TEMPE, Ariz. -- Todd Graham made the decision to leave Pittsburgh for Arizona State so suddenly in December that he caught his own son Bo unaware, and Bo is a member of his coaching staff. Bo walked out of a recruiting visit in Philadelphia at 9:30 p.m. and his phone rang.

Todd Graham's tenure at Pitt was short and turbulent. Justin K. Aller/Getty Images

"Hey," Todd Graham said, "you need to come back here. Where are you?"

"You sent me to Philly," Bo said. "Don't you remember? Why do I need to come back?"

"Because I resigned my job."

"You did what?"

"I resigned my job."

"Why? Why would you do that?"

"Because I took another one."

There have been plenty of coaches who have left their school after one season. They are called "gunslinger" or "mercenary" or, in basketball, "Larry Brown."

"Obviously," Graham said, "when you're at a place one year, and you leave like that, you're going to get your head kicked in."

Leaving early in and of itself isn't the reason that Graham incurred the wrath of the college football universe. Graham had been one-and-done before, moving from Rice to Tulsa after the 2006 season. No one thought much about it, especially after he stayed four seasons at Tulsa.

In a business with little security, coaches climb up and down ladders as if they coached in the Candy Land Conference. And Graham has won -- in six years as a head coach, Graham has gone 49-29 (.628).

Graham had reasons to justify leaving Pittsburgh. Arizona State is a bigger school. He left the Big East for the more stable Pacific-12 Conference. Most of all, he left for love.