Arizona State president raises doubt in Herm Edwards' job security following Eastern Michigan loss

Eastern Michigan outright dogged Arizona State on the gridiron Saturday night 30-21 despite coming into the game as 20-point underdogs.

With the loss dropping the Sun Devils to 1-2 on the young season, Arizona State President Michael Crow chimed in on the state of the program, and where it could be headed in the future – particularly regarding head coach Herm Edwards.

“They showed up to play, and we didn’t Crow told the Arizona Republic, via The Athletic’s Nicole Auerbach after the loss. “That’s basically the outcome. … Like anything, when you’re in combat, you support your officers. And we’re in combat. But we’ll have to decide where we’re going from here and decide the issues are and see where we’re headed.”

Edwards has a 26-20 record as the ASU headman since taking over the role in 2018. Aside from the four-game COVID-impacted 2020 season, Edwards has led the Sun Devils to bowl games in every season and has won eight games in two of the past three seasons.

With two weeks of the hardest stretch of schedule Arizona State has left vs. No. 14 Utah and at No. 7 USC coming up, Edwards has a chance to silence his critics – or prove them right.

Arizona State football players become first to monetize highlights through NIL

On the first play from scrimmage in Arizona State‘s football season, defensive back Edward Woods shed a blocker to wrap up Northern Arizona‘s Coleman Owen after Owen broke two tackles. A new-in-2022 benefit is that Woods can monetize the video of the play using his NIL, thanks to a new partnership involving the Pac-12, Twitter, NIL technology company Opendorse and technology company Tempus Ex Machina.

The partnership was announced in early August and Arizona State football players provided the first examples of its utility.

Since the Sun Devils won their season opener 40-3 last Thursday night in a game that aired on the Pac-12 Network, Woods was able to share the highlight at 10:26 a.m. PDT Saturday, or 1:26 p.m. EDT. That’s when much of the country’s college football-watching audience was tuned into the first window of Saturday’s Week 1 games.

At least nine Arizona State players posted highlights on Saturday or Sunday, including Woods, defensive back D.J. Taylor Jr., kicker Eddie Czaplicki, wide receiver Gio Sanders, defensive lineman Omarr Norman-Lott, running back Daniyel Ngata, defensive back Willie Harts, offensive tackle Isaia Glass and defensive lineman Tautala Pesefea Jr.