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Here Comes The Boom: An In-Depth Analysis of Todd Graham's Twitter Account

What does Mahatma Gandhi have in common with Sun Devil themed hashtags? They both make plenty of appearances on Todd Graham's Twitter account.

By Kerry Crowley
Graham's goal? Be the No. 1 tweeter in college football.
Graham's goal? Be the No. 1 tweeter in college football.
Christian Petersen

Changing the culture of the program? Check.

Winning a bowl game? Check.

Bringing home the Territorial Cup? Check.

Becoming a Twitter superstar? Well....

Through the first 16 months of Todd Graham's tenure as Arizona State's football coach, Graham delivered on plenty of promises. Sun Devil fans knew about most of Graham's goals, but what the maroon and gold faithful didn't know is that Graham had designs on something greater.

Graham laid the foundation for his newest venture by winning the trust of the Arizona State brass. He got players to buy in, and in turn, the fans pledged their loyalties to Graham. The Sun Devil taskmaster appeared to have everything going for him, but on April 8, 2013, everything changed.

On that day, the Arizona State community caught a glimpse of Graham's vision. Graham plans on taking over the college football universe. And it starts with his Twitter account.

After more than four months of providing his followers with insightful tweets, we take an in-depth look at what Graham's Twitter reveals.

The Fast Facts (As of 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday)

Account: @CoachGrahamASU

Tweets: 141

Following: 100

Followers: 3,561

Mahatma Gandhi Quotes: 5

A Star is Born

How ironic that Graham's Twitter career started with a note on perfection! After all, Sun Devil fans have been treated to four months of pure gold since Graham joined the rest of the world on social media.

Graham's Twitter is partly inspirational, partly informative, and partly a 49-year-old man treading water in an incredibly entertaining way on the Internet. I mean, it's not everyday stuff like this pops up on our timelines.

So what exactly does Graham tweet about? Let's find out!

The Quotes

While Mahatma Gandhi appears to be one of Graham's favorite historical figures, others don't appear too far behind.

In fact, in Graham's 141 tweets, he's managed to provide insights from the politicians like Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy, sports figures like Vince Lombardi and Pat Riley, and legends like Walt Disney and Helen Keller.

From the Navy Seals to Eleanor Roosevelt, if you've inspired millions, you've inspired Graham enough to earn a mention on his Twitter.

Here's our "Top 3" Quotes from Graham

3.

2.

1.

The Hashtags

Aside from providing us with the motivational means to rise in the mornings with his quotes, Graham has become a master of the hashtag.

Graham's hashtags have become contagious among Sun Devil faithful, as the lingo has spread to the Twitters of maroon and gold devotees.

His three most popular hashtags?

1. #AnyChallenge appears in 67 of his tweets, which means nearly 48 percent of Graham's thoughts concern conquering anything that comes his way.

2. #SunDevilBrotherHood shows up in 45 tweets, so 32 percent of his tweets are graced by one of the longest hashtags we've ever seen. Shockingly, it took more than a month for Graham to first use this hashtag, but it has really picked up steam of late!

3. #SpeakVictory has earned a place in 40 tweets, but we happen to think that way more than 28 percent of Graham's tweets do what his hashtag says.

The Boom

After establishing himself as a social media diehard, Graham's tweets took on an intriguing new element on July 23rd. On that fateful day, the college football universe saw it's first "BOOM" sighting. Thankfully, the world is now a better place.

College coaches aren't allowed to publicly comment on verbal commitments, so someone decided to invent Twitter. That way, coaches can announce that they have landed the next great recruit, without breaking NCAA rules.

At Ole Miss, the coaching staff tweets "Yahtzee!!!" while UCLA coaches check in with a variation of the phrase "8 Clap." When Graham learned about this recruiting forum, he and his coaching staff decided to informally patent the phrase "Boom".

Once Graham and Co. established the "Boom", recruits began to jump on board. With so many eager passengers counting down the days to play for him, Graham decided he needed a bus to fit all of the new players for the Class of 2014. And the #BOOMbus was born.

Now, the local media sits by computers throughout the day awaiting a "Boom" sighting so they can be the first to churn out recruiting articles for Sun Devil fans. It's a wonderfully exhilarating process, just ask us!

Who He Follows

Like many college football coaches, Graham doesn't have time to scroll through Twitter regularly, so he tries to keep the sample size on his timeline small.

Graham has committed to following 100 different tweeters, and they all fit into obvious categories.

Nine current Sun Devil players have earned the respect of their coach on Twitter, including the first three quarterbacks on the depth chart. Carl Bradford and D.J. Foster are among those Graham follows, but we can't help but think he's missing out on the brilliance of All Pac-12 tweeters like Jamil Douglas and Rashad Wadood.

For Example

But we can't blame Graham for throwing a follow Mike Bercovici's way...

Graham also follows every assistant coach on Twitter. Coincidentally (or not coincidentally in the slightest), all of the assistants tweet exactly like Graham and joined Twitter around the same time that he did.

Coach Dan Lanning

Finally, the rest of the fine folks Graham follows are the recruits he's trying to snag for the Class of 2014. Regardless if players have committed to other schools or not (Ahemm Kyle Allen), Graham still keeps up with their lives.

Although some recruits tweet five gazillion times per day, Graham must enjoy seeing quarterback Manny Wilkins get his reps in on social media.

The Goal

Let's go back to Graham's goal of gaining Twitter stardom.

Unfortunately, Graham has a ways to go if he wants to catch up. Les Miles of LSU has a cool 114,000 followers and Notre Dame's Brian Kelly isn't far behind with more than 94,000.

But can Graham at least catch up to his Pac-12 colleagues? Steve Sarkisian appears to pace the conference with 48,000 followers, while Lane Kiffin has 30,000 of his own.

Down in Tucson, RichRod has amassed more than 8,000 followers, but let's be honest: RichRod's Twitter is downright awful.

56 tweets? If they were as compelling as Graham's Gandhi quotes then maybe that would be justifiable. But the Wildcats' head honcho has tweeted ONCE in the past 365 days.

So Sun Devil fans, give @CoachGrahamASU the encouragement he deserves and follow him on Twitter. And while you're at it, check out @HouseOfSparky for all of your Arizona State sporting updates.

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