Meet the next Bobby Petrino.

Todd Graham is leaving Pittsburgh to become Arizona State’s new head coach.  This makes his third head coaching move in four seasons, I believe.  And his departure was classy indeed.

… Pitt’s players were informed in a statement from Graham that was sent via text by assistant athletic director/football operations Blair Philbrick.

“I have resigned my position at Pitt in the best interest of my family to pursue the head coaching position at Arizona State,” Graham said. “Coaching there has always been a dream of ours and we have family there. The timing of the circumstances have prohibited from telling you this directly. I now am on my way to Tempe to continue those discussions. God Bless. Coach Graham.”

Well, God may work in mysterious ways, but Graham sure doesn’t.  He’s simply a hooker with a whistle.

… If these statements are true, they might not necessarily even mark a significant departure from Graham’s past negotiating tactics, which most notably include using bathroom breaks during contract talks with Rice University to leverage a better deal with Tulsa via cell phone in 2007.  Graham also reportedly got Pittsburgh to raise their initial offer to him in January by nearly half a million dollars by convincing the Pitt administration that he had nearly unbreakable ties to the Tulsa community.  He even went so far as to claim that his wife, Penni, would leave him if he left Tulsa, and had his wife write Facebook and Twitter status updates meant to mislead the Tulsa community as to his whereabouts during communications with Pitt officials.

I’m just amazed athletic directors keep hiring the guy.