With an outside view you might see Mike Stoops record of 35-39 as the Head Coach of The University of Arizona and find yourself unimpressed, quite honestly you might wonder how he still has a job in this his 7th season as Head Coach. In reality, the truth lies in the past.
Arizona isnt a football power in the college game but they do have a little history including twice finishing in the Top 10 under Dick Tomey, he also lead Arizona to 7 of the programs 13 all time bowl appearances. Unfortunately, his final two seasons left Arizona with just 11 total wins and the desire to move in another direction after 14 seasons. Arizona was looking for a coach with a track record of turning around programs and they saw John Mackovic as the perfect fit seeing as how he had previously revitalized Wake Forest, Illinois, and Texas before moving on.
What seemed like the perfect fit ended up being the perfect nightmare for The University of Arizona, not only did Mackovic coach the Wildcats to 3 straight losing seasons but he also endured a complete player revolt of sorts, alienating his roster with constant personal attacks which eventually lead to 40 Wildcat players having a private meeting with the University President. Once it was clear that the team was fed up and had quit on Mackovic the President decided to relieve him of his duties.
With the program in complete disarray, not having a winning season in 5+ seasons and with a roster full of guys who weren't sure if they wanted to play for Arizona anymore, the Wildcats hired brash young Defensive Coordinator Mike Stoops from the University of Oklahoma. While the mountain appeared steep, Stoops was quite confident that with his disciplined style of coaching he could turn the program around.
Three seasons in, Stoops had only 12 combined wins and no more than 6 in any season with no bowl appearances, it was clear though that the attitude had changed as the Wildcats posted several upset victories over highly ranked teams in those 1st three years. Going into Stoops 4th season, Arizona had not gone to a bowl game in almost a decade and the fans were getting restless despite the obvious improvement. The season ended with a 5-7 record and despite going 3-1 down the stretch with an upset over #2 Oregon in Tuscon, the team was left bowl-less again and many though Stoops would be fired. Stoops was only 17-29 as the Arizona Head Coach and despite several big wins against ranked teams, many thought that Stoops may have been the right guy to return the program to respectability but not to win big? With his future in question the University President and Athletic Director came out and publicly backed Stoops and the job he was doing, showing confidence that he was the right guy for the job.
Despite the support many knew that Stoops needed to win in his 5th season or he probably wouldnt be around any longer, and win he did. The Wildcats finished the season at 8-5 despite 4 losses by a Touchdown or less. The Wildcats were relevant again, winning, and competing even in their losses. Stoops and his team capped off the season with the programs 1st bowl win in a decade by beating a ranked BYU football team.
Going into the 2009 season Mike Stoops was rewarded with an extension thru 2013 and it was clear that he firmly had the administrations backing. The Wildcats would go 8-5 again in 2009 with their 2nd straight bowl appearance, Stoops 1st win against USC, and were a 3 pt loss to #11 Oregon from sharing the Pac-10 title and going to the programs 1st ever Rose Bowl.
Now we sit here on September 17th, 2010 and Mike Stoops has his team 2-0 and ranked #18 in the nation while heading into a huge home game vs. #10 ranked Iowa in what could be a career defining game. We've seen Coach Stoops teams progress from bad to competitive to fairly good but maybe not quite good enough, is this the year that Arizona football firmly makes their case as a Top Tier Program and people start realizing that Mike Stoops is not only one hell of a coach, but that he may well be one of the top coaches in the nation, leading one of the top programs in the nation?
Many will say that no matter how the game turns out, Stoops has done a great job and to that, I would agree. I'm thinking that around 1am CST tomorrow we may see Arizona's first Top 10 team since Dick Tomey did it back in 1998, and with that The Arizona fans can finally say, "We are a Football School!"
Pretty much spot on bro
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