AzCatFan2 wrote: ↑Thu Dec 17, 2020 4:02 pm Stoops wasn't a bad hire at all. He was a top assistant and one of the hottest names out there. And what he built from the ground up at Arizona was a solid football team that came within a whisker of a Rose Bowl in a year when the best returning player, Gronk, didn't play a minute due to injury. It's too bad Stoops couldn't control himself on the sideline, and ran off top assistants and couldn't replace them with guys of equal quality. If Sonny Dykes was with Stoops from the beginning instead of Canales, probably would have won a few more in the early years, and gone to another bowl game or two.
RR wasn't a bad hire either. A retread sure, but also a reclamation project after being fired from Michigan a year before the Wolverines won 10-games with a team RR built. RR also lead us to a 10-win season, and 5 bowl games in 6 years. It's too bad that his off-field issues made retaining RR a tough sell, because we likely beat BYU early and ASu late in and go at least 7-5 in 2018 and again go bowling with RR. And Arizona isn't the kind of school to fire a coach that goes to a bowl game.
We're not Alabama where you get the right guy and just cruise because you get whomever you want. Or even USC, where there's so much talent that you have to try hard to not have a 10-win season. We're Arizona, and we're going to ebb and flow and have to rebuild and suffer through the occasional difficult season. If we can find a coach that can average 7.5 wins to 8 wins a year, that would be successful, especially if it comes with the occasional 10-win season, even if it means the occasional 5-win or less season. Tomey was close with a .59 winning percentage and two, 10-win seasons, but after 14-years and no Rose Bowls, the welcome became stale. Especially after going 11-12 the two years after going 12-1 in 1998.
The next two years are likely going to be very lean, regardless of whom we hire. Let's hope we can get another Stoops who can build from the ground up so we can at least be competitive in 2022, before we hopefully start winning big in 2023. Because that's what we're looking at after what Sumlin has left us, and after all his best players have left us too.
Solid post. Pretty much my opinions of Stoops and RichRod.
To me Stoops was a good recruiter, average to above average developer of talent, bad in game coach.
RichRod was a great developer of talent, average in game coach, below average to bad recruiter. If Rich Rod could recruit he would've been great here.
Sumlin was......Mackovic.
Ken N to me would be a good in game coach, good developer of talent, below average recruiter. He would probably work out. Very Tomey like. Might never get to the Rose Bowl, but at least gives you the occasional shot at it
