GOAZCATS.com - Stoops has chance to send message

October 16, 2009

Damien DeMarco
GOAZCATS.com Staff Writer

For as long as I can remember, I have enjoyed watching television shows about animals. I am particularly fond of shows that have to do with lions.

Bear with me, I am going somewhere with this.

Despite the fact that the lion, especially the male lion, is considered "King of the Jungle," he always has to be vigilant in defending his pride, territory, and food supply.

While rival prides can pose a threat if their paths cross, the male lion's main threat comes from one of two sources: a mature male that has recently lost his own pride to a rival, or a nomadic group of younger male lions who are searching for their first pride.

In other words, a male lion that has an established pride faces his greatest threat from other male lions that are new on the scene and are looking for a pride, territory, and food supply of their own. If a male lion is not strong enough to defend his pride, he will be forced out.

I believe the situation of a male lion provides an applicable analogy to being a head coach in college football. Coaches come and coaches go. Most coaches do not leave on their own accord. Indeed, they are forced out by the success of rivals.

College football coaches have to compete with one another for wins, recruits, notoriety, respect, money, etc. It is not possible for every coach in the same conference to do well. Therefore, success for some coaches comes at the expense of others.

60 percent of the coaches in the Pac-10 have been in the conference for less than three full seasons. The four coaches who have been at their respective positions for more than three years are Mike Stoops, Mike Riley, Pete Carroll, and Jeff Tedford.

Riley, Carroll, and Tedford have no need to worry about their job security. Their programs are established and respected.

Sticking with the lion analogy, USC, Cal, and Oregon State are established prides with proven, respected leaders. Unless their leaders leave, they're going nowhere.

The 47-year-old Stoops is in his sixth season as the head coach at Arizona and has had to work extremely hard for his 28-36 record. While he has not had the immediate success of the aforementioned coaches, UA has improved under his leadership and took a major step last year towards sustained respectability with its first winning season in a decade.

However, this season is perhaps a more important year for Stoops. He has to show that he is capable of continued success. That sustained success is important in the Pac-10 this season because the league is loaded with young, hyped coaches that are trying to establish their own territory. And, as has been previously mentioned, the only way to do that is at the expense of others.

In the animal kingdom, male lions that are confident in their ability to overthrow the head of a pride will not hide their intentions. They enter a rival's territory and roar as they do. They want the head of pride to know that they are there and that they are ready for a fight. At this point the head of the pride has two choices: win or lose. It is as simple as that.

Over the past few seasons, three struggling Pac-10 programs have welcomed new coaches that have garnered a lot of national attention. Ask any college football analyst to name up-and-coming programs in the Pac-10, and the answer will most likely include three teams: UCLA, Stanford, and Washington.

Rick Neuheisel, Jim Harbaugh, and Steve Sarkisian have only been in the Pac-10 for a combined three full seasons, yet their presence has already been felt. They are young - 48, 45, and 35 respectively - energetic, charismatic, and brimming with confidence.

Each represents a university that has more to offer recruits than most other schools in the conference. UCLA's recruiting class in 2009 was ranked as the 14th best in the nation by Rivals.com, while Stanford's and Washington's 2010 classes currently rank 12th and 18th, respectively.

Harbaugh and Sarkisian both already have victories over USC, while Neuheisel has victories in consecutive seasons over Tennessee.

These three coaches are sending notice to the rest of the Pac-10 that they will back down from no one and that they deserve to be taken seriously. While each coach in the Pac-10 has to worry about this infusion of young, talented rivals, three coaches have the most to worry about: Stoops, Dennis Erickson at Arizona State, and Paul Wulff at Washington State.

The exception to all of this might be Chip Kelly at Oregon. Though he is a first year head coach, he has taken over a program that has been consistently successful over the past decade and has a limitless amount of money to ensure that he will have every material thing needed to recruit.

Again using the lion analogy, Kelly has inherited a strong pride that will enable him to withstand the onslaught from the league's other newcomers - at least for now.

Considering the sustained lack of success at Washington State, one can make a solid case that the only team in the Pac-10 that could be considered on the decline is ASU. After a surprising 10-3 record in his first season with the program, Erickson and ASU took a major step backward with a 5-7 campaign last season.

The Sun Devils are currently 3-2, but their wins have come against Idaho State, Louisiana-Monroe, and Washington State. Next season ASU will lose many key players on both sides of the ball and will play on the road against USC, Cal, Oregon State, Washington, and Arizona.

The 62-year-old Erickson is the league's oldest coach, and back-to-back losing seasons could seriously hurt his recruiting efforts. Recruiting is typically a young man's game and if ASU continues to struggle, the odds increase that Erickson will not win many recruiting battles against the younger newcomers.

Wulff is young himself, however he is just 3-16 at Washington State and faces major geographic challenges in Pullman. Washington and Oregon will most likely be battling him out for that region's top recruits, while Oregon State, and even Boise State, will get the kids that fall through the cracks. Wulff is definitely facing an uphill battle.

So that brings us to Stoops. While he is more vulnerable than Carroll, Tedford, and Riley, he is in better shape than Erickson and Wulff. However, a subpar season will seriously damage his chances of survival.

2010 is a very promising year for the Wildcats. If Arizona can have a respectable 2009 season, it can be just what Stoops needs to move himself and his program into the top-tier of the Pac-10 for the foreseeable future.

In the most recent show I watched about lions, a male lion from a rival pride decided to leave his territory and challenge the male lion from the neighboring pride. He crossed into his rival's territory and roared to announce his presence. He was feeling confident until his rival answered his challenge and proceeded to show him who was boss.

The challenger limped backed to his territory. He had been defeated. The victor roared in triumph. He had successfully defended his pride and territory.

Last week, Stoops missed a golden opportunity to send Sarkisian, Washington, and the rest of the Pac-10 a message. In the next two weeks Stoops will face Harbaugh and Neuheisel at Arizona Stadium.

This is an opportunity for Stoops to defend his territory. It is an opportunity for Stoops, Arizona, and UA fans to meet the challengers head on and send Harbaugh, Neuheisel, and the rest of the conference a message: if you are thinking about establishing turf in the state of Arizona, you better hit the I-10 and head west to Tempe. The University of Arizona football program is legit, and it is not going anywhere.