Background and career
Michael Todd Graham (born December 5, 1964) is an American college football coach and former player who serves as an offensive analyst for Texas Christian University (TCU). He was previously the head football coach at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.
Graham was an all-district defensive back at North Mesquite High School, from which he graduated in 1983. He then went on to play at East Central University in Ada, Oklahoma, where he was a two-time All-NAIA defensive back. After graduation from East Central, Graham briefly signed with the Arizona Cardinals of the NFL in 1987.
Graham began his coaching career in 1988 as an assistant at Poteet High School in his hometown of Mesquite. He later held head coaching positions at Carl Albert High School in Midwest City, Oklahoma, and Allen High School in Allen, Texas before becoming linebackers coach under Rich Rodriguez at West Virginia University in 2001. The following season Graham was assigned to defensive co-coordinator. In 2003, he was hired by Steve Kragthorpe as the defensive coordinator at Tulsa, where he helped guide the Golden Hurricane to two bowl games in three seasons. Graham built one of the best defensive units in Conference USA and the nation before leaving the position following his third year at Tulsa for his first head coaching stint.
Graham was hired as the head coach at Rice on January 1, 2006. This followed the resignation of long-time coach Ken Hatfield after the Owls had finished 1–10 in 2005. At Rice, athletic director Chris Del Conte helped Graham raise $5.5 million for renovating Rice Stadium and replacing the dated AstroTurf with FieldTurf. He hired former University of Texas quarterback Major Applewhite as his offensive coordinator, replacing the triple option offense Hatfield had been running with a more balanced attack. Behind quarterback Chase Clement and All-American receiver Jarett Dillard, Rice pulled off the biggest turnaround of the 2006 season, finishing 7–5 and earning an invitation to the New Orleans Bowl, the school's first bowl game since 1961. Graham was named Conference USA Coach of the Year, and was rewarded by the Rice administration with the offer of a significant pay raise and contract extension. After signing this extension, Graham left for Tulsa only a few days later. Graham received much criticism for this move. On November 24, 2007, when Tulsa played Rice at Rice Stadium, the Rice University Marching Owl Band presented a halftime show named "Todd Graham's Inferno" (based on Dante's "The Divine Comedy"), which concluded with the band announcer calling Graham "a douchebag". This resulted in a formal protest to Conference USA by Tulsa's athletic department. Chuck Throckmorton, the marching band's director, later apologized for offending anyone, but not for the show. Tulsa won the game 48–43. Following Graham's exodus, Rice hired David Bailiff, who led Rice to its 2008 Texas Bowl, and its 2012 Armed Forces Bowl and the 2013 Conference USA title.
When the Tulsa head coaching position was vacant following the 2002 season, Graham sent in his application. It was not until five years later that Graham took over the reins as the Golden Hurricane head coach. After serving three years as Tulsa defensive coordinator and one year as Rice head coach, Graham was introduced as Tulsa's 27th head football coach on January 12, 2007. For his offensive coordinators, Graham turned to his friend, Gus Malzahn, then offensive coordinator at the University of Arkansas, and Herb Hand, tight ends coach at West Virginia University. He also hired former Golden Hurricane quarterback and coach at Tulsa's Union High School, Bill Blankenship as wide receivers coach. With an annual salary of $1.1 million Graham was the second-highest-paid coach in Conference USA, behind SMU's June Jones in 2010. In his final season at Tulsa, the team reached a 10–3 record that included a 28–27 upset at Notre Dame and 62–35 win over No. 24 Hawaii in the 2010 Hawaii Bowl.
Graham was announced as Pitt's head coach on January 10, 2011. He was hired after Michael Haywood, the initial choice to replace sixth-year coach Dave Wannstedt, was fired after a domestic dispute. Graham subsequently led the team to a disappointing 6–6 regular season later that fall. Less than one year from his hiring, on December 13, Graham informed athletic director Steve Pederson that he had discussed a head coaching opportunity at Arizona State. After being informed he did not have permission to talk to the school about the job and refusing conversations with Pederson and another administrator, Graham resigned and subsequently accepted the head coaching job at Arizona State. Reportedly, Graham's wife had never been happy in Pittsburgh in the first place and wanted to move closer to her family. Graham informed the Pitt players of his departure the following day by having a text message forwarded to the team by director of football operations Blair Philbrick. Two weeks prior to leaving Pitt, Graham referred to assistant coaches who left to join the staff of Rich Rodriguez at Arizona as "nothing but mercenaries." In later interviews, Graham claimed those comments were taken out of context. He said he wasn't referring to the coaches who left Pittsburgh and that he was having a conversation with reporters generally about college football coaching and said, "A lot of times coaches jump around everywhere, they're like mercenaries." The style in which Graham left, in combination with his quick departures from other universities, led to criticism of Graham in both local and national media. University of Pittsburgh players also openly criticized Graham for his quick departure. Defensive tackle Chas Alecxih said most players were "shocked and appalled." Wide receiver Devin Street's comments were a little more severe stating, "It's been all a lie this whole time. Everything he told us has been a lie." Another one of Graham's players at the time, senior offensive tackle Lucas Nix, stated that he felt Graham's exiting text message wasn't worthy of the trust the team had put into Graham and his program. "We put our trust in him, and all he could do was send us a text message," Nix said.
