Tulsa World: Hot seat just keeps warming

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Hot seat just keeps warming

Mike Stoops: His Arizona Wildcats went 5-7 in 2007.

By DAVE SITTLER World Sports Columnist
Published: 8/9/2008 2:06 AM
Last Modified: 8/9/2008 2:40 AM

An annual rite of August for college football fanatics is checking out the various Top 10 lists of coaches who find their backsides planted firmly on the hot seat.

You can't find a list that doesn't rank Arizona's Mike Stoops near the top of those coaches who absolutely have to win now if they want to be back in 2009. And while the heat on San Diego State's Chuck Long apparently isn't as intense, you'll still find his name on most of those lists.

Stoops and Long used their success as coordinators under Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops as the springboard to running their own programs. And nobody hurts more than Bob Stoops when he reads that both his younger brother and one of his best friends could be looking for work by December.

"Of course it's difficult," Bob Stoops said. "But we all know in this business that you do what you need to do. You put your head down and you keep working and eventually you get through it."

At the Big 12 Conference media days in Kansas City, Mo., Bob Stoops spoke of the gratification he gets from knowing three of his former assistants are now head coaches in the league Texas Tech's Mike Leach, Kansas's Mark Mangino and Nebraska's Bo Pelini.

"I've been one of those head coaches where I'm closer to my assistants maybe than some," he said. "I pull for them and I'm happy for them. It's exciting to see those guys go on and have those kinds of opportunities."

The flip side to that excitement is the frustration Bob Stoops feels for those men who are feeling the pressure of job security after playing critical roles in his huge success at OU.

Long, the Sooners' former offensive coordinator, is 7-17 in two seasons at San Diego State. The trend of giving coaches at least five years to prove themselves has changed. Stanford fired Walt Harris after two seasons, and OU hired Bob Stoops after it sacked John Blake following three dismal seasons.

All coaches seek extensions early in their tenure so they can assure potential recruits they will be around until the players graduate. But San Diego State athletic director Jeff Schemmel, who hired Long, told the San Diego Union-Tribune that he wouldn't talk about an extension with his coach until after the 2008 season.

Coacheshotseat.com, a Web site that monitors the fortunes of college football and basketball coaches, ranks Long No. 6 on its Top 10.

The media doesn't think Long's team will break the school's streak of 10 consecutive nonwinning seasons in 2008.

In a preseason poll, the Aztecs were picked to finish seventh in the nine-team Mountain West Conference.

Long, who was thin-skinned when his play-calling at OU was criticized, has repeatedly placed the blame for his slow start on his predecessor, Tom Craft, who was fired after going 19-29 in four seasons.

"I knew exactly what we were getting into when I came here two years ago," Long told the Union-Tribune. "I've said all along that I researched this job carefully; I knew it was going to be a challenge.

"It's just a matter of attacking (those challenges) one at a time until we get them all fixed."

Bob Stoops often talks to Long, and said "Chuck's always up and positive about things. He feels they're making progress."

Bob Stoops is also in contact with his brother "all the time," and said Mike Stoops "feels upbeat about it all."

The Stoops brothers have been in the business long enough to know that Mike's situation at Arizona is dire. He's gone 17-29 in four seasons, with his only nonlosing season coming with a 6-6 record in 2006.

Coacheshotseat.com ranks Mike Stoops No. 4 among coaches in trouble. Several other lists have him as high as No. 2, with either Syracuse's Greg Robinson or Washington's Tyrone Willingham at No. 1.

A 6-6 record might save Stoops' job if Arizona makes it to a bowl. But the doubting media picked the Wildcats to finish seventh in the Pac-10, ahead of only Stanford and Washington State, while Coacheshotseat.com predicted Arizona will finish 4-8 and Stoops will be fired.

Stoops, whose contract runs through 2010, told the Associated Press last week that he isn't concerned about his future.

"My job and my job security is not part of my job description," said OU's former defensive coordinator. "I have enough to worry about getting this team ready and developing players."

Bob Stoops defends his brother and Long, pointing out that they took over programs in shambles and inherited tough nonconference schedules.

He contends that if Arizona had received a bowl bid in 2006, the perception of the program would be different.

"People always fail to realize what difficult situations both of them started in," Stoops said. "It just takes time. There are no quick fixes. It's too competitive in everything we do.

"In the end, they both will have to do well, and I think they will." By DAVE SITTLER World Sports Columnist

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FIRE GUNDY, TULSA (8/10/2008 8:57:15 AM)

Mike Gundy is ranked #33- "Edge of Hot Seat", just 2 coaches away from being on the Hot Seat, stay tuned.

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