{"id":3598,"date":"2016-11-10T17:46:55","date_gmt":"2016-11-10T22:46:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordoncollegefootball.com\/?p=3598"},"modified":"2021-12-29T23:27:03","modified_gmt":"2021-12-30T04:27:03","slug":"lane-kiffins-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2016\/11\/10\/lane-kiffins-return\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Todd Graham About to Open the Door for Lane Kiffin&#8217;s Return?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3 style=\"text-align: left;\">The Future of Todd Graham at Arizona State<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cbssports.com\/college-football\/news\/no-15-utah-at-arizona-state-game-pick-prediction-line-utes-try-to-survive-test\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tonight<\/a>, the <strong>Utah<\/strong>\u00a0<strong>Utes<\/strong>, ranked 15th in the latest CFP poll and 19th in our poll,\u00a0will try to wrap up the <strong>Pac-12 South<\/strong> by taking home the win against the\u00a0<strong>Arizona State Sun Devils.<\/strong>\u00a0There will be an underlying storyline unfolding during\u00a0the game; one that will be more pertinent to <strong>SEC<\/strong> fans. Arizona State coach <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.deseretnews.com\/media\/photos\/hires\/web-1766186.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Todd Graham<\/a><\/strong> is moving closer to the hot seat, as he is now 5-4. The Sun Devils have lost four of the past five games after a great 4-0 start. This is their last home game with tough match-ups\u00a0at #4 <strong>Washington<\/strong> and rival <strong>Arizona<\/strong> to come. Thus, this may be the Sun Devils&#8217;\u00a0best chance to become bowl eligible. If Graham\u00a0doesn&#8217;t win tonight, it could mean his job.<\/p>\n<h3>Lane Kiffin&#8217;s Return?<\/h3>\n<p>Enter <strong>Lane Kiffin<\/strong>. The success of <strong>Alabama&#8217;s<\/strong> Offensive Coordinator makes it hard to remember the trials that preceded his time in <strong>Tuscaloosa.<\/strong> Yet\u00a0it was just three years ago that <strong>USC<\/strong> fired Kiffin on the airport tarmac. Interestingly enough, the team was returning from a loss to Arizona State. Now many <a href=\"https:\/\/www.seccountry.com\/alabama\/three-reasons-why-lane-kiffin-should-be-a-head-coach-next-year\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">experts posit<\/a> that Lane Kiffin will no doubt <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/ncaaf\/2016\/09\/22\/alabama-offensive-coordinator-lane-kiffin-head-coach-potential-programs\/90841520\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">be a head coach next year<\/a>. But the question at hand, as posed by <strong>Tony Barnhart,<\/strong> is <em>how<\/em> good of a job can Kiffin actually get.<\/p>\n<p>Arizona State is certainly a quality job in college football. A big school with a large alumni base. Above average facilities, a decent tradition, and a good administration. And they play in a good conference that&#8217;s on solid footing. The Pac-12 South is a good division, and winnable.<\/p>\n<p>With that in mind, tonight while you watch the game, picture Lane Kiffin pacing the sideline with a pitchfork on his coaching jacket and an ASU visor adorning is very offensive-minded cranium. Does it fit? Probably, considering his aptitude for the west coast style of offense and his ties to high school coaches in <strong>California,<\/strong> which will obviously help with recruiting. Kiffin has personal ties to the west coast and the Pac-12, having played his college football at Fresno State and his two coaching stints at USC.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, Graham still has an opportunity to prove he belongs in <strong>Tempe<\/strong>. But there&#8217;s no question Graham has lost momentum. After a convincing 55-31 win over <strong>Notre Dame<\/strong> in Week 10 of the 2014 season, Arizona State sat at 8-1, atop the Pac-12 South, and was ranked seventh in the nation. They would finish with losses to <strong>Oregon State<\/strong> and rival <strong>Arizona<\/strong>. A promising season ended in the a <strong>Sun Bowl<\/strong> victory over <strong>Duke<\/strong>. A good season, to be sure, but not what was expected just four weeks before. Since the Notre Dame victory, the Sun Devils are 13-13, with one bowl win and one bowl loss.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo<\/p>\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color: #fff; display: inline-block; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; color: #a7a7a7; font-size: 11px; width: 100%; max-width: 594px;\">\n<div style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0; text-align: left;\"><a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/617294378\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 72.053872% 0 0 0; width: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; margin: 0;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/617294378?et=glUZruftSdxw1Shozx_jHQ&amp;viewMoreLink=off&amp;sig=eYDQb-8eph3YpiEOPuWBMDAX6j-WlEUDaBCMbrRdogs=&amp;caption=true\" width=\"594\" height=\"428\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p style=\"margin: 0;\">\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tonight&#8217;s game against #15 Utah could determine whether Arizona State coach Todd Graham returns next year. If he doesn&#8217;t, could Lane Kiffin take his place?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1758,"featured_media":3624,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[35,320,79,495,452,318],"class_list":["post-3598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-pac12","tag-alabama-crimson-tide","tag-arizona-state-sun-devils","tag-college-football","tag-lane-kiffin","tag-todd-graham","tag-utah-utes"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1758"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}