Todd Graham saves his job over the course of two weeks

The pressure is off Arizona State Sun Devils head coach Todd Graham following huge wins in back-to-back weeks.

Things can change in an instant in college football, and nothing in 2017 might demonstrate that better than a dramatic turnaround by the Arizona State Sun Devils.

Fifth-year head coach Todd Graham entered the 2017 season under a fair amount of pressure, and looked to be in real trouble at the end of September. Following consecutive 10-win seasons to begin his tenure in Tempe, Graham’s Sun Devils stagnated to six wins in 2015 and missed a bowl last season with a 5-7 mark.

Arizona State got off to an inauspicious start in 2017 with a 37-31 victory over New Mexico State, followed by a 30-20 defeat at home to San Diego State. Losing to a G5 team, even one of San Diego State’s caliber, is always going to be a bad sign for a coach squarely on the hot seat, and subsequent defeats against Texas Tech and Stanford didn’t help matters.

Two weeks later, Graham’s future and Tempe and arguably the trajectory of the entire program look completely different. Arizona State has turned in impressive back-to-back wins over Washington and Utah to improve to 4-3, thanks in large part to some excellent coaching performances by Graham.

The Sun Devils earned the best victory of Graham’s tenure last Saturday in Tempe by stunning defending Pac-12 Champion and College Football Playoff contender Washington 13-7. The Huskies offense has been ruthlessly efficient over the past two years, but could only manage seven points and 230 yards against what was one of the worst defenses in Division I.

Arizona State followed that up with a complete performance in a 30-10 road victory over Utah on Saturday afternoon. While this isn’t Kyle Whittingham’s best Utes team, the trip to Rice-Eccles Stadium is always a challenge, and the result proved Arizona State’s sudden defensive resurgence wasn’t a fluke.

Graham should be credited for changing his style to fit Arizona State’s current personnel, which made all the difference in the upset over Washington. The Sun Devils have been the most blitz-happy team in the nation under Graham but chose to back off against the Huskies and confused quarterback Jake Browning by mixing in different looks on nearly every play.

That continued on Saturday against Utah, as the Utes managed just 265 yards of total offense and turned the ball over four times against the swarming Sun Devils defense. On the other side of the ball, Graham has dialed down the tempo and controlled the clock via short passes from accurate quarterback Manny Wilkins over the past two weeks.

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Graham straight up outcoached both Chris Petersen and Kyle Whittingham, a statement that would have seemed laughable a month ago. Those two wins will save Graham’s job for at least this year, and he has a good chance to get Arizona State to seven or eight wins despite the ugly start.