After yesterday's press conference eded and all the reporters walked out to their respective computers, the bags under the eyes seemed to disappear and even a few smiles crept across their faces.

It isn't the cr�me de la cr�me of decisions, but it is something athletic director Jim Livengood had to do before this football program started drilling past rock bottom.

"My responsibility is to provide the best collegiate experience possible for each of our almost 500 student athletes," Livengood said. "I have not seen that with our football team."

With ex-head coach John Mackovic released yesterday in a situation that many in the UA community believed was inevitable, the future is more than hazy for the team.

Now, with less than a week until the Wildcats face perhaps the toughest team this side of Oklahoma, defensive coordinator Mike Hankwitz has been asked to take the reins of the program.

Livengood said he will attempt to make the rest of this schedule feel just like any other season.

"My intentions are to have as normal a rest of the season as possible and try to provide our seniors and our younger players the experience they deserve," he said.

With Hankwitz in charge the rest of the season, the defense will likely be expected to do what it did against TCU: produce.

Although the 19th-ranked Horned Frogs had 452 yards of total offense, the defense held TCU to just 13 points, while forcing nine punts.

The offense could be another story, only because of Hankwitz's lack of experience as a head coach. He has never been a college head coach.

Decisions that most head coaches would feel comfortable making could be tougher for Hankwitz because all the X's and O's point to trouble as the Wildcats start down that long and lonely Pacific 10 Conference road.

Although he has no experience being at the helm, Hankwitz may end up being somebody not to look so easily past.

His success at Texas A&M and Colorado enticed Mackovic to bring him to Arizona, and with Livengood now allowing him seven games to prove himself as the lead man, he has the opportunity to keep the job beyond 2003.

The verdict has been finalized, and for right now, the only thing certain is the Mack is out.