Arizona State’s extremely business-jargony press release somehow made its hire of Herm Edwards even weirder

Arizona State AD Ray Anderson is hiring Herm Edwards, the former NFL coach who counted Anderson as his agent way back in the day. Edwards hasn’t coached full time since 2008 and hasn’t coached in college since 1989 at San Jose State, and ASU just paid eight digits to fire a winning Todd Graham to try and install Edwards atop the existing coaching staff.

All of that is really weird.

Now let’s get even weirder.

Here’s a portion of ASU’s 2,600-word announcement of the hire. See how much of this you understand:

Arizona State University and Vice President of University Athletics Ray Anderson has unveiled plans for a restructured ASU football model and named former NFL head coach Herman Edwards as the 24th head coach of Sun Devil Football, pending approval by the Arizona Board of Regents.

The department’s New Leadership Model will be similar to an NFL approach using a general manager structure. It’s a collaborative approach to managing the ASU football program that includes sport and administrative divisions, which will operate as distinct, but collective units focused on elevating all aspects of Sun Devil Football. This structure will allow the department to form a multi-layered method to the talent evaluation and recruiting processes, increase its emphasis on both student-athlete and coach development and retention, and provide a boost in resource allocation and generation.

“Our goal for this football program is to reach unprecedented heights, and therefore we need to find a way to operate more innovatively and efficiently than we have in the past,” Anderson said. “In the spirit of innovation, our vision for this program is to have a head coach who serves as a CEO and is the central leader with a collaborative staff around him that will elevate the performance of players and coaches on the field, in the classroom and in our community. Equally important, the head coach will be a dynamic and tireless recruiter.”

Edwards, who will oversee the New Leadership Model, arrives in Tempe with a football legacy that has impacted thousands, whether as a player, coach, analyst, motivational speaker and author, or community advocate and philanthropist.

The New Leadership Model will allow for resource sharing and strategic planning between the football staff and administrators who are directly involved with the program. The administrative division will be primarily composed of Anderson, Executive Senior Associate Athletics Director Jean Boyd and Senior Associate Athletics Director Scottie Graham. The sport division will operate with an experienced and senior football administrator, Senior Associate Athletic Director Tim Cassidy, helping to manage day-to-day operations, along with a variety of staffers responsible for player development, player personnel, and recruiting, among other areas.

Sun Devil Football’s existing recruiting infrastructure will be upgraded through additional staff support and evaluation resources, by instilling a culture of accountability at all levels, and building long-term relationships in communities across the country to help ensure recruiting quality and consistency. Both the sport and administrative divisions will play key roles in student-athlete development.

The New Leadership Model affords coordinators and assistant coaches more flexibility in how they develop student-athletes on the field, and enables Sun Devil Football to build on the ‘Championship Life’ program already in place through the Office of Student-Athlete Development to better equip student-athletes with the tools and skills necessary to succeed in their respective future endeavors.

Boyd is a former ASU football student-athlete who has risen to the role of Executive Senior Associate Athletic Director after 22-plus years of experience in Sun Devil Athletics. He has overseen the dramatic evolution of the department’s Student-Athlete Development efforts and has been nationally recognized.

Graham, who joined Sun Devil Athletics in June 2014, has served as a sport administrator with additional responsibilities surrounding student-athlete development and welfare for the past three-plus years. He will transition to a new role where he will serve as the liaison between the sport and administrative divisions. He has an extensive background with the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) as he was the Director of Player Engagement for four years before arriving in Tempe, playing a key role in cultivating, maintaining and enhancing relationships with current and former players, business partners and other stakeholders.

Edwards will take a proactive approach to developing coordinators and assistant coaches, drawing on his nearly three decades of NFL experience in a variety of capacities and wide range of leadership positions within both the sport of football and in other endeavors.

What does that mean? It means a lot, man.

In short: