Being an unabashed Mackovic fan, my second favorite college football team is the Arizona Wildcats. Hopefully he won't have fans that openly root against him and he's come to his senses and left defense to the defensive minds. Go Wildcats!!!
I'm not exactly a huge Wildcats fan right now, but I guess since I'll be going there next year I should get in the spirit now. Go Wildcats!
A funny thing to me is I am at Zona now and Mackovik arrived here, and I was at UT when he arrived there. Even more funny, I think he was a bad hire at UT, but think he was a good hire at Zona. I was at both the UCLA (in Memorial Stadium) debacle and the even worse Rice Stadium debacle around 93, it was obvious he wasn't working out. The Texas job is one of the 5 highest pressure jobs in coaching, and you have to be able to schmooze with the beer drinking good ole boys to pull the local recruits you need. But I figure three things work in his favor at Zona. 1) his time away gave him some additional perspective on things he could do differently to improve as a college coach (it is an emotional game after all); 2) he recruits pretty well nationally and in California and only has ASU to deal with as far as local recruits; 3) Zona is BB first (Lute Olsen is the big man), football second. He won't be expected to challenge for the national title, just get to any Bowl games more often then not and maybe an elite Bowl every five years; 4) Zona has a good defense and good defensive staff already in place, he can focus on Zona's O which the former head coach was atrocious at. Put is all togther, I think Mackovik and Zona made a nice fit and the right time. Now if only Mack Brown would hire some excellent game day strategists, UT would bring home the bacon. Last years staff was clearly schooled by the Okie, Oregon and Stanford staffs in terms of preparation, adjustments and play calling. UT has the recruits, now they need the brains and game-day coaching instincts to put it all togther.
I was switching back and forth between the WSU Cougars and Zona games last night. I graduated from WSU in '97 so I am a little biased, but the Cougs looked awesome! (Granted it was against Idaho).. Anyway, I think they're really going to make some noise in the Pac 10 this year. I wasn't too impressed w/ what I saw in the Arizona game though.. no offense (they had offense, but I mean no offense...)
