Todd Graham can’t leave it alone. Well, if I’m going to even pretend to be fair, there is no way to leave it alone. Any appearance or interview he does will bring up the issue of his departure from Pitt.
What FraudGraham can’t seem to stop doing is constantly changing the story. To try and drive up the drama of how bad things were for his family. Basically, to spin any tale he can to try and get sympathy.
When it started at his intro at Arizona State, he called it his latest “dream job” and pushed the idea that he was doing it in no small part because his in-laws are in Arizona. The kind of statement that even Arizona reporters and columnists said, “huh?”
Arizona State University just hired the first football coach in NCAA history who, if you believe him, changed jobs in order to move closer to his mother-in-law.
The spin quickly shifted to his wife really wanted the move to be closer to her family — and Fraud Graham would make the hard choice just for her. Which of course generated more outrage. Prior to the move, Penni Graham was a one-woman PR machine for her husband. Constantly tweeting about how much she and the family were loving Pittsburgh. Tweeting about Pirate and Pens games. Interacting with people on Twitter. Putting out photos of her kids dressed up for Halloween as the Pitt Panther. Building up a lot of goodwill that to some extent would be extended to FraudGraham.
This meant that his wife was a lying piece as well. Or that Fraud Graham was just using his wife as a shield for his actions.
That went no where. In no small part, because most of the media outside of Arizona that have dealt with Graham have seen the same act one too many times — as this blog post ostensibly defending Fraud Graham observes.
Pittsburgh certainly won the spin battle with Graham, and at the Rose Bowl, after chatting with a lot of writers, I learned that not many folks in the media feel much reason to consider Graham’s perspective on things.
When you use the same spiel everywhere and enough people can compare notes, it becomes harder to believe anything he says.
Well, no surprise that Fraud Graham is still talking — a lot — in Arizona. He has to compete in state with DickRod — who has a much more rehabilitated image — and a host of media friendly Pac-12 coaches now. Mike Leach, Steve Sarkasian, Chip Kelly, Mike Riley. Hell even Lane Kiffin knows how to schmooze the media. He’s got to win people over. So now it is still family, but Fraud Graham is now asking, “won’t anyone think about the children?”
FS Arizona: You have said that going to Pitt was a mistake. Could you elaborate?
Graham: It was not a good fit for my family. They were not happy there.When I was at Tulsa, our president was going to retire, and that was not going to be good for me. I had three (job) opportunities, and I made the decision for football alone. It was a better job. I had three kids attending Tulsa. My daughter was a freshman cheerleader, but it was something we felt we needed to do because of what was happening at Tulsa with the president.
All three of my kids went to Pittsburgh and said, ‘I don’t want to live here, dad.’ It wasn’t because of the people. There were great people there, we worked our tail off and did some great things. I’m proud that they asked me to take over a program that had been on the front page of Sports Illustrated with the most criminalities in the country and we did some good things there, but they just didn’t like it there.
(ASU) was a deal that I did not plan. It was an opportunity of a lifetime that just came up for me. I’ve got a responsibility to my family to take care of them.
Can you picture it? The teary-eyed children hesitantly approaching their father back home, after sitting in box seats for a Penguins game earlier that day. The youngest, his lower-lip trembling as the oldest confesses their deep unhappiness.
Yes, now that his wife didn’t get him the sympathy, Fraud Graham is hiding behind his children. It’s not working.
But ASU fans can take solace in the fact that the punditry is also down on his coaching acumen after this past season. Wondering how good he really is without the right offensive coordinator. Not just his overall judgment.
Chryst hasn’t taken time to say ‘this is my dream job’ or anything. He said it’s a ‘darn good job’. He doesn’t get all flashy and stuff. He comes in, talks to the recruits, doesn’t make promises he can’t keep and then goes about his business.
Is it too late to ask Paul Chryst to run for President?
Hope he stays out of the public eye and the recruiting trail…
“Nobody has ever asked me what kind of deal I got here versus what I had (at Pitt). Nobody’s asked me what kind of commitment I had there — half the commitment I have here. Who would not take that opportunity? Everything about this made sense if you sat down and looked at it for your family, for your future, for your finances. Everything. There was no comparison.”
Mr. Graham, if you never even met with the ASU search committee until after you quit your job at Pitt, how did you even know what “opportunity” was there? What were you comparing?
Mr. Graham, you are insulting the intelligence of the press and the public in general by expecting us to believe you quit your seven figure job at Pitt with no idea of your “opportunity” at ASU. This is what puts you at the top of the list of all time dirt bag coaches! You just can’t stop lying.
but the boy would sure be dumb when you look at who is coaching are OL it is a wonder the OL men arent lineing up to get here.
come to think of it why arent they they should be.
The schedules will be coming out soon, but they are all still in a pickle.
Apparently Pitt and Syracuse are resigned to the fact of playing the following year.
WVU and Big East still fighting.
Found some quotes, saying WVU is going, and they’ll deal with the lawsuits later!!! ha ha
Here’s a link.
And people do crazy things when they’re desperate.
Look at the Captain of that Italian Cruise liner.
The sucker abandoned ship, before 95% of the passengers were even told to abandon ship.
And I hope we just tell WVCC to shove it. Them and their nitwit hillbilly lowlife scum fanbase.
(did I miss any other adjectives to describe those vermin) haha 🙂
i mean they are ours then we talk to them and they want to leave what is up with that.
and one has left for AZ and jones is fast you cant teach speed.
you may be right but right now the facts say outher wise there is a old saying a bird in your hand is better than two in the bush.
but as of right now one commit and one loss and 3 on the fence.
However, no one is going to physically stop the team from doing what it wants.
Some people in the administration have stated that they would rather just go, get sued by the Big East, and pay them in a couple of years. They will have new Big 12 tv money to cover it.
I realize they will probably have to stay, I’m just saying, there is a corner that is saying, “screw it, we’re going”, send us a bill.
I find it interesting, especially with the parties that be, not making any schedules yet.
I think they are going to mediation soon.
Anyone wants to google this stuff, just go to google and type in WVU vs. Big East, a myriad of articles will pop up.
Hey, I know a lot of people are bored with it, I understand that, I just find conference re-alignment interesting how it breaks down.
if you are a coach you have to have some used car sales men in you or fall flat on your face
Sometime the better players with a lot of good offers wait until the last week before LOI day to commit. I can’t fault any kid for looking around though, it’s too big a decision not to.
Speaking of the Costa Concordia, I inspected that ship for safety/environmental compliance as it was being built back in 2005 in Italy- that was when I was a Senior Marine Inspector with the Coast Guard. It was a truly beautiful ship.
Hate to say this but the Italian and Greek crews have a history of looking out for themselves before the passengers in an emergency.
What I wonder is how the watertight compartmentalization was breached The watertight doors must have been left open – they can closed all of them at one time from the bridge.
Of course, the Officers who could authorize that were the first off the vessel.
Frank – Chryst and Co. are out doing a ton of recruiting. They are targeting a lot of players that weren’t on our radar screen before Graham left. The pay sites of the two recruiting sites have articles on this.
I think we’ll certainly see some more commits before LOI day, they just may not be the players we have been hoping for all year.
Next week — he will say that his wife and kids hated living on the boat so he had to rush them to safety … after a prayer session, of course.
Voytik, a Cleveland, Tenn. native, committed to former Pitt coach Todd Graham back in July and has remained a Panthers pledge through the transition to new head coach Paul Chryst, and Lichtenfels reports that the No. 4 rated quarterback according to Rivals.com and U.S. Army All-American remains committed to Pitt, even in light of the Penn State offer.
From SB Nation
What I want information on is what the hell is Chryst doing to fill out his coaching staff and how is he bringing home his first recruiting class? That information is lost out there in the news world right now.
Isn’t anybody else who is concerned with the Pitt football fortunes worried about this lack of positive info besides me?
I think it was a blessing he left.