General Malaise and Complaining about the Football Program

[Spaceman Spiff]

So much for me is can he recruit effectively at Arizona. Every new coach at every new program typically does well, because there's a hype and a selling point of "we're new, we're up and coming, we're going to win, come be part of something big," and at this point RR is well beyond that and his recent recruiting classes tell that story in its entirety. He has no momentum out there where it matters and even if he puts together a winning season it's nothing more than a bandaid on a situation that he's gone too far down to fix in its entirety. The same thing happened to Stoops. Each new coach has a narrow window to recruit well and profit off said recruiting classes. RR has gone well beyond that time and hopefully will have left very good notes to the next coaching staff to succeed (hint recruit both California and Texas).

That would be my biggest gripe with RR. If we had the opportunity to really convert recruiting success, it was in the wake of the Fiesta Bowl season. Instead, we've lost depth and talent since.

But we're Arizona. The grass always looks greener, but we need to be realistic about the replacements we'd be courting. All coaches come with their positives and negatives.

[CatMG]

If RR can win 9 games with this team, he would definitely be PAC-12 COY, and in the talk for NCOY.

Then RichRod would on the way out anyway as some other program may come calling.

I think with this team a 9 win season would be the greatest accomplishment by any Arizona coach in its history. That said, I am afraid we may be lucky to see 9 wins if we add the win totals from this year and next.

[wyo-cat]

I just watched the game, I was very sick Saturday and my memory is hazy - sort of like being shithoused.

There's no reason at all for anyone to start this thread after this game, another game might of been a better time, but this is the interwebz so someone's got to be over reacting. There were a lot of good things and some bad things on the field. I agree with Parker's comment, an almost perfect game for a coach - as in things to improve on but not a disaster.

The RB corps is stellar, the Cats went 5 deep and number 5 was Nathan Tilford, and the hype is real. He looked impressive for a FR, a total package size, speed and strength. Put that in your pipe and smoke it - we rolled out Tilford as the 5th running back. From having Grant last year at the end of the season to some quality depth. That's definitely an upgrade. I could see Tilford being the number one option sooner than later.

This D is never going to be confused with Alabama's, but they got some key stops and turnovers, DFF's INT for example. Whittaker stoned Cookus at the goal line. It was refreshing to see someone stepping up. They just need a few more stops and turnovers per game and that would really help the offense - which from my fevery haze on Saturday I remember seeing many dudes in red running really fast on long plays.

If we get smoked by Houston, I would be on board with shit like this, but this was a classic chicken little thread ("the sky is falling!") by a dude who saw that NAU had 500 yrds and over reacted. No offense, CST.

/Rant off.

[ASUHATER!]

560 yards to NAU. That's all that needs to be said about the defense.

[whatisee]

Your response reflects how every objective Cat fan reacts to one of your Kool-Aid Brigade homer takes.

[whatisee]

560 yards to NAU. That's all that needs to be said about the defense.

Or you could chalk it up to starting 3 freshman at LB. but you're right. They'll never learn and get better.

[chiefzona]

560 yards to NAU. That's all that needs to be said about the defense.

Or you could chalk it up to starting 3 freshman at LB. but you're right. They'll never learn and get better.

That's it? Good. I feel better now.

[Puerco]

560 yards to NAU. That's all that needs to be said about the defense.

Or you could chalk it up to starting 3 freshman at LB. but you're right. They'll never learn and get better.

Oh phew. Because I thought there were some problems in the secondary too.

[Merkin]

560 yards to NAU. That's all that needs to be said about the defense.

Or you could chalk it up to starting 3 freshman at LB. but you're right. They'll never learn and get better.

Oh phew. Because I thought there were some problems in the secondary too.

Secondary was supposed to be the only PAC-12 worthy defensive position for Arizona. Fooled them! Didn't Yates move to coaching the secondary?

[PHXCATS]

[EVCat]

So much for me is can he recruit effectively at Arizona. Every new coach at every new program typically does well, because there's a hype and a selling point of "we're new, we're up and coming, we're going to win, come be part of something big," and at this point RR is well beyond that and his recent recruiting classes tell that story in its entirety. He has no momentum out there where it matters and even if he puts together a winning season it's nothing more than a bandaid on a situation that he's gone too far down to fix in its entirety. The same thing happened to Stoops. Each new coach has a narrow window to recruit well and profit off said recruiting classes. RR has gone well beyond that time and hopefully will have left very good notes to the next coaching staff to succeed (hint recruit both California and Texas).

I would counter two things that don't totally alleviate your concerns, but speak to them:

1) This style of offense (and, for a bit, defense) doesn't require 4 and 5 star players if the right players are found. And he had been finding them, and did at WVU. There are some exceptions to that...linemen are linemen. But we can win with 3* in this system, and we have to, because that is who we are going to consistently get. But more importantly...

2) The 2017 class was, based off commits, loaded. He did show the ability to recruit. In year 5, he was able to still sell this program and its competition, exposure, and trajectory. The wheels fell off the bus, and some of that was his fault (flirting with other jobs, losing) and some of that was an absolute knife in the back from Donte Williams...everyone should be able to move up in their career, but it is bullshit to take a job and then leave before the task you were hired for is even accomplished once. There should be some decorum there. But there wasn't, and that was the final blow to a class that at one time appeared to be a top 15.

The question left unanswered is: can he recruit now? I think the answer is no. But if he wins this year, I would say he is a good enough coach that he will be able to grow that back, and still win with 3 star recruits (again, if he solves this mess). But that is unlikely, so he is going to have to be fired, because perception is reality, and he will not be able to recruit.

Which is why I say he has to go if this year isn't successful, but if, magically, he was on the market as a new coach, and we had this opening, I would hire him in a heartbeat. He is here and the cause of a lot of this, so he has to go. But if this was someone else we were firing and RR was available, knowing everything we know about him? I think he would be the perfect coach for our situation. Because the same shit show is very unlikely to happen again, and he is a innovator on offense who gets more from less, which is also what we need.

But that isn't the case. So he has to go. Unless he wins.

[ASUHATER!]

Don't know if I'd call the 2017 class loaded when it was #45 in the country.

[chiefzona]

I personally believe that he has to go no matter what. You cannot sleep on the job for two years and think that you can get it back. The respect of the fan base is long gone and attendance will show that. You have to start anew.

[EVCat]

Don't know if I'd call the 2017 class loaded when it was #45 in the country.

Annnd...you didn't read what I wrote.

It WAS considered a top 15 class, then fell apart when RichRod flirted with otherUSC and Williams left. How could you miss that in my post? Did you just keyword scan?

Burmeister and others were commits and left. It was believed to be a potential top 20 class, maybe top 15 class, and fell apart.

I am shaking my head at how that wasn't clear...

My post...loaded class, RR flirts with SC, Williams leaves, carpetbagger, players decommit... ...and that was the final blow to a class that at one time appeared to be a top 15.

How did....I just...WTF?

[prh]

Most of our classes start out as top 25 classes since we sign early, then they slide as everybody signs late. While RR/SC may have had an impact, I think the biggest factor is the early signing.

[EVCat]

Most of our classes start out as top 25 classes since we sign early, then they slide as everybody signs late. While RR/SC may have had an impact, I think the biggest factor is the early signing.

The difference was this class was projecting to still be in the mix, not just that worthless "College of Charleston has the #1 recruiting class in the country for 2022" stuff.

And it fell apart. For a lot of reasons, including Williams' defection.

It doesn't matter now...it happened. But it showed the team could recruit off of success. Unless the wheels came off in the interim (which they did).

[azcat49]

I personally believe that he has to go no matter what. You cannot sleep on the job for two years and think that you can get it back. The respect of the fan base is long gone and attendance will show that. You have to start anew.

Where is Heeke and the new president on this?

[Spaceman Spiff]

I personally believe that he has to go no matter what. You cannot sleep on the job for two years and think that you can get it back. The respect of the fan base is long gone and attendance will show that. You have to start anew.

If people shared that view, he would not be coaching here. I see zero point in retaining him this year then ignoring what his team does this year.

[chiefzona]

I personally believe that he has to go no matter what. You cannot sleep on the job for two years and think that you can get it back. The respect of the fan base is long gone and attendance will show that. You have to start anew.

If people shared that view, he would not be coaching here. I see zero point in retaining him this year then ignoring what his team does this year.

Timing is everything. Heeke was just hired. He's not going to make a move that quickly. He'll wait until the offseason.

[ASUHATER!]

Don't know if I'd call the 2017 class loaded when it was #45 in the country.

Annnd...you didn't read what I wrote.

It WAS considered a top 15 class, then fell apart when RichRod flirted with otherUSC and Williams left. How could you miss that in my post? Did you just keyword scan?

Burmeister and others were commits and left. It was believed to be a potential top 20 class, maybe top 15 class, and fell apart.

I am shaking my head at how that wasn't clear...

My post...loaded class, RR flirts with SC, Williams leaves, carpetbagger, players decommit... ...and that was the final blow to a class that at one time appeared to be a top 15.

How did....I just...WTF?

Who the fuck cares what it was "considered"? It was the #45 class. End of story.

[ChooChooCat]

I personally believe that he has to go no matter what. You cannot sleep on the job for two years and think that you can get it back. The respect of the fan base is long gone and attendance will show that. You have to start anew.

Where is Heeke and the new president on this?

Watching and waiting to see how it all develops. The guy has the season or at the very least half of it, either he proves he deserves one more year or he doesn't.

[Chicat]

Don't know if I'd call the 2017 class loaded when it was #45 in the country.

Annnd...you didn't read what I wrote.

It WAS considered a top 15 class, then fell apart when RichRod flirted with otherUSC and Williams left. How could you miss that in my post? Did you just keyword scan?

Burmeister and others were commits and left. It was believed to be a potential top 20 class, maybe top 15 class, and fell apart.

I am shaking my head at how that wasn't clear...

My post...loaded class, RR flirts with SC, Williams leaves, carpetbagger, players decommit... ...and that was the final blow to a class that at one time appeared to be a top 15.

How did....I just...WTF?

Who the fuck cares what it was "considered"? It was the #45 class. End of story.

The whole point of his post was that RR dropped the ball and that's why it ended up there. Which begs the question whether RR can have the success needed to bring in consistently good recruiting classes.

[Puerco]

Hater, you're precious.

[ASUHATER!]

Hater, you're precious.

You too babe.

[Harvey Specter]

We have a 53% winning percentage since joining the Pac, good for an average of 6.3 wins and 5.4 losses a year. That's 39 seasons. We've won more than 8 games 4 times in those 39 seasons. We just are what we are.

Rich Rodriguez has the 2nd WORST conference record over his career of ANY UA coach in the PAC era. Ahead of only Mackovic.

Fact.

[Harvey Specter]

If we win 9 games with this team, I will buy a Samaje Grant t-shirt to help fund RR's statue outside the stadium.

If he wins 8, I might still make a bust myself out of play-doh.

If he wins 7, I will welcome him back with open arms, because he is the same coach that ran us straight up from the firing of Stoops to 10 wins and a Fiesta Bowl, and I understand he was too late in properly assessing/shitcanning his long time friend Casteel, and he flirted too much with South Carolina. But I also understand some of this shit has been incredibly unlucky, like the Scooby injury and then the injury to everyone who had ever played Scooby's position going back to middle school, and playing UW into OT with our 3rd string RB, and the 7,000 concussions our All Freshman QB took, and how we had, at one point, a 4th string QB handing off to a 5th string WR converted to RB last year, then how a carpetbagging POS came into the program to coordinate recruiting of a class that was already looking to be one of our best, then bailed without one completed class, causing an entire year of recruiting at a crucial time after we discovered how far that had slipped during Casteel just float away.

So some of this is self-inflicted. Some of this is some incredible shit timing. And I still think RR would be a perfect coach for this program if he were not our current coach and were available. But these things did happen under him, he did lose sight of what was going on with recruiting and defense, he did cause a lack of loyalty on staff and with commits by flirting with other jobs in back-to-back years, so this is, other than the injuries, his problem, and he has to go if he cannot turn it around right now.

But, damn...he went straight up from Stoops, took us to back to back wins over Oregon when that still mattered (we beat Mariotta twice...caused his first turnover of his final season), had bowl seasons with 3 different QBs including BJ Frickin Denker, got us to the major bowl mix in year 3 with a freshman QB and sophomore D leader...then lost both (and lost them forever, Scooby to the NFL, Anu to repeated head injuries and an unwillingness to run in an offense that requires the threat of a QB to run), and the wheels fell off the bus, first in a lower bowl disappointment in follow up to a 10 win season, then in last year's fiasco.

But, shit...if he can win, why would we want him gone? Is this some style of play bullshit, like those who want Miller gone because his offense isn't fast enough or he doesn't play zone? If RichRod wins, why the hell would we want him to leave?

I don't see him as Satan. I see him as someone whose hubris got in his way, and by the time he got an idea of what was wrong, it was probably too late, even as he fired his friend. His survival was likely based on the 2017 class that looked so good a year ago. The blow he took with losing Williams was probably the fatal one. But if he can figure out how to survive this season and win? I think 6-6 or lower ends him. But better than that? We have to consider what that would mean...because it would require 4 wins in the PAC with our schedule this year.

Great, great, GREAT post! Sums it up exactly. Glad somebody put together exactly how I feel with just one small disagreement: 6-6 means a bowl game and that should mean another year with us. I'm pulling for this team to surprise us and for RR to stay.

And I totally agree he's made some mistakes, specifically with recruiting and flirtations, but the Rodriguez family has invested in Arizona and I hope we win enough this year to keep them around.

I have great respect for EVCat (and I think I have PLENTY of faults but saying shit I don't mean is not one of them)... but I fervently disagree.

I am not giving him a pass and a bunch of extra credit for a marginal year because 'he did it with shitty personnel he recruited.

As for 'what he did with Stoops' recruits"... well RR should have gotten MS on the horn 3 years ago. Because RR did a LOT better with the 'bare cupboard' he inherited than he has with all the OKG's he lured in.

6-6 and a bowl game? That is winning 1/3 of your games against BCS conference opponents. Worth another year? Maybe at the end of a 3 year contract... but not when it means we owe him the balance of his significant retention bonus. IF he goes 6-6 and wants his job back (which he should because he is not getting a better one) ... then he need to defer the balance of his retention payout until Jan 2020.

What he did at WVU? Good luck going on a job interview and pointing out what you accomplished 12-15 years ago while glossing over your (lack of) consistent accomplishment since. He was innovative once upon a time. sow as Blackberry.

As for the 'top 15 class of 2017'.... sorry EV, get real. Don't confuse early season recruiting rankings (for a middling program that fills up early) with an end-of-season reality. Had the class stayed in tact, it would have certainly been better than 45 (maybe high 30's, which he has done before)... but it is not sniffing top 15 (or even 25). No. Fucking. Way.

Finally,,, he IS responsible for that class falling apart - and I am not giving him an asterisk. He DID flirt and TRY to get a better payday when he had not finished his work here and he did not succeeed. The only difference between him and the assistant you blame (who has not accumulated RR's wealth OR have his long term deal) is he FAILED to get the terms he wanted to move. That deserves ZERO credit or special consideration.

That the FUCK has he 'invested' in Tucson & the UA other than the University's dollars to award his kid a full scholarship? He came here for a job (which was the BEST he could get... I see you Tulane) that paid a WHOLE lot better than the one he had in the studio.

He will have been paid in total >$15MM for 6 years that reflect 1 very good record and a carter conference winning % that ranks only behind Mackovic in the PAC era (and that is a program with a mediocre program history).

I am not opposed to grading on a curve.... but I am not supportive of paying B money for C- results.

/RantOver. The prosecution rests.

[azcat49]

Bam, Harvey with the remember hammer to knock the clouds out of the early season give the coach the benefit of the doubt thoughts.

EV and Harvey is like Ali and Frazier. Two of the best and we will be entertained. Great job men

[Jefe]

Where is Heeke and the new president on this?

They both walked up to our tailgate party Saturday and we chatted for a bit. I wanted to talk basketball and they wanted to talk football.

[azcat49]

Where is Heeke and the new president on this?

They both walked up to our tailgate party Saturday and we chatted for a bit. I wanted to talk basketball and they wanted to talk football.

I have heard they have BIG plans for football and I mean big. The practice field is a drop in the bucket. They are looking at plans to blow up AZ stadium and rebuild everything but the NEZ.

Have you noticed this president tweeting constantly about this weeks game and beating Houston? I have never seen a school president do multiple sport tweets ever.

Pretty excited about these two and the future of our programs. The pres has already talked about Miller and any attempt for another school to get him. RR better win and win quick because I don't think this president will settle for a string of 6-6 records

[Merkin]

They are looking at plans to blow up AZ stadium and rebuild everything but the NEZ

Smaller I imagine as what ASU, Cal and Stanford did.

I'd rather they work on replacing McKale.

[PHXCATS]

They are looking at plans to blow up AZ stadium and rebuild everything but the NEZ

Smaller I imagine as what ASU, Cal and Stanford did.

I'd rather they work on replacing McKale.

it is so much easier to get Arizona Stadium done and get some "fans" in the stands and then do McKale than the other way around.

Too bad there are so many wanna be seens and fair weather fans and not enough true fans for the Arizona Wildcats.

[azcat49]

They are looking at plans to blow up AZ stadium and rebuild everything but the NEZ

Smaller I imagine as what ASU, Cal and Stanford did.

I'd rather they work on replacing McKale.

I would assume it would be smaller creating larger demand and prices. Who knows on bball. Right now I would assume they look at football as the place to create more revenue.

I heard they would be committed to playing a season in Phoenix until the stadium was finished. I guess they could do that for basketball but I have always thought they should throw in with the city and build a 20k gem downtown IF they were to rebuild. That way they could still use McKale for other sports and maybe play games in both from time to time

[scumdevils86]

They are looking at plans to blow up AZ stadium and rebuild everything but the NEZ

Smaller I imagine as what ASU, Cal and Stanford did.

I'd rather they work on replacing McKale.

it is so much easier to get Arizona Stadium done and get some "fans" in the stands and then do McKale than the other way around.

Too bad there are so many wanna be seens and fair weather fans and not enough true fans for the Arizona Wildcats.

Just please stop for the love of god

[Merkin]

I would assume it would be smaller creating larger demand and prices. Who knows on bball. Right now I would assume they look at football as the place to create more revenue.

ASU spent over $280M renovating their stadium. Cal spent over $320M building a new much smaller one.

I certainly agree that football is a better revenue sport (UK makes more from football than basketball) but is just seems the UA would be throwing good money after bad.

I know you and I have been fans for many decades, but UA has never been a football school, even when it wasn't a basketball school. I remember getting free tickets from Checker Auto during the very good Larry Smith years.

Building a new basketball arena could easily get another 3-5000 seats filled. Don't think anyone would expect a new FB field to get any more attendance than they have now, just make it nicer.

[PHXCATS]

I would assume it would be smaller creating larger demand and prices. Who knows on bball. Right now I would assume they look at football as the place to create more revenue.

ASU spent over $280M renovating their stadium. Cal spent over $320M building a new much smaller one.

I certainly agree that football is a better revenue sport (UK makes more from football than basketball) but is just seems the UA would be throwing good money after bad.

I know you and I have been fans for many decades, but UA has never been a football school, even when it wasn't a basketball school. I remember getting free tickets from Checker Auto during the very good Larry Smith years.

Building a new basketball arena could easily get another 3-5000 seats filled. Don't think anyone would expect a new FB field to get any more attendance than they have now, just make it nicer.

Raise the demand for tickets, sell beer, have suites, and do a few other things and the games can be the place to be seen in Tucson in the fall. That is what is needed unfortunately.

[Jefe]

I'd rather they work on replacing McKale.

I heard they would be committed to playing a season in Phoenix until the stadium was finished. I guess they could do that for basketball

Sign me up for the riot

[ChooChooCat]

Don't think anyone would expect a new FB field to get any more attendance than they have now, just make it nicer.

I've been told that a FB stadium renovation would take away seats as a matter of fact, so attendance certainly wouldn't increase any.

[Spaceman Spiff]

They are looking at plans to blow up AZ stadium and rebuild everything but the NEZ

Smaller I imagine as what ASU, Cal and Stanford did.

I'd rather they work on replacing McKale.

McKale is in far better shape, and it would be crazy to replace it so soon after a refurbishing. I've pushed the idea of adding luxury boxes to McKale, but that should be it.

Creating a 45-50,000 seat Arizona stadium with a nicer experience would do a lot. Shoot, just getting away from bleacher seating would improve the experience. My back and butt get numb fast in the bleachers. Heck, just making an attempt at temperature control (sun shade, etc) so you can start games a little earlier without setting people on fire would be nice.

[qwertyus]

They are looking at plans to blow up AZ stadium and rebuild everything but the NEZ

Smaller I imagine as what ASU, Cal and Stanford did.

I'd rather they work on replacing McKale.

Why? McKale just got new insides, and is fine. How about the flipside: what's wrong with McKale? Missed one game as a student in 4 years, and never had a problem there...

[azpenguin]

I just don't see how they could do a "blow up the stadium and start over" kind of rebuild. Play a season in Phoenix? The revenue losses to the program would be staggering and that would reverberate across the entire athletic department. They'd have to figure out how to do what ASU did, which was to renovate enough of the stadium in the offseason that they could be ready to play come September. I definitely don't see how they could tear down the west side and have that even partially done enough in time to get things going for the next year. Also, ASU had the luxury of at least being able to negotiate deals with other facilities to play there; there's no UoP or Chase Field in Tucson for AZ to do that with.

[azgreg]

45,000-50,000 all with seat backs would be nice.

[Spaceman Spiff]

I just don't see how they could do a "blow up the stadium and start over" kind of rebuild. Play a season in Phoenix? The revenue losses to the program would be staggering and that would reverberate across the entire athletic department. They'd have to figure out how to do what ASU did, which was to renovate enough of the stadium in the offseason that they could be ready to play come September. I definitely don't see how they could tear down the west side and have that even partially done enough in time to get things going for the next year. Also, ASU had the luxury of at least being able to negotiate deals with other facilities to play there; there's no UoP or Chase Field in Tucson for AZ to do that with.

That's one reason I tossed out seat backs and heat control. Both of those are limited scope that can get done in an offseason. Frankly, doing those and a massive overhaul of concessions and bathrooms would do a lot for the experience. Being at concessions on the west side is like being in a nuclear bunker that opens to a football field.

This assumes the stadium is structurally sound, bc that is a whole separate issue. I read that UW renovated Husky Stadium in part because it had some major structural issues.

[azcat49]

I don't know how they might do it but they are talking about it. At some point, if you want to have a top tier football program, you will need to gut the stadium.

It does make sense and maybe they could pull a Stanford and get it done in 9 months? Moving to Phoenix would cost them 20k fans a game, not unreasonable and might prove to have longer term benefits in some way.

Hey make it a dome and format it so we could be the carrier dome west and we could get 30k in bball

[ASUHATER!]

I just don't see how they could do a "blow up the stadium and start over" kind of rebuild. Play a season in Phoenix? The revenue losses to the program would be staggering and that would reverberate across the entire athletic department. They'd have to figure out how to do what ASU did, which was to renovate enough of the stadium in the offseason that they could be ready to play come September. I definitely don't see how they could tear down the west side and have that even partially done enough in time to get things going for the next year. Also, ASU had the luxury of at least being able to negotiate deals with other facilities to play there; there's no UoP or Chase Field in Tucson for AZ to do that with.

Stanford did it in 1 off-season. Started demolition the day after the final home game.

[PHXCATS]

I just don't see how they could do a "blow up the stadium and start over" kind of rebuild. Play a season in Phoenix? The revenue losses to the program would be staggering and that would reverberate across the entire athletic department. They'd have to figure out how to do what ASU did, which was to renovate enough of the stadium in the offseason that they could be ready to play come September. I definitely don't see how they could tear down the west side and have that even partially done enough in time to get things going for the next year. Also, ASU had the luxury of at least being able to negotiate deals with other facilities to play there; there's no UoP or Chase Field in Tucson for AZ to do that with.

Stanford did it in 1 off-season. Started demolition the day after the final home game.

Stanford's stadium is a dump. It is a glorified High School stadium.

[Merkin]

I just don't see how they could do a "blow up the stadium and start over" kind of rebuild. Play a season in Phoenix? The revenue losses to the program would be staggering and that would reverberate across the entire athletic department. They'd have to figure out how to do what ASU did, which was to renovate enough of the stadium in the offseason that they could be ready to play come September. I definitely don't see how they could tear down the west side and have that even partially done enough in time to get things going for the next year. Also, ASU had the luxury of at least being able to negotiate deals with other facilities to play there; there's no UoP or Chase Field in Tucson for AZ to do that with.

Stanford did it in 1 off-season. Started demolition the day after the final home game.

Stanford's stadium is a dump. It is a glorified High School stadium.

That's what $90M will get you, Cal's stadium cost over 3 times that. But Stanford knew that college football is no longer the hot item in the south bay, even before the Niners moved there.

[azpenguin]

I just don't see how they could do a "blow up the stadium and start over" kind of rebuild. Play a season in Phoenix? The revenue losses to the program would be staggering and that would reverberate across the entire athletic department. They'd have to figure out how to do what ASU did, which was to renovate enough of the stadium in the offseason that they could be ready to play come September. I definitely don't see how they could tear down the west side and have that even partially done enough in time to get things going for the next year. Also, ASU had the luxury of at least being able to negotiate deals with other facilities to play there; there's no UoP or Chase Field in Tucson for AZ to do that with.

That's one reason I tossed out seat backs and heat control. Both of those are limited scope that can get done in an offseason. Frankly, doing those and a massive overhaul of concessions and bathrooms would do a lot for the experience. Being at concessions on the west side is like being in a nuclear bunker that opens to a football field.

This assumes the stadium is structurally sound, bc that is a whole separate issue. I read that UW renovated Husky Stadium in part because it had some major structural issues.

Seat backs is a capacity issue, and honestly I don't see where that's going to be a problem because lowering capacity is not necessarily a bad thing. What I wonder is - do you put seat backs everywhere? For example, what about in the Zoo, wherever that ends up being (if they put seat backs in the lower level east, I would figure they would want to sell those seats and move the students.) The students don't spend much time sitting around and they're pretty active, so individual seat backs might keep them from having the atmosphere they have now, if that makes sense. And do you put seat backs in the upper deck, where the tickets are a lot less?

Heat control is another issue. There's not an "easy" way to do that. Any solution that's able to make a difference on a significant part of the stadium will present a lot of engineering challenges. That's nothing that can't be overcome, but it's going to cost a lot of money. You need something that can handle high winds, and anything that covers that much surface area is going to have to be built up really well to do that. Wind gusts of 70+ mph are not unheard of in Tucson with microbursts, plus we can have several days of 30-40 mph winds in the spring. Any sort of shade structure that would help in the Tucson heat would cost many millions of dollars and would need months to complete.

[MrMeow]

I just don't see how they could do a "blow up the stadium and start over" kind of rebuild. Play a season in Phoenix? The revenue losses to the program would be staggering and that would reverberate across the entire athletic department. They'd have to figure out how to do what ASU did, which was to renovate enough of the stadium in the offseason that they could be ready to play come September. I definitely don't see how they could tear down the west side and have that even partially done enough in time to get things going for the next year. Also, ASU had the luxury of at least being able to negotiate deals with other facilities to play there; there's no UoP or Chase Field in Tucson for AZ to do that with.

Stanford did it in 1 off-season. Started demolition the day after the final home game.

Stanford's stadium is a dump. It is a glorified High School stadium.

That's what $90M will get you, Cal's stadium cost over 3 times that. But Stanford knew that college football is no longer the hot item in the south bay, even before the Niners moved there.

Reduced interest in football is a trend in many parts of the country. In fact lots of high schools are dropping it. Cal, a close neighbor of Stanford, may have really messed up. I'd hate to have to service the bonds it took to build that thing with attendance of 20,000, not to mention running the remainder of the athletic department.

[azcat49]

And yet Stanford's stadium is 10x better than ours. Hey if we want to be big time we will need this type of vision and execution. What ever it is, I am excited about the conversations happening. I just hope I am alive to see the execution of it

[PHXCATS]

And yet Stanford's stadium is 10x better than ours. Hey if we want to be big time we will need this type of vision and execution. What ever it is, I am excited about the conversations happening. I just hope I am alive to see the execution of it

I would not say that at all. The only thing Stanford has over Arizona Stadium is the bathrooms except for the NEZ