Thursday, it was Ralph Friedgen on the receiving end of at least a one-year coaching reprieve.
24 hours later, another tenured coach at a BcS program has seen his boss remove his backside from the coaching hot seat. For now.
By way of a tweet from Rivals.com‘s Tom Dienhart, Arizona State athletic director Lisa Love told Sports 620 KTAR’s that Dennis Erickson will return as the Sun Devils’ coach in 2011.
“You can put those rumors to rest,” Love when asked about the speculation concerning Erickson’s future beyond this year.
Love seems to be basing her decision to move forward with the current coach based on the progress she sees, a view some would say is at least partially blocked by the losses that are piling up in front of it.
“I still support Dennis Erickson,” she said. “You bet I do. You’ve got to allow someone to go through the entire process. I’m impressed, by the way, with the process, the recruiting roster, the level of talent and the stable of redshirts we now are able to have. As opposed to the last two years of playing true high school freshman. It’s been rewarding to watch.”
The move comes as somewhat of a surprise as Erickson is two games away from what could be the school’s third straight sub-.500 season. After a wildly successful first year in Phoenix -- 10-3 and sharing the Pac-10 title with USC -- Erickson has gone just 13-21, including a 8-17 in conference play.
Despite the apparent downward trend, it appears Erickson is safe. Again, for now.