Well the news we all knew about in Tucson is out around the world,thanks to a story that ran on ESPN.com on April 15. Arizona State’s athletic department is (gulp) in a lot better shape then the U of A’s. Most Wildcat and Sun Devil Fans are aware of what has happened over the past school year, but in case you don’t know here’s the run down.
The Sun Devils beat the Wildcats for the third year in a row on the football field.
Both the men’s and women’s basketball team got beat twice each by the Sun Devils.
The Sun Devils beat the Wildcats in softball, in Tucson, for the first time since 1991.
The Sun Devils beat the Wildcats in the one baseball game they have played thus far.
Granted, there has been Wildcat success, for sure. For example, the Arizona men’s and women’s teams won the National Championships in swimming and diving. Let’s also not forget that overall the ASU men’s basketball team did not make the NCAA tournament, Arizona did. Does that make a difference? I think it does.
The rivalry is alive as it has ever been. Sadly it’s us that keep getting kicked in the gut,-seemingly week after week. The more we get punched the harder and harder it becomes to get up.
So let’s for a moment deal with this issue of how ASU has passed Wildcat Nation buy and what he can do about this.
Change at the top?
Let’s consider what happened at ASU to get them where they are today.
They hired a knew president named Michael Crow. Crow hired his own athletic director, Lisa Love. Love then made changes both with the men’s basketball program, firring Rob Evans and replacing him with Herb Sendek as well as with football program firing Dirk Koetter and replacing him with Dennis Erickson. Those changes seem to have made all the difference. Now should Arizona do the same?
The U of A has all ready hired a knew president in Robert Shelton. Now I would be in favor of Shelton pulling the trigger on letting A.D. Jim Livengood go ASAP.
So what about football?
Chances are that Mike Stoops is gone by the 2010 season. If he wins he gets credit for turning around a bad program and is one the first train out of two to a big and better program. If he losses the pressure to fire Stoops becomes to great for any AD to endure and he has no choice but to let him go. Will 2010 be too late to ever turn around the program? It’s possible. If Stoops does turn it around, he gets lots of credit from the national media and he is on the first train out of town.
OK, what happens with Lute?
No Arizona fan wants to hear this, trust me I know. Look, good chance that Olson is also gone by 2010 as well. What happens when someone needs to replace him? Well, we have already seen what Livengood had in mind and it didn’t really work out for reason that have been already covered on this blog.
Something needs to be done, I mean we are talking about a rival that is hot as ever. I know I would never ever wear, yellow, maroon or gold. I would never want my child to go to Arizona State. It goes without saying that I would never, ever, ever cheer for ASU for any reason ever.
So please Wildcats, Bear Down and lets turn this puppy around. Never do I want to read what I was forced to read this week. Never again.
To read the story from ESPN.com just go here http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=3347660
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2 comments:
To start, I'm an ASU fan, but keep reading...U of A basketball isn't going anywhere, they just had a down year. I think ASU's basketball program getting better can only be good for the Pac-10 and for the rivial with U of A. Both schools should garner lots of national attention.
As for football, U of A needs to gut the program and start over. Stoops has burried himself and shouldn't even be coaching this season. ASU made a great hire and are riding the wave of success that has followed. I hope someday U of A steps up and makes the rivaly a great one again.
http://www.asusportsreport.com/
Maybe U of A should hire Dirk Koetter? Um, maybe not. This year is our year.
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