Welcome to college football 2008!
Before you can ran from Tucson to New York the football season will have kicked off. Well, I'm not sure you could run to Huston between now and then, unless your Usain Bolt. But, anyway, Saturday will be here before you know it and the season will be underway.
And for Arizona there is no turning back. The heat in Mike Stoops office has been turned all the way up. The fan base is split and if he should stay or if he should go. Some have even made the stupid argument that they hope Arizona losses so they will be able to fire Stoops. Let's put this one to rest first. I would much rather see Arizona win then see Mike Stoops go. Not a lot more to say about that other then what's been said.
So what does Mike Stoops need to do to keep his job?
Simply put he needs to go to a bowl game, which means he needs to win at least seven games. That should be enough. Some have made the argument that if he wins only seven games, which would mean either a loss in one of the three "easy" non conference games or a losing record in the Pac-10 he need to be let go. I don't see anyway that happens. Despite all his faults and he has lots of them, you can not let a coach go who got a team to a bowl game for the first time in ten years.
So what happens if Arizona does have a losing season?
At this point it's going to be really interesting. U of A president Robert Shelton is going to have to decide what he wants to do with athletic director Jim Livengood. If he wants to keep him, the likely next step is Stoops being fired. If he wants another AD that should by Stoops at least one more year. If another AD comes in some time in the 09 calender year he is going to want to make his own hire as a football coach, not get a first year coach thrown in his lap.
What happens if Stoops is fired?
This could mean more bad news. It likely means at least two more years of loosing football. That will likely also mean lost money-from not playing on TV, from low ticket sales, from paying off Stoops. This could affect the amount of money the school could spend to hire a replacement coach.
Any chance he leaves on his own?
A little. He need to have a winning season for that to happen. The most likely, if not the only school he would leave Arizona for would be Iowa. The people in Iowa are unhappy with the way the program is going. Stoops went to, played at Iowa. But they are not going to want to hire a coach who hasn't won.
The bottom line of all this is simple. Mike Stoops and the Cats have to win and they have to win now. So lets kick it off!
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