Bear Down Wildcats

5 days past National Letter of Intent day and we still don't have a DL coach???

It is now apparent that there is only one explanation !

The new AZ DL coach is..................scroll down






















ELLIOT PITTS !!!

This would explain his absence from the BBall court and why RRod is keeping his choice secret.........its obvious

Man even John Mackovic didn't have this much trouble filling an assistant coaching position. Who knows what is happening but this is a PAC 12 assistant job paying a PAC 12 market rate salary so shocked it seems to have been this hard to fill it

We probably tried to pry someone really good away from somewhere and it just didn't work out. Now we're moving onto someone else that's probably pretty darn good, but these things just take some time; asking someone to move to a different state or even different part of the country isn't a decision that is often made in a day or sometimes even in a single week.

That said, seeing what I've seen so far, confidence is high that it will work out well in the end.

Reading between the lines (here and other places) it looks to me that RR is trying to get one guy who hasn't said yes yet, but RR is still beating on his door.

azgreg wrote:Reading between the lines (here and other places) it looks to me that RR is trying to get one guy who hasn't said yes yet, but RR is still beating on his door.

I'm with you and SCCATS. I think he wants someone good and he's not going to settle for something less. I'm sick of waiting to hear who but I understand the process and I'm sure it will be fine.

Scheer said on Twitter he expects Big Joe to stay at Wazzu despite Arizona's efforts. Sucks, but if you're gonna swing and miss, swing for the fences.

Only Arizona football would have trouble luring an alum position coach away from Pullman.

ChooChooCat wrote:Only Arizona football would have trouble luring an alum position coach away from Pullman.

Not when you remember that it was RRod who chased him out of Tucson so he could hire his drinkiing buddy Kirlav (the guy who wouldn't get off his ass to recruit)..........IMO one of the 2 or 3 biggest mistakes RRod has made in his tenure at AZ

Scheer is saying Vince is our guy. Says he was at :

not sure why anyone needs to pay a subscription to any of these sites....seem to be able to get the latest on twitter...then the full story makes it over to the free boards eventually.

dmjcat wrote:

ChooChooCat wrote:Only Arizona football would have trouble luring an alum position coach away from Pullman.

Not when you remember that it was RRod who chased him out of Tucson so he could hire his drinkiing buddy Kirlav (the guy who wouldn't get off his ass to recruit)..........IMO one of the 2 or 3 biggest mistakes RRod has made in his tenure at AZ

Hell to get Casteel I'm pretty sure RR had to bring Kirlav with him. I don't blame RR for that at all. Jeff was his guy and he had to bring his guys with him. It is what it is, but it's not as if Joe is coaching somewhere above Arizona or anything.

ChooChooCat wrote:

dmjcat wrote:

ChooChooCat wrote:Only Arizona football would have trouble luring an alum position coach away from Pullman.

Not when you remember that it was RRod who chased him out of Tucson so he could hire his drinkiing buddy Kirlav (the guy who wouldn't get off his ass to recruit)..........IMO one of the 2 or 3 biggest mistakes RRod has made in his tenure at AZ

Hell to get Casteel I'm pretty sure RR had to bring Kirlav with him. I don't blame RR for that at all. Jeff was his guy and he had to bring his guys with him. It is what it is, but it's not as if Joe is coaching somewhere above Arizona or anything.

Hiring Kirlav, Casteel, or any other coach and agreeing that they would be exempt from recruiting was a horrible decision and there is no excuse for it. That said, it is water under the bridge and at this point there is no sense in crying over spilled milk.

It has seemed to a handful of us For a while that the "we have our guy and we just have to wait until signing day to announce" seemed like wishful thinking, holding onto that belief now seems ludicrous.

That said, I met Amey once in Tucson a few years ago and had no idea he was part of the football program until afterward.... he was an unbelievably nice guy. If he is indeed the guy, I really hope he has a lot of success.

Saying Casteel and Kirlav didn't recruit just isn't true, they just didn't put in the effort that is needed in this day in age when young guys (i.e. Donte) will bust their ass on the recruiting trail.

ChooChooCat wrote:Only Arizona football would have trouble luring an alum position coach away from Pullman.

Such a true statement

I think it is a big mistake we didn't hire someone with strong Polynesian connections

IMO the only coaches that would drop everything and come running are coaches outside the Big5 conferences. There are alot of red flags for a coach coming to UA, speed of the offense = more plays the D is on the field, unknown RR future, Arizona is not a recruiting Hotbed, best kids in the state leave the state, community involvement, can't sell out the stadium

Dkenner wrote:IMO the only coaches that would drop everything and come running are coaches outside the Big5 conferences. There are alot of red flags for a coach coming to UA, speed of the offense = more plays the D is on the field, unknown RR future, Arizona is not a recruiting Hotbed, best kids in the state leave the state, community involvement, can't sell out the stadium

Which one of these issues that you named for Arizona does not pertain to Washington State exactly at the same level if not ten fold more?

If you want to shit on Arizona football that's fine, but our competition was Washington State and not Washington.

Newportcat wrote:

ChooChooCat wrote:Only Arizona football would have trouble luring an alum position coach away from Pullman.

Such a true statement

I think it is a big mistake we didn't hire someone with strong Polynesian connections

We just got the best "Polynesian" player in the entire '16 class without a Polynesian connection. WSU got two three star "Polynesian" players and one two star, of those three none of them were offered by us and one originally committed to SJ ST after being recruited by Donte Williams. Cali, Phx, and TX are much bigger recruiting needs then a Polynesian connection. Now I think Joe is a good coach, but don't at all blame him for not wanting to come back to UofA after he was let go when Rich Rod first got here.

ChooChooCat wrote:

Dkenner wrote:IMO the only coaches that would drop everything and come running are coaches outside the Big5 conferences. There are alot of red flags for a coach coming to UA, speed of the offense = more plays the D is on the field, unknown RR future, Arizona is not a recruiting Hotbed, best kids in the state leave the state, community involvement, can't sell out the stadium

Which one of these issues that you named for Arizona does not pertain to Washington State exactly at the same level if not ten fold more?

If you want to shit on Arizona football that's fine, but our competition was Washington State and not Washington.

these are the reasons why coaches wont move laterally to UA and Joe is also the Assoc. HC at WSU

Dkenner wrote:IMO the only coaches that would drop everything and come running are coaches outside the Big5 conferences. There are alot of red flags for a coach coming to UA, speed of the offense = more plays the D is on the field, unknown RR future, Arizona is not a recruiting Hotbed, best kids in the state leave the state, community involvement, can't sell out the stadium

This might be the most perfect post I've ever read on any message board at anytime. The nail was hit on the head here. You had me at the speed of the offense. I've been saying that for four years. DCs have all adjusted to offensive gimmicks. The pendulum in football has swung back to the defensive side of the ball. Bravo DK. You're spot on.

chiefzona wrote:

Dkenner wrote:IMO the only coaches that would drop everything and come running are coaches outside the Big5 conferences. There are alot of red flags for a coach coming to UA, speed of the offense = more plays the D is on the field, unknown RR future, Arizona is not a recruiting Hotbed, best kids in the state leave the state, community involvement, can't sell out the stadium

This might be the most perfect post I've ever read on any message board at anytime. The nail was hit on the head here. You had me at the speed of the offense. I've been saying that for four years. DCs have all adjusted to offensive gimmicks. The pendulum in football has swung back to the defensive side of the ball. Bravo DK. You're spot on.

How many programs run an up tempo offense or a spread? 85% or so?

That's not a valid excuse.

chiefzona wrote:

Dkenner wrote:IMO the only coaches that would drop everything and come running are coaches outside the Big5 conferences. There are alot of red flags for a coach coming to UA, speed of the offense = more plays the D is on the field, unknown RR future, Arizona is not a recruiting Hotbed, best kids in the state leave the state, community involvement, can't sell out the stadium

This might be the most perfect post I've ever read on any message board at anytime. The nail was hit on the head here. You had me at the speed of the offense. I've been saying that for four years. DCs have all adjusted to offensive gimmicks. The pendulum in football has swung back to the defensive side of the ball. Bravo DK. You're spot on.

He coaches at a school at a pass heavy spread offense now, which makes the game longer and equally tires out the defense. No matter how you slice it, we lost to fricken Wazzu, which I'm sorry is not a lateral school for an assistant coach. If they weren't grandfathered in long ago they wouldn't even be a power 5 school.

Tucson isn't the greatest city in the world, but Pullman. Pullman...

It's easier to rotate and for LBs and DBs to adjust but not for those big uglies. The DL will suffer at a school like Arizona with an uptempo defense because it's harder to recruit solid D-linemen. I'm not happy with the hire because I know it was by default. However, I will give the guy a chance to change my mind.

Salty wrote:

chiefzona wrote:

Dkenner wrote:IMO the only coaches that would drop everything and come running are coaches outside the Big5 conferences. There are alot of red flags for a coach coming to UA, speed of the offense = more plays the D is on the field, unknown RR future, Arizona is not a recruiting Hotbed, best kids in the state leave the state, community involvement, can't sell out the stadium

This might be the most perfect post I've ever read on any message board at anytime. The nail was hit on the head here. You had me at the speed of the offense. I've been saying that for four years. DCs have all adjusted to offensive gimmicks. The pendulum in football has swung back to the defensive side of the ball. Bravo DK. You're spot on.

How many programs run an up tempo offense or a spread? 85% or so?

That's not a valid excuse.

It's also not even necessarily a detrimental thing.

Everyone understands that your per game stats in yards given up and points given up will be higher than average with more plays ran. But there's also the important yards per play metric that people can look at to get a better understanding of what's going on. Also, unlike in some other systems, the impetus is not put entirely on the defense to win the game; there's no 'you have to hold them to under 17 points for us to be successful.' In our offensive system not only is the impetus not on the D to win the game, you probably only need like four or five stops by the D to win. So in many ways that's a great scenario for defensive coaches.

So I don't buy the 'running the spread makes defensive coaches not want to come' stuff.

chiefzona wrote:It's easier to rotate and for LBs and DBs to adjust but not for those big uglies. The DL will suffer at a school like Arizona with an uptempo defense because it's harder to recruit solid D-linemen. I'm not happy with the hire because I know it was by default. However, I will give the guy a chance to change my mind.

It's amazing Oregon, TCU, and Baylor ever make BCS bowls isn't it?

SCCats wrote:
So I don't buy the 'running the spread makes defensive coaches not want to come' stuff.

Yeah first we suck on the DL because we play a 3-3-5 and now it's the offense's fault that we have a bad DL. Make up your mind already.

The last time we didn't run an uptempo offense was when Mike Canalas was our OC. I don't remember that working out to well.

gronk4heisman wrote:The last time we didn't run an uptempo offense was when Mike Canalas was our OC. I don't remember that working out to well.

That was the last time the DL was good. Brooks Reed, D'Andre Reed, and Ricky Elmore. I believe Elmore got All PAC 10 and so did Brooks. Didn't Elmore get PAC 10 defensive POY? I don't seem to remember.

chiefzona wrote:

gronk4heisman wrote:The last time we didn't run an uptempo offense was when Mike Canalas was our OC. I don't remember that working out to well.

That was the last time the DL was good. Brooks Reed, D'Andre Reed, and Ricky Elmore. I believe Elmore got All PAC 10 and so did Brooks. Didn't Elmore get PAC 10 defensive POY? I don't seem to remember.

I'll trade the All Pac-10 and 3 win seasons for non All Pac-10 and winning seasons. But maybe I'm in the minority there. Also, not to nitpick but those guys played after we switched to the "Airzona" offense.

chiefzona wrote:

gronk4heisman wrote:The last time we didn't run an uptempo offense was when Mike Canalas was our OC. I don't remember that working out to well.

That was the last time the DL was good. Brooks Reed, D'Andre Reed, and Ricky Elmore. I believe Elmore got All PAC 10 and so did Brooks. Didn't Elmore get PAC 10 defensive POY? I don't seem to remember.

Those guys were playing DL while Dykes and Littrell were OCs and they were running uptempo in the Air Raid offense.

chiefzona wrote:

gronk4heisman wrote:The last time we didn't run an uptempo offense was when Mike Canalas was our OC. I don't remember that working out to well.

That was the last time the DL was good. Brooks Reed, D'Andre Reed, and Ricky Elmore. I believe Elmore got All PAC 10 and so did Brooks. Didn't Elmore get PAC 10 defensive POY? I don't seem to remember.

I think those guys were all 2 star recruits. Or fringe 3 stars at best.

azpenguin wrote:

chiefzona wrote:

gronk4heisman wrote:The last time we didn't run an uptempo offense was when Mike Canalas was our OC. I don't remember that working out to well.

That was the last time the DL was good. Brooks Reed, D'Andre Reed, and Ricky Elmore. I believe Elmore got All PAC 10 and so did Brooks. Didn't Elmore get PAC 10 defensive POY? I don't seem to remember.

Those guys were playing DL while Dykes and Littrell were OCs and they were running uptempo in the Air Raid offense.

They still had some huddles and were maybe half as fast as Arizona!s offense today.

Going back to DKs OP.....it's tough to pull a quality DL coach. There are different factors involved. RR pushed hard for Big Joe and he chose to stay in Pullman despite the dangled carrot and back to his alma mater. Let that sink in.

So is Amey officially official?

If he is the choice today would probably be the best day to announce it, it is his birthday.

chiefzona wrote:Going back to DKs OP.....it's tough to pull a quality DL coach. There are different factors involved. RR pushed hard for Big Joe and he chose to stay in Pullman despite the dangled carrot and back to his alma mater. Let that sink in.

Why wouldn't he stay loyal to Leach. RR passed on him when he brought Mr. No recruit Kirelavich.

Poly culture is built on loyalty and trust. I am surprised RR tried as long as he did or that big Joe listened more than once without laughing

Looks to me that they have that defense up in Pullman headed in the right direction and maybe he just wants to stick with that.

Some people actually like living in The Palouse. Some people don't like living in Tucson.

Mike Price used to pull some good QBs from that area, put a couple in the NFL in the Pac-10 era, more than Arizona could do.

Price also put a couple of teams into the Rose Bowl.

Could be a lot of good reason Salave turned RR down.

Salave is also an assistant HC besides doing DL, did RR make him the same offer?

With the assistant HC title, Salave'a would likely have a better chance of moving up to something bigger soon, such as a d-coordinator job or a G5 HC job. Who knows why he turned down RR's offer, there could be a lot of reasons. On the whole, though, this has been a hell of an offseason already and I'm excited to see what the new coaching staff can do on defense. Until we know what we're going to be getting on the field, I'll give Amey the benefit of the doubt. Not getting one coach they were after doesn't ruin this offseason when they got several others they targeted.

Vince is a great guy and I'm happy for him. Wanted Salavea but oh well. Kind of like that we have a Sun Devil to tell recruits UofA>ASU

All I ask is can Amey recruit?

I just don't get it. Even using the most absurd justifications I still just don't get it.

I personally don't know Vince Amey nor do I confess to know if he can coach or recruit.

But how does the UofA as a middle of the road football program continue for years to overlook and deny a guy like Ricky Hundley who is a football icon at the UofA and who would give his left nutt and run through a brick wall to coach at Arizona.

I just don't get it. There may even be a few others that are just as qualified as Amey or far more qualified and who actually have a legacy and history at the school that were passed over. I can't confirm that of course.

If RR couldn't get a big name to come coach here why the hell not get a guy like Ricky who bleeds our colors. I have nothing against Vince Amey but he is a complete unknown and has never coached a day in his life as far as I can tell but he gets the nod over a wildcat great. I'm sorry but I just don't get it.

I'm sure there is a bunch of smoke filled back-room nonsense that is floating around.

Well anyway I'm just rambling. I guess at this point I find the whole thing more amusing than anything else.

I know the hire will be spun to the max so it should be a lovely experience. I'll just grab some popcorn and hopefully some one can enlighten me.

Shouldn't we want the best possible candidate no matter where he attended school? I can't imagine a recruit saying, "Wow, you went there before I was born? Sign me up!" Or a current player saying, "It's ok that my technique is terrible and I have no prospect of playing in the NFL. Coach really bleeds red & blue..."

Chicat wrote:Shouldn't we want the best possible candidate no matter where he attended school? I can't imagine a recruit saying, "Wow, you went there before I was born? Sign me up!" Or a current player saying, "It's ok that my technique is terrible and I have no prospect of playing in the NFL. Coach really bleeds red & blue..."

100% agree. As long as Amey can recruit and motivate players, he will be fine

This whole 'bleed our colors' talk is silly. Like Chi said, we should be taking the best candidate regardless of his school. Is Amey better DL coach than Hundley? I have no idea but any preconceived notion that we should hire an unqualified coach based on his desire to coach for us is nuts.

Same reason why Josh Pastner will never/should never be a serious candidate as a bball coach for us.

BMalo wrote:This whole 'bleed our colors' talk is silly. Like Chi said, we should be taking the best candidate regardless of his school. Is Amey better DL coach than Hundley? I have no idea but any preconceived notion that we should hire an unqualified coach based on his desire to coach for us is nuts.

Same reason why Josh Pastner will never/should never be a serious candidate as a bball coach for us.

Exactly. Also you have to consider fit amongst the staff. These guys put in long hours both in Tucson and on the road together. Just because a guy was a Wildcat doesn't mean he's going to fit right in with the current staff or culture around the program. There has to be so much more than just alumni status when making this hire.

I'm not happy with Amey but he is the hand that is dealt. RR isn't proud of this hire. He lost big and swung and missed 3 times. He knows the stakes and I believe he hopes that he can dig out of a forgetful season and embrace some changes for this season.

I haven't heard a thing, but Marcel has to have input on this, and IF it is Amey, he would have to had signed of on his qualifications and fit. Quite honestly, if Marcel is cool with Amey, then I am.

He knows a whole hell of a lot about putting a defensive staff together then I do, so I'm willing to defer.

I don't think Amey has been officially announced yet.

Look guys, a former assistant AD told me that Ricky had chapped so many asses in the department, university community and donor class, that he will never draw a dime of money from the U. I was told what the deal was, and won't get into the details, but some people have long memories, and remember bridges burned.

chiefzona wrote:I'm not happy with Amey but he is the hand that is dealt. RR isn't proud of this hire. He lost big and swung and missed 3 times. He knows the stakes and I believe he hopes that he can dig out of a forgetful season and embrace some changes for this season.

If this was the case, RR should've gone outside the box with this hire. Everybody, especially the remaining recruits, waited too long for fourth choice on an already short list.

I mean, first day of spring practice was pushed back to tomorrow already from Feb. 5, and some players still haven't met their entire staff.

Sorry, but there's no way to put lipstick on this pig, except to say truthfully that this is the D-line coach with the most to prove in all of D-I.

I loved Hunley as a player but have no problem with him not getting the job. He has had a less than illustrious coaching career, and he had ZERO business getting the HC job when he burned bridges because he did not. If he was a younger guy that current players recognized, it might be a different story with this job - but he is not. I also understand he is something less than an OKG - from more than one source.

But let's not try and pretend like we hire a "more qualified guy". We did not. As for Yates signing off on the hire - we are at a point where we needed to fill the job - period. We hired a guy with no experience who was a last resort because we whiffed on other candidates.

Because Amey was not qualified and was a 'last resort' does not mean that will be a bad coach, or even that he is a worse hire than Hunley would have been. But let's acknowledge this for what it is.

Amey seems to be a really good guy, and I hope he turns out to be successful. I'll be rooting for him.

I originally thought we had someone hired and we were waiting until LOI day to announce. When that turned out to be wrong I just decided to keep my mouth shut and see where it all winds up. From what I'm reading it would appear a number of others might want to consider the same thing. I sincerely doubt that anyone here is drinking buddies with Big Joe and I doubt if anyone here really knows what he's thinking. I don't think RR confers with anyone on this board about assistant coach hires so no one really knows how many times he did or didn't swing at something or if he missed or not. One person says its not Ricky Hunley because they used to know a former assistant AD that said Ricky would never work here. Oh and another person wants to put lipstick on a pig. All of you are just like me, you don't know a darn thing.
Please RR, hire someone quickly so the person that was lucky enough to tell the whopper that happened to be correct can declare confidently they knew it all along and we can be done with it.