By Layne B. Park
Arizona Daily Wildcat
September 23, 1997

Tomey should step down

Editor:

In response to Chris Jackson's column on fan allegiance at the UA, I would like to say, Whadda ya expect!

It's not a question of fair-weather fans, it's a question of why subject yourself to disappointment and frustration while watching one of our games, especially when we don't have to.

Fans enjoy seeing their team blow the doors off their opponent, no question. More importantly, fans want to see a team who can walk out onto the field and contend for a win. The idea that going to your school's game and knowing the talent is there (and so is the chance for a win), will provide a motive to go to the game. But if you have been here the last three years, like I have, and seen no kind of building in the team's consistency, due to a direct lack of offensive coaching, there really is no place to turn.

Dick Tomey or Homer Smith are doing something terribly wrong. Our offensive scheme is lacking in creativity and execution. I watched the UA, Ohio State game, and there was no way we should have lost that football game. The same could be said for the Oregon game. That immediately amounts to a 3-0, undefeated start. To me that doesn't sound too far-fetched. Arizona possesses a stable receiver core, an awesome running back tandem, with Canidate and Callen. Throw the sure handed Schmidke in there with the freshman QB of the year last year and what do you have? A great amount of talent with no one to mold them. Tomey is not doing his job, period. The coaching staff needs to begin running plays that will utilize the amount of talent that we have.

So, to get back to that fair-weather bit, what do you expect the number of supporters to be, knowing that the team they want to rock out with on the hot Saturday nights is an offensively sputtering scene of frustration.

Get Dick Tomey out, and find someone who can use these kids to do something really special. Find a staff that will pass on third and long, and execute plays around the goal-line that will result in a high percentage of scores.

I love UA football. I bleed red and blue. I have been a great fan for the three years I have been here, but I have also seen the lacking from the coaching staff. It has made it hard for me to sit in the stands and watch.

Don't call me or my fellow fans fair-weather. We have standards and expectations from our football team. For a while now we have been disappointed.

Layne B. Park
Media arts sophomore