Marvin Lewis is back in football, just not the NFL. The former Cincinnati Bengals head coach is joining Herm Edwards' staff at Arizona State, per Bruce Feldman of FOX Sports. Feldman reports that Lewis' title will be “special advisor.”

Marvin Lewis experimented with some broadcasting work after getting fired, doing commentary for AAF games. The AAF has since folded, and Lewis was apparently itching to get involved with the game. Lewis is coming off 16 seasons as the Bengals' coach, getting fired after this past season.

Lewis turned a team that was always one of the league's worst into a consistent playoff contender for a while, but eventually things got stale in Cincy. He was one of the longest tenured coaches in recent NFL history when the Bengals finally decided to replace him with Zac Taylor.

Lewis made the playoffs seven times with the Bengals, an impressive job, but never managed to win a playoff game. He went 131-122-3 across his 16 seasons as head coach.

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The coaching staff at ASU managed to become even more high profile, and it will now have two former NFL head coaches in the program. A lot of people were dismissive about the idea of Edwards, the former Chiefs and Jets coach, coaching in college, but it has worked out pretty well so far.

His promise of NFL connections has helped him land a bunch of top recruits, and the team had a solid if not spectacular season last year. Lewis will bring at least the impression of even more NFL connections, which should continue to help with recruiting.