Mon, Dec 01, 2008
Assessment Technology, Inc Social Studies Content Writer General CORT Warehouse Supervisor General CORT WAREHOUSE/DRIVER Health Care Rio Salado College PA's/Online Instructors Construction Komatsu Equipment Co Mechanic SportsOpinion by Greg Hansen : Try to hold back your tears when UW sacks WillinghamTucson, Arizona | Published: 10.04.2008
Dear Mr. Football: Is the soon-to-be unemployed Tyrone Willingham a sympathetic figure?
Don't waste a heartbeat worrying about Washington's football coach. Ten months ago, to cover his own backside, he fired defensive coordinator Kent Baer, who had spent 13 seasons helping Willingham become a wealthy man at Stanford and Notre Dame.
Baer was cashiered because the Huskies allowed 446 yards and 31 points per game. Now, in a stroke of coaching genius, the Huskies are yielding 507 yards and 41 points per game.
According to his contract, Willingham is paid $35,417 per month for his base salary of $425,000. But wait. There is more: Beyond that, he gets another $1.1 million per season.
Sympathy? No. As Mike Stoops said in a burst of coaching perspective this week: "Much is given, much is expected.''
Dear Mr. Football: How much history is behind the red pants Arizona wore at UCLA?
Those red pants can be traced back a scant 14 days. It is the first and only time a UA football team has worn red trousers.
Someone said that Art Luppino's teams of the 1950s wore red pants. So I asked the Cactus Comet, now retired and living in Kerrville, Texas.
"We wouldn't be caught dead in red pants,'' he said.
Someone suggested that Tex Oliver's powerhouse teams of the 1930s wore red pants.
Alas, former UA associate athletic director Tom Sanders, the force behind memorabilia big and small in the UA Sports Hall of Fame, says red did not happen.
"Tex's team was called 'the Blue Brigade,'" he says. "They wore powder blue pants with a dark blue stripe.''
Dear Mr. Football: Is 50 games enough to judge a college football coach?
Stoops now has 50 games in the books. He is 20-30. To be fair, 20-30 is about as much as one could expect given the circumstances. Here is how he compares to successful former Pac-10 coaches, all of whom inherited broken down programs, after 50 games:
Larry Smith, 20-30 at Tulane and the UA
Mike Price, 25-25 at Wazzu
Rich Brooks, 14-34-2 at Oregon
Bruce Snyder, 24-22-4 at Cal
Dick Tomey 31-19 at Hawaii
If nothing else, Stoops appears to have gotten UA football upright again. Over the next 50 games, something like 30-20 would be a minimum expectation.
Dear Mr. Football: What would Arizona's record be had it played Washington's opening schedule of Oregon, BYU, Oklahoma and Stanford?
At best 2-2, although I think Oregon and BYU are parity-era Top 25 teams, or, in more economical terms, overrated.
Did you realize Arizona's opening schedule has been against teams that have a cumulative five victories? That is tied with Oklahoma State for the fewest opponent victories among all BCS teams. The Cowboys have played (ugh) Wazzu, Houston, Missouri State and Troy.
"At the end of the season, nobody really cares who you beat,'' Stoops says. "All they care about is your record.''
We will call it the BYU Rule.
Dear Mr. Football: Does Stoops know former UA head coach Jim LaRue?
On Friday afternoon, Stoops attended a downtown luncheon at which LaRue was honored. Stoops and LaRue go back to the 1987 NFL season. LaRue was the Chicago Bears' secondary coach. Stoops played three NFL games for LaRue as a replacement player.
The day the strike ended, LaRue essentially fired Stoops, who had started one game at safety.
On Wednesday, I asked LaRue if he remembers Stoops from the NFL strike of '87.
"A lot of young men passed through our locker room in a hurry," he said. "It was hard to remember anybody's name.''
That was a polite way for Gentleman Jim to say that the Bears' other replacement players that year included Eugene B. Rowell of Dubuque College, Stuart Rindy of Wisconsin-Whitewater and former Sunnyside High School safety George Duarte.
Dear Mr. Football: Could this game possibly be a sellout?
At the end of office hours Wednesday, Arizona had sold in excess of 54,000 tickets. By noon Friday, Jim Livengood used the words "possible sellout'' in an informal conversation.
Livengood also explained why so many tickets have been sold for a game that matches a winless team against a decade-long bowl-less team.
"It's been three weeks between home games,'' he said.
Exactly. In the Stoops years, playing mostly lousy football against some awful opponents, Arizona has averaged 54,661 when it has gone three weeks between home games. That includes 55,270 for a bad Stanford team last year and 57,113 for an Oregon State team that was 3-3 when it played here in 2006.
Five years ago, when Arizona was 1-8 and Mike Hankwitz had replaced fired John Mackovic, the Wildcats drew 48,139 — biggest home crowd of the year — to play a 5-4 Washington team.
Thus, winning is not always the biggest draw. Perhaps it is that run-out-of-things-to-do-and haven't-blown-the-paycheck-yet factor.
Dear Mr. Football: Is Arizona really a 20-point favorite in a Pac-10 game for the first time in 10 years?
Do not be misled by the odds. Since 1998, Arizona has just four times been a double-figure favorite in a Pac-10 game. It struggled mightily in all four, losing twice (Stanford '07 and Stanford '99) and winning two (both against Wazzu in '99 and '00) by six points apiece. What does that suggest?
Nail-biter tonight.
Arizona 27, Washington 24.
|
|
35 Comments on this story