Former Pitt football coach Todd Graham details his reasons for leaving the Panthers for Arizona State, and they’re not pretty.

“Somebody out there in the corporate world does it and no one says anything about it,” Graham said this week. "Everybody on the planet is going to do what’s best for them.

“The difference is this: We’re working with young people. We’re educators. I’m not saying I didn’t make a mistake. I’m not saying I didn’t have any regrets.

“I think the mistake was making the move in the first place.”

Ouch. Elsewhere, Graham says he actually resigned at Pitt before being offered the Arizona State job, since Pitt wouldn’t give him permission to interview. He also says he deserved to get slammed for his abrupt departure and for his decision to inform his players by text message, but that he told them that way because he didn’t want them to “find out on the news.” He also denies specifically calling his former Pitt assistants who left for Arizona “mercenaries.”

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