Getty Image / Christian Petersen
Over the summer, reports surfaced that Arizona State University’s football program was under NCAA investigation because of potential recruiting violations. The investigation quickly led to 3 assistants being placed on administrative leave, but we hadn’t heard much about the investigation since.
Today, we got the biggest news yet to come from the investigation. According to Devils Digest, ASU was notified of offensive coordinator Zak Hill’s involvement in the violations and met with him and his lawyer yesterday. After hearing the findings, Hill resigned from his position with the Sun Devils.
BREAKING: ASU OC Zak Hill resigns due to NCAA's review findings https://t.co/wlOx1Mnqcg
— DevilsDigest.com (@DevilsDigest) January 28, 2022
Not only will this impact ASU, but it will also affect one of the SEC’s top programs. Hill was reportedly being considered for Auburn’s offensive coordinator job, but they were hesitant to hire him until the end of this investigation as their basketball is dealing with similar issues.
Now, that he has resigned under these circumstances, that will end any chance he had at the Auburn job.
Arizona State will now need to begin a search of their own for a new offensive coordinator. Some are speculating that this news is why Brian Billick joined ASU’s staff this week, but he will remain in the offensive analyst role he was hired for.
This year was somewhat of a disappointment for the Arizona State offense. In their losses this season, the Sun Devil offense struggled, not topping 21 points in any of their 5 losses. The offense seemingly disappeared late in their biggest games of the year at BYU and Utah.
That BYU game was particularly tough for the offense as they seemingly couldn’t even get a snap off in the 4th quarter without committing a penalty.
We’ve also seen Jayden Daniels struggle to reach the heights of his freshman season in his two years under Hill.
The focus of ASU’s search for Hill’s replacement should be to find one who can bring the best out of Jayden Daniels as that will be what gives this team the best chance to win, especially with them losing their top 2 running backs.
The Sun Devils will be hoping that this is the last of the news to come from this NCAA review and now will turn their attention toward hiring an offensive coordinator that can help them compete in what should be a tough PAC-12 next season. Maybe there’s another former NFL coach out there for them.