Of all people, ASU coach Herm Edwards leads Pac-12 football coaches in Twitter followers, with 122,000, and not just by a little bit. Oregon’s Mario Cristobal is next with 83,000.
The charismatic Edwards, who turns 67 next week, would not seem to fit the social media model. But after ASU’s softball team swept three Pac-12 games from Arizona last week, Edwards was pictured applauding from the bleachers.
The Sun Devils' softball program soon tweeted his photo next to the 70-7 score of last year’s Territorial Cup in two-inch high letters. Edwards responded with a "Forks Up!" message.
Forks Up!! 🔱🔱🔱🔱🔱 https://t.co/66MXQC0IsA
— Herm Edwards (@HermEdwards) April 18, 2021
Game on. Isn’t it fun?
Arizona coach Jedd Fisch (with 29,000 Twitter followers) started from behind, but has already surpassed Oregon State's Jonathan Smith (26,000 followers) Colorado's Karl Dorrell (15,000 followers), UCLA’s Chip Kelly (175 followers) and Cal’s Justin Wilcox, who apparently does not have a Twitter account. (And that was before Rob Gronkowski set a Guinness record Friday night.)
Is Twitter going to determine a Rose Bowl champion? Not a chance. But there is evidence that social media, especially Twitter and accompanying video releases, rallies community support. That’s one of the essentials for selling tickets, which leads to home field advantage, which leads to more victories, which leads to better recruiting.
It’s a must for a football school of Arizona’s status.
In his last three months at Arizona, Kevin Sumlin — who has 90,000 Twitter followers, surely most from his Texas A&M days — dispatched 23 Twitter messages. Almost all were football-centric, blah, blah, blah.
Fisch? It’s like comparing 1940s music to a Drake concert.
In the last month, Fisch distributed more than 60 Tweets. One was congratulating the UA soccer team’s victory over defending national champion Stanford. Two were celebrating the UA men’s tennis team’s historic sweep over USC and UCLA. Fisch plays tennis each week with UA coach Clancy Shields.
Fisch tweeted about Rob Gronkowski, Tucson Hall of Fame football coach Jim Young, a visit to the Gospel Rescue Mission, baseball victories over Oregon, softball victories over Oregon State, and others about 2014 Arizona All-American linebacker Scooby Wright, visits from Denver Broncos head coach Vic Fangio and Tucson police officer Marcel Wade, a 1990s UA football standout, who spoke to the football team.
And, oh, yes, Fisch tweeted 16 times about Adia Barnes’ success at the Sweet 16, Elite Eight and Final Four, and put his money where his Twitter handle is by flying to San Antonio twice to support the UA women’s basketball team in person.
The scope of Fisch’s link to the public isn’t unprecedented in the Pac-12. Stanford’s David Shaw also has grasped the importance of social media. In the last month, Shaw tweeted about the success of Stanford’s women’s lacrosse team, its men’s tennis team, it’s synchronized swimming team. And much like Fisch, Shaw didn’t just shut down his laptop and go home.
When Stanford’s women’s basketball team was completing its run as Pac-12 champions, Shaw sat in a chair under the basket at Maples Pavilion and swept the floor during timeouts. The game has changed. If three-time Rose Bowl coach David Shaw is committed to unifying his fan base by sweeping floors, it must have significance.
At the UA’s spring football practice Thursday evening, I bumped into Michael Bates, a five-time NFL Pro Bowl player from Amphitheater High School who was a five-star recruit in the Class of 1989 and the 1992 Barcelona Olympics bronze medal winner at 200 meters.
Bates wasn’t embraced (or even identified) by the Sumlin or Rich Rodriguez staffs, but he is going to be part of Saturday’s Spring Game festivities with former all-conference players such as Tedy Bruschi, Antoine Cason, Ka’Deem Carey and Brooks Reed.
Fisch’s staff also "re-recruited" All-Pac-10 running back Vance Johnson of Cholla High School. The three-time Super Bowl receiver of the Denver Broncos has returned to Tucson for the Spring Game. After 37 years, Johnson is back home thanks to Jedd Fisch.
This has got to be the first time in history than a team on a 12-game losing streak has created a buzz in the community. The school announced the allotment of 5,000 tickets available to the public are in use. In the past 10 years, there were many Spring Games that didn’t draw 2,000 people, and that was before COVID-19 limited attendance.
After Thursday’s practice, senior defensive end JB Brown said "Coach Fisch did a great job of getting the city to buy in."
I asked Fisch what title he would give to a book about the first four months as Arizona’s head coach.
Given the overwhelming restoration project at hand, he could’ve said "Blood, Sweat and Tears" or maybe "Jeopardy."
Instead, he laughed and said: “It really has been amazing. Every part of it. I wake up every morning amazed that I get to do this and get paid for it. I love every moment."
The man who created the “Gronx Zoo’’ for a spring football game has certainly won Chapter 1.
