I’m taking a bit of a Ute break because frankly its just a little depressing right now, Wynn is gone, Jon Hays isn’t good and I’m sad.
So I’ll talk about someone else’s misery and that is Arizona and Mike Stoops.
Now I’ve never been a Mike Stoops fan. I thought for the most part he’s a soldier not a general and a bad choice to lead a program. It also seems that he is a complete and utter dick. And not just how he acts on the sidelines, but it seems he alienated everyone he ever comes into contact with. In fact, I was told a rumor that Stoops had a huge blowout with a Wildcat booster after the Oregon St. game and that booster is what forced the hand. I don’t know if its true but its certainly believable.
In a way in reminds me of the Rick Majerus era. Although most Ute fans have rewritten that part of our hoops history (I have an article upcoming on how important rewriting history is to Ute fans in general) Rick Majerus was nearly unbearable to be around. So when the Lance Allred embarrassment to crippled people allegations came out, Rick had no support left, not even Jon Hunstman could save him.
(Which leads to a second side note and what a total prick Chris Hill is. He must have mentioned Rick Majerus and his era five times when he hired Coach Larry. Except it was Chris Hill who had the total boner to force Rick out and then crapped on the two coaches he hired when the going got tough. But I digress)
Stoops didn’t have a tenth of the success of Majerus So when things went the least bit bad, everyone turned on Stoops in a huge way. Enough to force a mid-season firing. Hell even losing 10-11 doesn’t look that bad when you look at the teams he’s faced. Stanford Twice. Oregon Twice. USC Twice. Oklahoma State Twice. Plus Arizona St. The Oregon St. loss is the only bad loss in that group.
So what does it come down too? If you’re an asshole, you better win and win big. Yes Nick Saban I’m looking at you.
But at the end of the day, Arizona made a huge mistake. The program was clean and players went to class. You can’t fire a coach mid-season unless he is Jim Tresselish. Now they are having delusions of grandeur putting Urban Meyer and Chris Peterson at the top of their list. When in fact they should hire someone like Robb Akey. But they won’t and in five years or so, they’ll be doing this all again. Because what coach is coming here when you can get run in mid-season after 3 straight bowl seasons.
Sort of like having to hire Coach Larry because no one want to go somewhere that has twice fired coaches after a championship.