Making the case for Todd Graham as next Kansas coach

A search for a new football coach is underway at Kansas, and Todd Graham has emerged as a candidate.

Kansas made the inevitable move a little over a week ago, with an announcement David Beaty would be gone as football coach at the end of the season. Les Miles has quickly emerged as a candidate. But according to Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports there’s “mutual interest” between Kansas and former Arizona State coach Todd Graham, and the two sides have talked about the job.

Somehow, with a .609 winning percentage (95-61) over 12 seasons as a head coach, Graham has yet to surface significantly as this year’s coaching carousel just starts to spin. The report attaching him to the Kansas job should serve to change that, so it’s not an accident. But Kansas athletic director Jeff Long seems to be first in line to hire Graham, who fits the bill as the kind of experienced coach that’s wanted to bring the Jayhawks back to relevance in football.

Graham was fired by Arizona State after last season, his sixth at the school, and he’s been out of coaching this year. Over those 12 total seasons as a head coach, at Rice, Tulsa, Pitt and Arizona State, he has 10 bowl appearances and five double-digit win seasons. But after back-to-back 10-win seasons at Arizona State in 2013 and 2014, the Sun Devils went just 18-20 over Graham’s final three seasons to seal his firing.

Graham is well-regarded as an offensive coach, and he’s been a solid recruiter. With roots as a high school coach in Texas, he could help Kansas make some recruiting headway in that state and bring some good talent north to Lawrence.

Graham became a poster boy for job-jumping, with the requisite criticism of course, by spending just one season at both Rice (2006) and Pitt (2011). But he has been a program builder at his previous stops, and Kansas needs his acumen as a recruiter and a modern offensive mind.

Miles would be a big-name, splashy hire, and his deep ties to Long have made him the easy candidate at Kansas. But unless he hires a progressive offensive coordinator, the on-field fit is strained.

Graham is in line for another opportunity, and to this point he hasn’t surfaced as a candidate anywhere else looking toward 2019. Long is promising an exhaustive search for the right coach, as he should, but Graham might be the perfect fit.