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Pete Thamel reveals long list of head coach candidates for Arizona State football

Chandler Vesselsby:Chandler Vessels09/18/22

ChandlerVessels

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With the news that Herm Edwards is out as the Arizona State football coach, ESPN senior writer Pete Thamel wasted no time speculating who might replace him. A few hours after the report broke, Thamel tweeted his list of potential candidates to become the next Sun Devils head man.

Thamel’s full list is 12 names long and includes current head coaches Bryan Harsin (Auburn), Kalani Sitake (BYU), Jonathan Smith (Oregon State), Troy Calhoun (Air Force), Charles Huff (Marshall), Matt Entz (North Dakota State) and Sean Lewis (Kent State). Former Texas and Houston head coach Tom Herman is also listed.

Harsin finds himself in an interesting situation at Auburn. The Tigers unsuccessfully attempted to fire him this offseason after a 6-7 finish in his inaugural year. Although he ultimately returned for another season, many believe he could be out as soon as next month. Sitake has been the coach of the Cougars since 2016 and led them to 10-win finishes in both the 2020 and 2021 seasons.

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Alabama offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien, Georgia offensive coordinator Todd Monken, Oklahoma State defensive coordinator Derek Mason and USC defensive coordinator Alex Grinch round out the list.

Of those names, O’Brien, Monken and Mason bring past head coaching experience. O’Brien is a former Penn State coach who also spent seven seasons in the NFL with the Houston Texans, while Mason coached Vanderbilt from 2014-20. Monken coached at Southern Miss from 2013-15.

Grinch has never been a head coach, but has stops as the defensive coordinator at programs such as Ohio State, Oklahoma and now USC. Perhaps Arizona State could be the team that gives him his first opportunity as a head football coach.

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More on Herm Edwards, Arizona State parting ways

The Herm Edwards era is reportedly coming to a close for Arizona State football. After Saturday night’s 30-21 loss to Eastern Michigan, some doubt was raised of whether Edwards survive another disappointing defeat for the Sun Devils.

That doubt has persisted into Sunday as Edwards is reportedly out in Tempe according to SunDevilSource.com’s Chris Karpman.

Edwards produced just a 26-20 record over his five seasons as a head college football coach. While they’ve experienced some success, he has spent his fair share of time on the hot seat as well. With this loss to a MAC opponent and three upcoming games against ranked, Pac-12 opponents, ASU’s Michael Crow seems to have decided that now was the time for a change.

Running backs coach Shaun Aguano will take over as the interim head coach following the news. Aguano has been with the program since 2019 after previously serving as the head coach of Chandler (AZ) High School for eight seasons. In that span, he compiled an 88-19 overall record (including 63-8 over his final five seasons) and won four state championships.

So far this season, Arizona State is off to a 1-2 start with losses in each of the past two weeks. Aguano will get his first opportunity to serve as the head coach when the Sun Devils open Pac-12 play against No. 13 Utah at 7:30 p.m. PT on Saturday.