Poor Mike Stoops. All he wanted to do was take Arizona to the Rose Bowl and now he's unemployed, probably standing on some street corner somewhere yelling at random passers-by.
After losing to the previously winless Beavers, Stoops received his walking papers after seven and a half seasons as the Wildcats' coach.
There is no doubt Stoops elevated the play in Tucson. He inherited an awful program that had been decimated by John Mackovic and returned it to respectability - guiding Arizona to three consecutive bowl berths from '08 to '10.
But like I said, he never could get the Wildcats to the Rose Bowl and the final straw was last season's meltdown that bled over into this season, as they lost 10 of their last 11 games.
Not many coaches, seven and a half seasons into their job, are going to survive that type of collapse and though I expected Stoops to make it through the remainder of the season, apparently they wanted to sever ties before things got too gruesome there.
We'll see if it works.
The Pac-12 Power Poll after the jump...
Team of the Week: Oregon State. Hey, a win is a win and they needed it. Let's give them their due!
Team of the Weak: Arizona. Whenever you're a team's first win this late in the season, things are probably going pretty badly.
Pac-12 North:
1. Stanford Cardinal (5-0): No one really expected Colorado to give Stanford a run for their money. There's no reason to believe Washington State should, either.
2. Oregon Ducks (4-1): The Ducks struggled in the first half of their game against Cal before turning it on in the second. This week will prove more tough, especially without LaMichael James. Oregon hasn't lost a conference game in over a season. Does that change Saturday? Eh, probably not...
3. Washington Huskies (4-1): A bye week after their waxing of Utah and they should continue their winning ways with struggling Colorado.
4. California Golden Bears (3-2): Gave Oregon fits for a half and then wilted down the stretch behind a putrid offense. Gotta beat SC tonight or the season could turn south fast.
5. Washington St. Cougars (3-2): The Cougs Coug'd it against UCLA and now run the risk of falling to .500 for the first time this season. Worse? Had they held on to beat the Bruins, ESPN GameDay was set to hit up Pullman for their game against Stanford. Ouch.
6. Oregon St. Beavers (1-4): Beating Arizona doesn't get you out of the cellar yet, Beavs. But hey, doesn't winning feel great (I'm starting to forget myself). Why not keep it going this weekend against BYU?
Pac-12 South:
1. Arizona St. Sun Devils (5-1): ASU is just runnin' away with the division.
2. USC Trojans (4-1): Comment vacated by the NCAA
3. UCLA Bruins (3-3): It wasn't a pretty win, but the Bruins are 2-1 in Pac-12 play. Who would've thunk it?
4. Utah Utes (2-3): Might be well into November before the Utes sniff their first conference win (eh, probably not that long...)
5. Colorado Buffaloes (1-5): They are who we thought they were.
6. Arizona Wildcats (1-5): They were Stoopefied.
Game of the Week: ASU @ Oregon. Irrelevant to Ute fans now that they're pretty much toast in the Pac-12 South race. But it's fun to think what if...