UA knows where Cougars are coming from
PULLMAN – The Arizona Wildcats are on the cusp of something big.
A bowl berth.
All it takes is one more win and a .500 season is assured. That’s all it takes in the Pac-10 these days to earn a bowl slot. That and five years of hard work.
The Wildcats haven’t been to a bowl since 1998, when former coach Dick Tomey led them to an 11-1 record and a 23-20 Holiday Bowl victory over Nebraska.
Two years later – after 6-6 and 5-6 seasons – Tomey was out and John Mackovic was in. The former Texas coach lasted three seasons, during which UA’s win totals fell from five to four to two.
In stepped Mike Stoops, hired in 2004 to turn around the program. The former Oklahoma defensive coordinator has done that – Arizona is 5-3 overall and 3-2 in the Pac-10 this year – but it’s taken the better part of five seasons to get all the pieces in place.
“You have to have a lot of parts in place to do it,” Washington State coach Paul Wulff said of turning a Pac-10 program around. “A lot of it depends on the state of the program when a new coach comes in.”
Wulff is in the first year of his turnaround plan and thus far the Cougars have fallen further than Arizona did.
The Cougars are 1-8 overall and 0-6 in the Pac-10. They have been shut out over the last 10 quarters, have yielded a Pac-10-record 350 points in conference games and are ranked in the bottom 10 percent of NCAA statistics in 13 of the 17 categories.
The Wildcats finished 3-8 in each of Stoops’ first two years, went 6-6 in his third (but failed to earn a bowl bid) and regressed to 5-7 last season. That losing record intensified calls for Stoops’ job, but he survived and has led the Wildcats back to respectability. “Talent-wise, they’re right up there with the top two or three teams in the conference,” Wulff said of the 40.5-point favorite Wildcats.
Still, after leaving Pullman, UA travels to Oregon, then finishes the season hosting Oregon State and rival Arizona State. The road to a season better than .500 isn’t smooth.
“Our kids understand where we’re at, they can count and they know what you have to do to get to a bowl game, so we don’t even really acknowledge it,” Stoops said this week. “I think our kids are focused in on having a great season and I don’t think they’re satisfied with a certain amount of wins.”
Wulff looks at Arizona and sees a team arriving at a station he’s trying to bring his team.
“It does take time,” he said of the Wildcats’ five-year ride to respectability. “You could look at Arizona as an example. In my mind, I would like to think we’re going to turn this thing around quicker than that.”