ASU football coach Herm Edwards: Sparky, not pitchfork, should be Sun Devils' primary logo

ASU football coach Herm Edwards was featured in a story by USA TODAY Sports' George Schroeder on Thursday.

In the story, the coach discussed, among other things, being thrown off by the Sun Devils' use of a pitchfork instead of its mascot, Sparky, as the team's primary logo.

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From the story:

There was that introductory news conference last December, which included Edwards’ current agent taking a turn at the mic and an odd moment when a reporter introduced himself as being from Devils Digest – and things briefly seemed to spin off the rails.

“Devils Digest, huh?” Edwards asked, and then noted that he is Catholic and to “watch out for them devils.”

At that point, some wondered, in all seriousness: Did Edwards even know the Arizona State mascot?

“It’s funny,” he says, laughing, and he notes that he was recruited by Frank Kush and Arizona State (he chose California). “… I was messing with the guy. I was being funny. That’s how I am. I like to have fun. I think people that knew me just go, ‘Oh, there’s coach, he’s having fun.’”

Edwards says the only thing that threw him, just a little, was to learn Arizona State’s primary logo is no longer Sparky the Sun Devil, but instead a pitchfork (which he says “looks like a candle”). Sparky, he says, “is the best one! I mean, c’mon!”

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Some other highlights from the story:

Edwards said he's never really been out of coaching: “When you’re on TV, you’re still coaching, believe it or not,” Edwards said. “You’re just coaching America, you’re not coaching one team.”

On his "cuts" comments that caused such an uproar: “You know what? Everybody does it,” he said. “This is not the first it’s ever been done in college football. But you know what? I said it. Most don’t say it. I gave (the players) forewarning: ‘Guys, this is how it works, OK? No one’s fault. I’m not pointing at you. Your resume is on that tape.’ I don’t know – that’s how it works. ... You’ve got to compete! You can’t all of the sudden, ‘Oh, I made it.’ You ain’t made it! I competed every day as a professional football player. … You’ve got to like competing. That’s how your team gets better, when you have competition every day.”

RELATED: Herm Edwards sends harsh message: He may cut scholarship players

On Stanford being the standard for his program: “They’re always in the mix to win the conference and maybe go to the Rose Bowl. They’re always in the conversation,” he said. “That’s what we want to become. That’s the goal. That’s the plan. Then you go from there, but if you do that, you’ve always got a chance – that’s why you‘ve got to understand your DNA.”

On his slogan for the players: “We’ve got a slogan on our shirts I gave to the players,” he said – and he bounces back into view to display a gray workout shirt with a pitchfork on the front and a message on the back: “WORDS AND ACTIONS.” “Here’s what I tell ‘em,” Edwards adds, referring to his Arizona State players. “‘Hey man, does that match up? … If you can do that, you’ll be OK. If you can just do that in life, you’ll be OK.’”

Click here to read George Schroeder's entire story on Herm Edwards.

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