The one thing that Arizona football doesn’t want to do this winter is force the hand of athletic director Jim Livengood.  Jim Livengood, for that matter, doesn’t want his hand to be forced this winter.  So is that to suggest just how much pressure is on the shoulders of Mike Stoops this fall?  No doubt about it!

           Courtesy smiles will be the name of the game the first six weeks of the season, maybe all season depending on the way things pan out.  Everyone with a stake in the game, lots of people, will look like jolly ole Saint Nic on Saturday’s, but deep down colorful butterflies will be churning in tummies like grannies ice cream back in the day.

           A great deal of stock has been put into Mike Stoops and the faith that he “will” get this thing turned around.  Progress hasn’t been so much their middle name, but more of nickname the past four seasons.  We keep thinking maybe that was the win, maybe this is the day, maybe this is the recruit, maybe this is that one defining game moment that wheels the whole mess the right way.  And remember, Arizona hasn’t had a winning season since 1998, a DECADE without the number in the win column larger than the one in the loss column.  Maybe we should take baby steps?  Twice the win and loss column numbers have been equal to each other.  Am I serious?  Have things gone so horribly wrong that I’m wasting time on two five hundred seasons as we’re good enough, smart enough and people like us?  Whoa?  Please stop kicking us while we’re down.

           I wonder though if clinging to anything these days is the way to go?  It is going to be the ten year anniversary of the last time things couldn’t have gone much better.  12-1 in 1998 with a home loss to then number five UCLA as the only blemish on the schedule.  Could it possibly go that well in 2008?  Very very doubtful, but it has a better than average chance of at least climbing with some success in that direction over the next five months or so.

           So what does force Jim Livengood’s hand before Christmas if that unfortunately comes to fruition?  This is the fifth season of the Stoops era, which should count for a great deal.  But this is also the fifth season of the Stoops era after the Mackovic era which was an absolute pathetic joke, no way around it.  Also consider that Stoops had never been a head coach at the division one level, point being that he didn’t arrive in Tucson as a star power hire.  He rolled to the ole pueblo as the hot assistant hire in college football, two different things.  So we can assume that a losing season, heaven forbid, is the end of Mike Stoops.  What about a five hundred finish (6-6)?  Probably up for debate depending on who you ask, but remember that an even steven finish doesn’t necessarily mean NO bowl game.  Makes it harder, sure, but it can be done.  And that’s probably the end of the discussion.  The next step or two or three would be winning seasons, exactly what the man in charge needs to produce.

           I can only imagine, inwardly, what the coach and his assistants and donors and friends and supporters of the program (you know who you are) and Mr. Livengood are feeling right this very moment.  You think they’ll really enjoy their pregame festivities as the clock counts down to kickoff?  I don’t think so, at least not until a bowl game birth and or the first winning season in Tucson in a decade rears its happy head.  Raise a glass friends, here’s to the silver anniversary of the 1998 12-1 season.  Roll with the positive MOJO! 

           I love Arizona Wildcat basketball, but let’s worry about hoops in late October and early November instead of late September.  Bear Down Arizona!