Well, Arizona finally has some clarity. The football program will hang onto its coach for another season and the basketball program knows it can hang and knock off one of the better teams in its region. It was a busy weekend for athletic director Greg Byrne and the programs, but things have cleared up with the Wildcats moving forward.
It is a busy time of the year for the current teams as well as recruiting. We’ll get you covered in this week’s War Room. Let’s get to it.
Football
Where to start? For one, Rich Rodriguez will remain Arizona’s coach for another season as he did not take a job with South Carolina as its head coach. There are still plenty of fences that need mending and work to do going forward, but the Wildcats still have their head coach and at this point all signs point to that being the case for 2016.
* Let us first delve into the last week or so and recap what took place and what is being said that took place. Rodriguez’s name, an ever-popular one around this time of year, started to pick up steam as programs started to gear up for coaching hires toward the end of the regular season. Then the dominoes started to fall as coaches were scooped up by programs including the stop most had tied Rodriguez to - Virginia Tech. The Hokies went with one of the hottest names out there in Memphis’ Justin Fuente.
Things died down then they picked up again and in a hurry. Last week reports started swirling that Rodriguez would interview for the South Carolina head coach position and he did so on Friday in North Carolina. After that he went quiet as rumors continued to swirl until Saturday night when Rodriguez and Byrne released tweets confirming that the UA head coach would remain in his position with the school and had turned down an offer from South Carolina.
All while this was going on the South Carolina media remained adamant that Will Muschamp was the leader and eventually that Rodriguez never actually had an offer on the table from the school. When Rodriguez met with the media in Tucson to talk about the bowl game he was asked about the offer and while didn’t outright say it he did say there was nothing inaccurate about what was tweeted by Byrne.
“Let’s just say I’m excited to be at Arizona,” Rodriguez said Sunday evening. “I think the future is very bright and I’m very appreciative of our fans and support certainly. We’re going to continue to try and build the best program in America. The only thing I’ll say about it and hopefully we can move on is there was mutual interest and curiosity. At the end it wasn’t enough to make a move ... on either part probably.
“You know I’m saying on both ends. It’s like I got a great situation here and I got a great group of kids. Tremendous fans and support, so we’ll take it from there.”
* There has been plenty of discussion about why Rodriguez would show interest in the job and as he said Sunday there was mutual interest. Arizona is in a spot where it is essentially tapped out and Byrne confirmed Sunday that Rodriguez will not receive a raise. Still there is the issue of an indoor facility something that the UA head coach does want. While it has not necessarily been something he has voiced his opinion about publicly he does want that facility and that is something that will continue to be talked about behind the scenes.
“We’ve got some things we’ve gotta fix here,” Rodriguez said. “There was some adversity we faced this year with injuries and what have you this year, but there’s nothing that I’ve seen or or evaluated since the last game that we can’t fix but we’ve got some work to do.”
Byrne said Sunday that Rodriguez was transparent throughout the process and that a request for an indoor facility was not made or any other additional requests.
“Actually he was really good about it,” Byrne said. “We communicated the entire time and he was very transparent with me the entire time, and I was transparent with him. Nothing as far as a request ever came up.”
Byrne did say that an indoor facility is something that the program would like to have, but there are other priorities first with other facilities.
“Well if you guys haven’t figured it out we always have something up our sleeve that we’re working on,” Byrne said. “But at some point would we like to get an indoor practice facility? Yes. There’s a lot of facility issues that we want to address.”
* The other aspect of the entire South Carolina ordeal was the official offer and if it was ever in fact made. Arizona is clear on its side that there was an offer made to Rodriguez to be the head coach and he turned it down. South Carolina writers and now their athletic director have continued to say that no offer was on the table for Rodriguez at South Carolina. The truth might never actually be revealed but at this point it is moot.
“I don’t want to get into all that, but there are no inaccuracies in what I tweeted or what Greg Byrne tweeted,” Rodriguez said Sunday.
Meanwhile on Monday South Carolina AD Ray Tanner was asked about the conflicting reports and as you would expect him to say he has a differing story.
“I can’t speak for anything that he (Byrne) put out, but I would tell you that it’s inaccurate,” Tanner said Monday at the press conference introducing Will Muschamp as its head coach.
* One of the biggest reasons Byrne may have tweeted what he did in the fashion he did Saturday night was because at this point there is plenty to indicate Tanner reached out to Rodriguez without permission from the Arizona AD. Byrne did not want to directly comment on that situation but he did talk about how those talks come together.
“There’s a lot of variables to how it happens, but yeah those conversations do take place at some point,” Byrne said.
* In addition to all that going on with the Wildcats and South Carolina and the head coaching job, Arizona found out Sunday that it would be headed back to the New Mexico Bowl to play against New Mexico on Dec. 19. It was not the first choice for the Wildcats but Arizona was able to avoid a non-TV game in Tucson with the Arizona Bowl as well as avoid going to Texas or Louisiana. The New Mexico Bowl will allow the Wildcats to have just a couple weeks of prep and play the game in time for the players to be home for Christmas and the holidays something the team was hoping for.
Because the team took two weeks off it will be interesting to see how things shake out Monday when the Wildcats return to practice. There are still numerous injuries the ‘Cats are dealing with so practices are expected to be a little shorter than those during the season. Arizona is expected to practice Monday through Wednesday this week with potentially additional practices as well.
Scooby Wright continues to be on track to play in the game but Rodriguez said Sunday it will really be about how all the injured players look by the end of the week that will give him an indication of who will be able to play.
* Arizona will take on the home team in an odd bowl game where New Mexico will play in its own stadium. That is a unique aspect of this year’s New Mexico Bowl in addition to the variation of the triple option it runs. That could present some issues for the Wildcats, but Rodriguez said the team has already started to take a bigger look at their next opponent.
“This is very unique and it doesn’t happen very often like that,” Rodriguez said Sunday. “It’ll be a challenge and I’m sure they’ll have a great crowd. I watched a little bit of them earlier in the year when they played ASU and then I got a chance to watch them for about an hour before I came here this afternoon. We’ll get caught up.”
It is a busy time of the year for the current teams as well as recruiting. We’ll get you covered in this week’s War Room. Let’s get to it.
Football
Where to start? For one, Rich Rodriguez will remain Arizona’s coach for another season as he did not take a job with South Carolina as its head coach. There are still plenty of fences that need mending and work to do going forward, but the Wildcats still have their head coach and at this point all signs point to that being the case for 2016.
* Let us first delve into the last week or so and recap what took place and what is being said that took place. Rodriguez’s name, an ever-popular one around this time of year, started to pick up steam as programs started to gear up for coaching hires toward the end of the regular season. Then the dominoes started to fall as coaches were scooped up by programs including the stop most had tied Rodriguez to - Virginia Tech. The Hokies went with one of the hottest names out there in Memphis’ Justin Fuente.
Things died down then they picked up again and in a hurry. Last week reports started swirling that Rodriguez would interview for the South Carolina head coach position and he did so on Friday in North Carolina. After that he went quiet as rumors continued to swirl until Saturday night when Rodriguez and Byrne released tweets confirming that the UA head coach would remain in his position with the school and had turned down an offer from South Carolina.
All while this was going on the South Carolina media remained adamant that Will Muschamp was the leader and eventually that Rodriguez never actually had an offer on the table from the school. When Rodriguez met with the media in Tucson to talk about the bowl game he was asked about the offer and while didn’t outright say it he did say there was nothing inaccurate about what was tweeted by Byrne.
“Let’s just say I’m excited to be at Arizona,” Rodriguez said Sunday evening. “I think the future is very bright and I’m very appreciative of our fans and support certainly. We’re going to continue to try and build the best program in America. The only thing I’ll say about it and hopefully we can move on is there was mutual interest and curiosity. At the end it wasn’t enough to make a move ... on either part probably.
“You know I’m saying on both ends. It’s like I got a great situation here and I got a great group of kids. Tremendous fans and support, so we’ll take it from there.”
* There has been plenty of discussion about why Rodriguez would show interest in the job and as he said Sunday there was mutual interest. Arizona is in a spot where it is essentially tapped out and Byrne confirmed Sunday that Rodriguez will not receive a raise. Still there is the issue of an indoor facility something that the UA head coach does want. While it has not necessarily been something he has voiced his opinion about publicly he does want that facility and that is something that will continue to be talked about behind the scenes.
“We’ve got some things we’ve gotta fix here,” Rodriguez said. “There was some adversity we faced this year with injuries and what have you this year, but there’s nothing that I’ve seen or or evaluated since the last game that we can’t fix but we’ve got some work to do.”
Byrne said Sunday that Rodriguez was transparent throughout the process and that a request for an indoor facility was not made or any other additional requests.
“Actually he was really good about it,” Byrne said. “We communicated the entire time and he was very transparent with me the entire time, and I was transparent with him. Nothing as far as a request ever came up.”
Byrne did say that an indoor facility is something that the program would like to have, but there are other priorities first with other facilities.
“Well if you guys haven’t figured it out we always have something up our sleeve that we’re working on,” Byrne said. “But at some point would we like to get an indoor practice facility? Yes. There’s a lot of facility issues that we want to address.”
* The other aspect of the entire South Carolina ordeal was the official offer and if it was ever in fact made. Arizona is clear on its side that there was an offer made to Rodriguez to be the head coach and he turned it down. South Carolina writers and now their athletic director have continued to say that no offer was on the table for Rodriguez at South Carolina. The truth might never actually be revealed but at this point it is moot.
“I don’t want to get into all that, but there are no inaccuracies in what I tweeted or what Greg Byrne tweeted,” Rodriguez said Sunday.
Meanwhile on Monday South Carolina AD Ray Tanner was asked about the conflicting reports and as you would expect him to say he has a differing story.
“I can’t speak for anything that he (Byrne) put out, but I would tell you that it’s inaccurate,” Tanner said Monday at the press conference introducing Will Muschamp as its head coach.
* One of the biggest reasons Byrne may have tweeted what he did in the fashion he did Saturday night was because at this point there is plenty to indicate Tanner reached out to Rodriguez without permission from the Arizona AD. Byrne did not want to directly comment on that situation but he did talk about how those talks come together.
“There’s a lot of variables to how it happens, but yeah those conversations do take place at some point,” Byrne said.
* In addition to all that going on with the Wildcats and South Carolina and the head coaching job, Arizona found out Sunday that it would be headed back to the New Mexico Bowl to play against New Mexico on Dec. 19. It was not the first choice for the Wildcats but Arizona was able to avoid a non-TV game in Tucson with the Arizona Bowl as well as avoid going to Texas or Louisiana. The New Mexico Bowl will allow the Wildcats to have just a couple weeks of prep and play the game in time for the players to be home for Christmas and the holidays something the team was hoping for.
Because the team took two weeks off it will be interesting to see how things shake out Monday when the Wildcats return to practice. There are still numerous injuries the ‘Cats are dealing with so practices are expected to be a little shorter than those during the season. Arizona is expected to practice Monday through Wednesday this week with potentially additional practices as well.
Scooby Wright continues to be on track to play in the game but Rodriguez said Sunday it will really be about how all the injured players look by the end of the week that will give him an indication of who will be able to play.
* Arizona will take on the home team in an odd bowl game where New Mexico will play in its own stadium. That is a unique aspect of this year’s New Mexico Bowl in addition to the variation of the triple option it runs. That could present some issues for the Wildcats, but Rodriguez said the team has already started to take a bigger look at their next opponent.
“This is very unique and it doesn’t happen very often like that,” Rodriguez said Sunday. “It’ll be a challenge and I’m sure they’ll have a great crowd. I watched a little bit of them earlier in the year when they played ASU and then I got a chance to watch them for about an hour before I came here this afternoon. We’ll get caught up.”
