Herm Edwards out at Arizona State after home loss to Eastern Michigan

Herm Edwards has become the second Power Five coach fired in as many weeks.

Arizona State announced Sunday that it was parting ways with Edwards after the Sun Devils lost 30-21 to Eastern Michigan on Saturday night. The loss dropped ASU to 1-2 after the Sun Devils lost to Oklahoma State in Week 2.

“We have made the decision to make a change in the leadership of our football program, effective immediately,” Arizona State athletic director Ray Anderson said in a statement. "By mutual agreement, Coach Edwards and I have determined that he will relinquish his duties as our head coach. At the core of this is doing what is best for our current team, staff, and university. I understand the frustrations out there. We must do better and that starts with our decision today.”

Per Rivals' Devils Digest, running backs coach Shaun Aguano will be the team's interim head coach. Exactly a week before Arizona State made its decision to fire Edwards, Nebraska announced that Scott Frost was out as its head coach after a home loss to Georgia Southern.

Arizona State has finished above .500 in each of Edwards’ three full seasons with the team but has been the subject of an offseason NCAA inquiry into recruiting violations after ASU allegedly hosted recruits on campus during NCAA-mandated recruiting dead periods. Five assistant coaches departed amid the inquiry, including defensive coordinator and former NFL linebacker Antonio Pierce.

The Sun Devils also saw numerous players transfer out of the program after the 2021 season, including now-LSU starting quarterback Jayden Daniels. The team’s new quarterback is Florida transfer Emory Jones.

Edwards, 68, was hired by Arizona State ahead of the 2018 season by Anderson, a former agent of Edwards. The former NFL head coach came to ASU with no college head coaching experience and last coached at the college level in 1989 when he spent his third and final season as San Jose State’s defensive backs coach.

Arizona State went 26-20 in Edwards’ tenure and was 8-5 in both 2019 and 2021. Edwards was brought in to replace Todd Graham after ASU failed to win more than seven games in any of Graham’s last three seasons with the team. ASU had two 10-win seasons under Graham, something the school never came close to accomplishing with Edwards as the head coach.

Edwards’ future became murky in the hours after the Eastern Michigan loss when school president Michael Crow said the school would be evaluating its football program in the wake of the defeat. ASU was a 20.5-point favorite, according to BetMGM, against EMU.

Before coming to Arizona State, Edwards was working as an analyst at ESPN since his NFL coaching career ended in 2008. Edwards was the head coach of the New York Jets from 2001-05 and the Kansas City Chiefs from 2006-08. The Jets were 39-41 in Edwards’ five seasons and made the playoffs in three seasons. The Chiefs were 9-7 in Edwards’ first year but won a combined six games over his final two seasons to drop Edwards’ career NFL coaching record to 54-74.