Stoops: "fighting with a toothpick"

[Olsondogg]

Lets loose on the fact that AZ has never won a championship...and won't:

"There's a reason they haven't won a championship at Arizona and it's not bad coaching or bad players," Stoops continued. "You can blame it on anything you want, football and championships are about commitments made university wide. It's a commitment made to winning, not at all costs but there is a cost.

"When you don't have a football facility and every Mountain West team has one and you don't, that's a problem. We were playing at a BCS level and I feel like I was fighting with a toothpick and they've got a bat."

Read more: http://azstarnet.com/sports/blogs/fi...#ixzz1pxLwPHvL

[SouthBayWildcat]

Its about time. I would have expected this a while ago from Stoops after the way everything went down. And furthermore, he isn't entirely wrong. On the flip side I see this as one of the reasons that Greg was brought in and hopefully we are headed in the right direction to bring a championship to Arizona.

That being said, there is a reason that Mike was not highly sought after as a HC prospect in the off-season and returned to safety of big brothers staff. Stoops did some really nice things for the Arizona football program but he could not take that next step or win some of those must win games. College football is a cut throat business and we have been down for too long. Am looking forward to the new facilities/new coach regime...

[HaCats]

Though his comments are largely dead on, I find a bit of contradiction with his comment that the reason Arizona hasn't won championships (and I'm going to assume he's talking about conference championships) isn't coaches or players. If it's a lack of a university-wide commitment to football, doesn't that hinder the coaches ability to get better players?

And even with our horrible facilities and lack of a football building, we've been a 44-41 OT loss to Oregon in 09' and an utter collapse in Berkeley after being up 24-0 in Desert Swarm era from going to 2 Rose Bowl's. Point being, it could've been done by now.

[LegallyKenny]

Originally Posted by HaCats

And even with our horrible facilities and lack of a football building, we've been a 44-41 OT loss to Oregon in 09' and an utter collapse in Berkeley after being up 24-0 in Desert Swarm era from going to 2 Rose Bowl's. Point being, it could've been done by now.

Don't forget 1998. We were both 15 minutes against UCLA and a 301-yard ridiculous game by Edgerrin James against UCLA away from the Rose Bowl.

[Gladiator Cat]

The torch has been passed Mike, move on.

We have moved on and it was damn-sure-time to pull the trigger on a change. The atrocious infrastructure and lack of facilities improvement’s over decades were indeed a factual point of emphasis. I've stated many times that much of the football program's deficiencies over the years were self-induced.

But, crying sour grapes in print now and trashing the school that gave him his first chance at a D-1 head coaching position is tacky, self-serving and resoundingly unprofessional.

Sorry Mike, you should have taken the high road on this subject because although some of what you say was true, unfortunately the swipe at the program without taking an iota of responsibility on your part is in retrospect a lose/lose proposition for both parties personally and professionally.

[phenom5]

There's certainly some truth to what Stoops said, but...

Coaching wasn't to blame for the poor execution, lack of discipline on the field, and showing up time and time again looking completely unprepared for games? Oh, it was the facilities. Sure...

[ZONACAT]

Mike should shut up.

[CalStateTempe]

Look, Stoops is making excuses again for his suckitude.

Except since its in print, we don't get to hear the "um, uhhh, um" pauses that punctuate his speech.

Move on Mike, we have.

[catgrad97]

The Stoops quotes from the full interview, with my responses:

"We may have got it as good as it can get. You have to be realistic with what your expectations are and you should have high expectations, I certainly did. But what you're capable of and what the circumstances that are dealt to you, it's hard to achieve those big goals of winning a championship there," Stoops said of his time at Arizona.

Still blaming Mackovic after eight years?

I wonder....

"There's a reason they haven't won a championship at Arizona and it's not bad coaching or bad players. You can blame it on anything you want, football and championships are about commitments made university wide. It's a commitment made to winning, not at all costs but there is a cost.

Strange perspective, considering that home-game attendance in the Stoops era was higher per game than under any other coach.

He certainly had the fan support. Where, in his view, then, should the commitments have been that they weren't?

My feeling is that there were certain academic support issues and program staples (dedicated tutors to players, S & C regimens, quality of training table food, etc.) Stoops took for granted would be at Arizona, and weren't.

Call it football infrastructure, if you will. Oregon probably ranks #1 on that list. Filling those gaps for Stoops proved to be impossible for him, though. He didn't look at it as his job to tell others about football's competitive deficiencies program-wide.

Unfortunately, no football coach is told that prior to his hire at Arizona. These are infrastructural gaps that, before new TV money and before the big push by Byrne finally won over facility donors, have been steadily widening since the mid-1980s and are simply expected to be rebuilt by new blood.

Nobody ever comes right out and tells you, "You're not going to have this access/that food/these resources you had at Oklahoma," but after less than a year on the job, that reality must have become painfully evident to Mike Stoops.

"When you don't have a football facility and every Mountain West team has one and you don't, that's a problem. We were playing at a BCS level and I feel like I was fighting with a toothpick and they've got a bat."

Does San Diego State have a football facility? I think that comparison is a bit exaggerated by Stoops.

"There were some great offensive minds in the Pac-12," Mike said. "I think it's the way football is going. You see it in high schools and college, it's spread out from sideline-to-sideline and people are making you defend the whole field. Before, football was condensed in some ways and now it you have to defend everything."

Translation: "Jim Harbaugh and Chip Kelly made me look like a Pop Warner coach, but since I'm back to being a coordinator I won't be exposed as the scrambler to keep up with the curve I was in Tucson."

I was hoping that Stoops would be the guy who would publicly campaign for that "commitment" he complains about, in specific areas. Lute did that for hoops, but obviously it hasn't been in the cards for football yet.

"He's very much a technician, he's focused and intense," Bob said of Mike on the field. "He's very aware of trying to put guys in good positions and steer them away from positions where they're not going to be successful."

*cough*micromanager*cough*

Works at the coordinator level. When you're the head guy, not so much.

[threenumberones]

uacats as the apologist in 3... 2... 1...

[Cats101]

Originally Posted by threenumberones

uacats as the apologist in 3... 2... 1...

http://forum.goazcats.com/showthread.php?t=117245

And I honestly don't have the care to type up a long response to his quotes as he isn't worth it.

[uacats]

Originally Posted by Cats101

http://forum.goazcats.com/showthread.php?t=117245

And I honestly don't have the care to type up a long response to his quotes as he isn't worth it.

How do you lose to Toledo?

2008-Toledo (MAC)
9/6 @ Arizona (8-5) L 16 41 9/13 @ *Eastern Michigan (3-9) W 41 17
9/20 vs. Fresno State (7-6) L 54 55
9/27 vs. Florida International (5-7) L 16 35
10/4 vs. *Ball State (12-2) L 0 31
10/11 @ Michigan (3-9) W 13 10 10/18 @ *Northern Illinois (6-7) L 7 38
10/25 vs. *Central Michigan (8-5) L 23 24
11/5 @ *Akron (5-7) L 30 47
11/15 @ *Western Michigan (9-4) L 17 27
11/21 vs. *Miami (Ohio) (2-10) W 42 14
11/28 vs. *Bowling Green State (6-6) L 10 38
3-9-0
269 377

[TakiCat]

I'm probably in the minority here, but I'm gonna have to agree with Stoops. I'm not saying that if we actually had some reasonable facilities that he would've brought championships here, but he was definitely hamstrung by the lack of them.

However, good thing times are changing, finally. This is more of a commentary on how far back that ass-hat Livendouche set us back with his reign.

[jimson]

If facilities were the only thing holding us back, Byrne would have kept him and let him reap the benefits of the coming upgrades.

[What I See]

Originally Posted by jimson

If facilities were the only thing holding us back, Byrne would have kept him and let him reap the benefits of the coming upgrades.

Stoops is 100% right, and the losing was affecting the fund raising for the new stadium. That's why he got the boot so fast