I really don't want to say anything bad about that article, but there's really no way to describe accurately that doesn't amount to
awful. Let's go through those points one by one.
1. The coaching landscape is much different today than ever before. When Stoops was hired, he was one of the hottest assistants out there. Prior to that was Mackovich (as mentioned). The last hire before those two was so long ago it's irrelevant. It's not nearly as hard to hire a good coach as it was decades ago, find a good candidate and throw some money at them. It's not that complicated.
2.
Very successful depends on whether you look at the surface or at the real facts. As mentioned, RR has more games to play than every other previous coach. We are also scheduling cupcakes, and have had a losing conference record 4 out of 5 years. Don't try to convince me that conference record is irrelevant. It's the only consistent thing with scheduling. Even if you don't think it matters, it's at least something useful for comparison.
3. The offense is better than it's ever been:
have you been in a coma since August? I don't think much needs to be said here. But for those who don't know what they're watching, do not try to play the injury card. We were healthy in the BYU and absolutely atrocious (do not try to bring up Zach. If our offense falls apart because of losing one lineman, sorry but that doesn't get a pass).
4. The author clearly has no understanding of how recruiting works, otherwise he would realize that we always start higher in the rankings and then drop. We will not have a top 25 recruiting class when it's over. And touting that we have the most mid-level recruits in the country is 1) embarrassing and 2) pointless when you consider the early offer pattern of ours.
And if the 4 points weren't bad enough, the conclusion is even worse.
Perhaps Rodriguez’s success has fueled the pretentious notion that Arizona Football is above having a down season. The reality is, it has historically been difficult to maintain a competitive team at Arizona.
Pretentious? On the verge of the only winless conference season in history. That's not pretentious, and it goes beyond the "difficulty maintaining a competitive team."
spurned the temptation to leave
Does not get extra credit for the SC situation.
one difficult, injury-marred season.
Two seasons actually, but who's counting.