By
Connor Doyle
Arizona Summer Wildcat
For those of you who are new to the UA, you've missed quite a bit this past season.
Two men who were integral parts of UA athletics, Dick Tomey and Jerry Stitt, won't be taking the field next season.
Tomey, the former football coach, had been with the UA for 14 years. He was the winningest coach in the history of the program. He guided the team to it's best season record ever, a preseason No. 1 ranking in Sports Illustrated, and orchestrated one of the most legendary defensive units in NCAA history - the "Desert Swarm" units in 1992 and 1993.
Stitt had been a mainstay in the baseball program for 27 years - as a player, assistant coach and head coach. He worked under Frank Sancet, the legendary coach after whom the baseball field is named. As a hitting coach, he was considered one of the best in the nation. And his players were fiercely dedicated to him.
But neither found themselves with a job at the end of the season.
Tomey resigned after losing the last game of the season against ASU.
For the second straight year, the football team didn't participate in a bowl game. For a program that never truly had captured the hearts of the campus and city, something needed to be changed.
Stitt was forced to resign midway through the summer after the baseball team had completed another season that found them without a winning record in the Pacific 10 conference and a berth into the NCAA tournament. For a program with such rich history - three National Championships and countless conference titles - it was decided by UA Athletic Director Jim Livengood that it was time for a fresh start.
Two men have been asked to replace Tomey and Stitt. John Mackovic, formerly of Texas, has been asked to come and not only upgrade the offense, but also re-ignite interest in the only Pacific 10 Conference team not to appear in the Rose Bowl. Andy Lopez, who was recently fired from Florida after leading the Gators to the College World Series three times in five years, has been asked to come in and return a program back to the national prominence it once possessed.
There's little doubt that these two men are capable of leading these teams to glory. Both have credentials that put them among the elite active coaches in their respective sports. However, their success - if it occurs - will be empty if the UA community doesn't back them. Clearly, especially in the case of baseball, there are many who might be unwilling to accept Andy Lopez because of the way Stitt's firing and resigning were handled.
The truth of the matter is this - Tomey and Stitt weren't winning. Coaches know when they enter this business what their goal is, and neither of these men were achieving at the level that the university required of them. For all the people that bemoaned Tomey's firing on the basis of his character, I ask why character didn't fill the thousands of empty seats on game day at Arizona Stadium. For those that criticize Jim Livengood for the way he treated Stitt because of the loyalty he showed the program, I ask why Stitt's loyalty couldn't get more than 150 people out to a baseball game at Sancet Field.
There's only one thing that's going to get fan interest back - winning. Livengood has given us two proven winners. Let's give them some time to do their job.
