Herm Edwards agreed to a five-year show-cause penalty in a negotiated resolution with NCAA's Committee on Infractions for his role in Arizona State's recruiting violations involving more than 30 prospects during the Covid-19 no-visit period,people directly aware of the development told Sun Devil Source.
The Committee on Infractions concluded that the school's former head coach extensively participated in impermissible recruiting, meeting with prospects on campus and elsewhere, including at a Paradise Valley house rented specifically for recruiting purposes in July 2020.
Edwards, 69,acknowledged details about his role in the case to NCAA investigators, which contributed to an agreement between the Committee on Infractions and ASU that it will vacate nine of its 10 2021-22 wins for the use of one or more ineligible players.
The punishment against Edwards, which began on April 15, is one of the longest show-cause penalties for a head football coach in NCAA history. It is one year fewer than Jeremy Pruitt received in 2023 for recruiting violations at Tennessee and equal to the length received by Jim Tressel at Ohio State in 2012 for lying to investigators about players being paid for selling memorabilia.
ASU's decision to pay Edwards $4.4 million in severance after he stepped down as head coach following a loss to Eastern Michigan on Sept. 17, 2022, will likely generate fresh scrutiny in light of his admission of wrongdoing in the case. While he had yet to meet with NCAA investigators, they'd already been told of his participation in the infractions by recruits and others, which the school was aware of at the time.
Six other former staffers — assistant coaches Prentice Gill, Derek Hagan, Chris Hawkins, Zak Hill and Robert Rodriguez, and equipment employee Eric Bowman — were also hit with severe show-cause penalties of between three and 10 years that began on April 15, which will make it difficult for them to work in college football during the punishment period. Gill, Hawkins and Hill agreed to their penalties in the negotiated resolution phase with the NCAA's Committee on Infractions.
A show cause is a type of order that requires any NCAA school that might hire someone with the designation to take on the penalties levied against the individual unless they can demonstrate why that should not be the case.
Antonio Pierce, former ASU assistant head coach, recruiting coordinator and defensive coordinator, and current Las Vegas Raiders head coach, will have his case heard separately by the Committee on Infractions. He is believed to be contesting one or more of the extensive allegations made against him.
Multiple former staffers implicated Pierce as the architect of the recruiting strategies that led to the NCAA investigation in their interviews with investigators and in conversations with Sun Devil Source. It is expected that Pierce will also ultimately be hit with a significant multi-year show-cause penalty, multiple people directly familiar with specific details of the investigation said.
Former defensive analyst Anthony Garnett will also have his case heard separately by the Committee on Infractions, which will not release the full findings or details on the individual punishments outlined in this reporting until the cases against Pierce and Garnett are resolved.
Hill, who coordinated the team's offense in 2020 and 2021 and is currently an offensive assistant with the Seattle Seahawks after leading Saguaro High to a 6A state championship last season, received a three-year show-cause penalty that restricts him from any recruiting activities if hired by a college in the next year. In the second and third years, he is not allowed to recruit off campus.
Gill, who was hired as wide receivers coach and assistant recruiting coordinator for the Sun Devils in December 2019, received a five-year show-cause penalty. He took a job in March as an offensive analyst with the Baltimore Ravens after coaching at IMG Academy in Florida last year.
Hawkins, who became the youngest position coach in the Pac-12 in December 2019 when he began coaching defensive backs at ASU, was given a four-year show-cause penalty that restricts him from recruiting on or off campus at any school that hires him for the next three years.
Gill and Hawkins were fired by ASU in January 2022, while Hill and former tight ends coach Adam Breneman resigned the same month in moves related to the NCAA case.
The harshest penalties will be given to Hagan, ASU's former co-wide receivers coach and the school's all-time leading receiver in multiple categories, and Rodriguez, a former defensive line coach who is now coaching outside linebackers for the Arizona Cardinals, due to what was deemed limited cooperation by the NCAA's Committee on Infractions.
Hagan will receive a 10-year show-cause penalty and Rodriguez will receive an eight-year show-cause penalty. Former equipment staffer Eric Bowman, who was accused of accepting money from football coaches in exchange for Sun Devil athletics apparel that was later provided at no cost to recruits, is also expected to receive an eight-year show-cause penalty.
The school also agreed to disassociate for five years with Regina Jackson, the mother of former ASU quarterback Jayden Daniels, who won the Heisman Trophy at LSU and is widely expected to be selected in the first round of the NFL Draft Thursday. Jackson was alleged to have paid for flights and lodging for ASU recruits who impermissibly visited during the period in which it was not allowed.
While ASU agreed with a "failure to monitor" determination, its efforts throughout the investigation were lauded as "exemplary" by the NCAA, which significantly contributed to the successfully negotiated Level I-mitigated classification for the school despite it being considered a severe case of wrongdoing by at least six former staffers who were given Level I-aggravated punishments.
The Sun Devils are serving lesser sanctions than would have been the case in a standard or aggravated Level I infractions case. Their scholarship allotment was reduced by eight over a three-year period with just one reduction remaining in 2024 after being five under the maximum in 2022 and two under the limit last season. Tennessee's reduction of 28 over the probation period is considerably more severe, as an example. ASU also will not be allowed to host recruits for four weeks between April 15 and Aug. 1 and will not be able to have any communication with recruits for four additional weeks in the same period.
After Aug. 1, there will be no additional punishments impacting ASU football other than the one scholarship it won't be able to fill in 2024 and the four-year probation that in and of itself is not penalizing but instead would make any additional violations that occur during the period viewed as more significant.
"The school's acceptance of responsibility and decision to self-impose meaningful core penalties is a model for all schools to follow and is consistent with the expectations of the NCAA's infractions program,"said Jason Leonard, chief hearing officer for the Committee on Infractions panel, in a media release by the NCAA.
