So I was writing this weeks hotseat coaches piece not long ago (that will be up sometime this week). Then I decided to look at sports news and check my fantasy team. I'm glad I did because I find that my top spot on the coaching hotseat has been sent to join Locksley, just with a much better chance of getting a coordinator job next season.
Of course I am talking about Mike Stoops, whose Arizona program completely melted down since the middle of last season.
Let's recap. Last season, Arizona destroyed Iowa's season in week 3 on their way to a 4-0 start. They then had a hiccup against Oregon St. (before everyone realized the Beavers weren't any good). After that it was wins over the Washington schools and UCLA to reach 7-1 going into a hyped top-15 showdown with Stanford with national television coverage in primetime from ABC. What happened there was gruesome. Stanford took the Wildcats manhood, blowing Arizona away 42-17. After that came losses to USC and Oregon (totally understandable, especially in the case of the Oregon game). Then came a shock loss to rival Arizona St. where the kicker missed two crucial extra points, one in overtime. After that, a beatdown in the bowl game at the hands of Oklahoma St.
That left Stoops on a bit of a warm seat, but not flaming hot. Then came to the total collapse of the defense, aided by a schedule given to them by the Pac-12 that is totally cruel and their own bad luck. The teams in the streak that destroyed the Wildcats last season were Stanford, Oregon and Oklahoma St. Those were the first three games after the obligatory FCS sacrifice was out of the way. Then came conquerors from last season USC and Oregon St. This was not the recipe for success. And now Stoops is gone and his Wildcats carry a 10-game losing streak against FBS opponents.
Next up for Arizona is a questionmark. They obviously need a ton of help. They just had a fiery defensive guy who couldn't get a good defense on the field. Given that and the fact that Arizona is the only non-new team in the Pac-12 never to play in the Rose Bowl (and the only one other than Cal to never play in a BCS game), the Wildcats are in big trouble. Even with the positives Stoops brought by going to three straight bowl games, the Wildcats have been pretty much toast since the 1999 cross-country trip to Penn St. to start the season that ended in an epic beatdown.
For Stoops, he will be a very good defensive coordinator somewhere. His fiery, tempermental antics didn't work that well as a head coach (especially without winning), but defensive coordinators can get away with those things and Stoops was a very good coordinator when he had good players at Oklahoma.
Mike Leach...that is all.
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