Arizona State athletic director Ray Anderson announced via social media on Sunday that Herm Edwards and Arizona State came to a mutual agreement to part ways.
“We have made the decision to make a change in the leadership of our football program, effective immediately,” the statement read. “By mutual agreement, Coach Edwards and I have determined that he will relinquish 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.”
Edwards, the former head coach of the Jets from 2001-2005, was hired by Arizona State in 2018. He went 26-20 in his tenure in Tempe, winning the Sun Bowl in 2019.
The Sun Devils lost at home Saturday night 30-21 to Eastern Michigan and are under an NCAA investigation for meeting with recruits during the 2020 recruiting pause during the COVID-19 pandemic. They never led during the game.
“It boiled down to one thing, we couldn’t stop them from running the football,” Edwards said after the loss. “They physically got after us, on both sides of the ball. We’ve got to find a way to fix it.”
Arizona State allowed scores on four of their first five defensive possessions and didn’t even get a first down until late in the first quarter.
Running backs coach Shaun Aguano will be the interim head coach. He’s been there since 2019 and prior to that led Chandler High School to four Arizona state championships in eight seasons.