Former ASU coach Todd Graham's name comes up as replacement for Arizona's Kevin Sumlin

Jeremy Cluff | The Republic | azcentral.com

The seat is getting warmer for Arizona coach Kevin Sumlin, whose Wildcats are 4-5 on the season after a disappointing homecoming loss to Oregon State on Saturday.

Arizona ends the regular season with games against Oregon, Utah and Arizona State, so there is a real possibility it could finish the year 4-8, with seven straight losses.

Could Arizona fire its football coach after just his second season in Tucson?

Chatter is starting to heat up along with Sumlin's seat as the Wildcats' coach.

Fox Sports' 910's Jody Oehler devoted time to the topic on his radio show Monday.

Early in the show, he teased the Sumlin segment with this:

"I think it's time to start talking about Kevin Sumlin," Oehler said. "I think it's time to start talking about is there anyone out there that should entire the Arizona Wildcats athletic department to consider options beyond Kevin Sumlin knowing financially, they are not going to be able to break the bank for anybody. So there's some context to that conversation other than just fire Kevin Sumlin and hire someone else. Financially it would have to be a needle in a haystack and I want to explore whether that is even possible."

Later in the show, Oehler expounded on the state of the Wildcats program and Sumlin as its head coach.

"The Arizona Wildcats football program is once again back in the death cycle." Oehler said. "Hire that gets people excited, brief success, eventually things cool off, people stop showing up to games, you lose a lot, you lose badly, you're forced to make a change. The problem is they owe Kevin Sumlin $7 million, they paid Rich Rodriguez $6 million. They would pay $15 million they would have to come up with in order to buy out Kevin Sumlin and the coaching staff. It's not happening."

If it were to happen, however, Oehler brought up a name that could be a possibility: Former ASU coach Todd Graham.

"There are a few options, like this is a name I think every Arizona Wildcats fan is going to dry heave when I mention, but honestly I would be curious to know whether you would make this decision," Oehler said. "You know who is available, who has got a career record of 95-61 and a familiarity with not only the state, but the conference. Todd Graham would probably work for free. Todd Graham would probably sign up for $1.5 million a year and I think at this point Kevin Sumlin has orchestrated this program to fall behind Oregon State. That is not a place that he is likely to come back from."

Sumlin is 9-12 in two seasons at Arizona and the cost of his buyout makes it very difficult to see him getting fired as the Wildcats' coach.

He is also has a promising freshman quarterback in Grant Gunnell, who has shown some positive things on the field.

Graham has been out of coaching since being fired at Arizona State. He went 46-32 in his six seasons in Tempe, but was replaced by Herm Edwards in 2018.

Oehler doesn't see Arizona moving on from Sumlin.

"The options all have to be cheap ...," Oehler said. "The reality of the financial landscape is in order for Arizona to make a hire that probably moves the needle immediately they would probably have to double the salary that they are paying Kevin Sumlin at the same time laying out approximately $15 million between the Rich Rod and Sumlin buyouts. That is not happening. That is the financial reality of the Arizona Wildcats athletic department ... You are stuck with Kevin Sumlin and it is probably going to get worse."

Oehler isn't the only one to speculate about Sumlin's future in Tucson.

coacheshotseat.com, a site that ranks college football coaches in danger of being fired, has Sumlin up to No. 10 on its list of coaches in that situation after last week's college football games.

Fansided also did a list of possible replacements for Kevin Sumlin at Arizona, should the Wildcats make the expensive decision to move on from his as their coach, and included five names.

Graham was not on the list.

Interestingly, Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo, who was thought to be the favorite to land the Wildcats' job before Sumlin was hired, was No. 1 on the Fansided list of potential replacements for Sumlin.