Arizona Football needs REAL leadership moving forward

Following the program’s worst, ninth-straight loss on Saturday evening, it is apparent Arizona Football needs real leadership moving forward.

Last night was an absolute shit show, there, I said it. As a lifelong Arizona Football fan that lived through the Dick Tomey era, that saw the program have a mutiny during the John Mackovic years, got on-board with the transition to Mike Stoops, and was elated to witness moderate success under Rich Rodriguez, I have been waiting for competent football again.

Unfortunately for those of us watching, last night’s 44-27 loss was eerily similar to some of those butt whippings we suffered through in the early 2000s. The team looked despondent and dejected, not exactly ideal for a program in year three under Kevin Sumlin.

Arizona Wildcats

Never, would I have thought Arizona could beat (not in a good way), a long-standing record that was initially set during some of the darkest times for the Arizona Football program, but then again, this is Arizona Football, and nothing can surprise me anymore.

As the Wildcats were trailing 37-0 with just under five minutes to go in the third quarter, quarterback Grant Gunnell stood up after being sacked for the fifth time in this game. Wearing the look of defeat, jersey disheveled from a rough night of being pummeled into the turf, it was his look that seemed to symbolize and encompass the frustration we have been enduring as fans with Sumlin as head coach.

There’s no skating around the fact that Arizona’s Football Program is in a bad way right now. Just as we thought this team was making some positive progress following a competitive loss to USC last weekend, once again, in typical Arizona fashion, it was fools gold, as the “confidence” was negated by a bad loss.

And as Saturday night’s loss proved, it is that even in year three, progress and development under Sumlin have been minimal and inconsistent, to say the least.

A team that is somehow often poorly coached, poorly managed, and poorly prepared, if there were a sequence of plays from that 44-27 drubbing to Washington that could encapsulate Arizona Football in the Sumlin era, it was a fumble that wouldn’t be challenged by the Wildcats.

For those that didn’t watch, with the Huskies leading 24-0, Washington threw a pass that looked like a fumble that was recovered by Arizona. But as the Pac-12 refs chose to ignore it, it was the coaching staffs’ inaction that should be heavily criticized here.

Down big on the road, and in desperate need of some sort of spark for an inexperienced and pieced together defense, Sumlin’s choice to essentially just keep his arms folded, as if having a defeatists attitude, again, the inaction was appalling, to say the least.

From an outsider’s perspective, you cannot help but to question, does Sumlin care about this program, and does he truly have the back of his players? I mean, really?

Because last night, Sumlin looked like a man who knows he’s at the end of his coaching career, already has his $10 million buyout from Texas A&M, and is being paid handsomely by an impoverished Athletic Department that is in no position financially to be able to part ways.

Arizona needs a fighter of a head coach, and unfortunately, they don’t have one. This team needs real leadership at their head coaching position now more than ever, and it is apparent that paying $3.28 million per season doesn’t get you that.

Hopefully, things improve, and again as a lifelong Arizona Football fan, I will be waiting…