Hot Seat Watch, Week 1: 5 coaches who need to win
4. Todd Graham
The Arizona State Sun Devils have already played their game this week like a lot of teams. The Sun Devils picked up the victory in a 37-31 defeat of the New Mexico State Aggies in their home opener.
However, it wasn’t much of an inspiring victory for Todd Graham and company. For a team that wants to be take a step in the Pac-12 this season, the defense once again looked porous and certainly made you wonder how they’re going to survive against better competition.
The offense was fine but that hasn’t ever really been the problem for this program. If they let New Mexico State have an easy time against their defense, then Graham is going to be doomed very quickly.
A win is a win and can’t be discredited, but they gave the Aggies every possible chance to get back in this one. After losing six straight to end the season last year, Graham probably hoped for a better outing than the one his team put up.
The key here for Graham is for his team to get into conference play with a winning record and hope that they can scratch off enough wins to be a bowl team again. If they can do that, then his job might just be safe.