Over four years ago, Arizona State athletic director Ray Anderson announced the hiring of Herm Edwards as the 24th head coach in Sun Devil football history. During the announcement, he preached about a visionary ‘New Leadership Model.’
That term coined by Anderson was soon trivialized into what is known today as the ‘NFL model.’ It’s a lot of administrative jargon, but at the time, the Sun Devil athletics leadership team believed they were tapping into something that could propel the program into a future of unprecedented success.
In essence, the athletic department would double as an NFL-style front office, and the head coach, Edwards, would double as somewhat of a ‘CEO of football,’ managing more than simply the X’s and O’s.