sentiment Edwards carried at the beginning of spring practice, where he labeled the chemistry between ASU's coaching staff "different," but insisted it was in a good way.

The investigation has no clear end in sight, as Arizona State reportedly has not received notice of allegations. The potential fallout has limitless possibilities thanks to most of the alleged recruiting violations taking place over the course of COVID-restricted years.

The recent transfer of quarterback Jayden Daniels was just the cherry on top of the PR sundae ASU has had to consistently slurp down.

Yet with so much going on around Arizona State, Edwards and his staff remain insistent keeping their eyes and attention focused forward to better days ahead.

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