Three straight bowl bids not enough for ASU's Koetter
TEMPE, Ariz. -- Arizona State fired football coach Dirk Koetter on Sunday after he led his team to a bowl the last three seasons but rarely beat the best in the Pac-10.
Athletic director Lisa Love made the announcement Sunday night following the team's annual awards banquet.
Koetter went 40-33 in six seasons at ASU. There was no word on whether he would coach the team in a bowl game.
The Sun Devils completed a 7-5 regular season with a 28-14 victory over rival Arizona in Tucson on Saturday, clinching their third consecutive postseason berth. Koetter went 4-2 against the Wildcats.
His dismissal comes less than a year after Love gave him a contract extension through the 2009 season. The deal called for Koetter to be paid a total of $2.85 million from 2007-09.
It's the second time in seven years the school has fired a coach with a winning record after he earned a bowl berth. Koetter succeeded Bruce Snyder, who went 58-47 in nine seasons and was dismissed despite getting to the Aloha Bowl in 2000.
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| Dirk Koetter meets the press after learning he would lose his job. (AP) |
Koetter went 4-7 in his first season at ASU, finishing ninth in the Pac-10. But he seemed to have turned the program around in 2002, posting an 8-4 record and earning a Holiday Bowl berth with a third-place conference finish.
But a pattern had begun. ASU won five games in 2003, nine in 2004 and seven in 2005. That inconsistency, coupled with Koetter's 2-19 record against ranked teams, led to mounting criticism from Sun Devils fans.
This season brought high expectations, with ASU ranked 24th in the AP preseason Top 25. But Koetter came under intense scrutiny at the end of fall camp when he anointed senior Sam Keller his starting quarterback, then changed his mind and gave the job to sophomore Rudy Carpenter less than two days later.
Keller soon transferred to Nebraska, where he is sitting out this season under NCAA rules.
The episode seemed to become a footnote as the Sun Devils won their first three games against Northern Arizona, Nevada and Colorado. But it loomed large when the offense struggled and the Sun Devils opened Pac-10 play with losses to California, Oregon and Southern California.
Koetter's offense is typically among the most productive in the nation. But Carpenter, who led the nation in passing efficiency a year ago, struggled behind an injury-riddled line and had little help from an inexperienced receiving corps.
The losses to Cal and USC left Koetter 0-12 against Pac-10 teams in California. He went 21-28 in the Pac-10.
