Arizona Fans firous with Direct TV.

http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/ariz/genrel/auto_pdf/2011-12/misc_non_event/directv-letter.pdf?hq_e=el&hq_m=313468&hq_l=13&hq_v=c50c165e68

Check it out

http://campl.us/jOYq#commenting

On the move:

Criminal assault and trespassing charges against two Arizona Wildcats football players won’t be pursued in court, and their suspension from the team will likely end quickly. The case against defensive back Jourdon Grandon has been dismissed, and the lawyer for offensive tackle Fabbians Ebbele told the Star Friday that he anticipates the same happening for his client soon. City prosecutors filed a motion to dismiss Ebbele’s charges on Wednesday. He is scheduled to appear in court again May 17. “The case should be done,” said Skip Donau, Ebbele’s lawyer. “I haven’t seen the signed order yet, but I anticipate it any day now.” Source: http://tucsoncitizen.com

John Button Salmon: Trashed Football field

John Button Salmon: Trashed Football field: Zona football field April 5, 2012 Photo coming soon....

Trashed Football field

Zona football field April 5, 2012
Photo coming soon....

Zona field destroyed?

http://www.pdc.arizona.edu/webcam/NorthEndZone.aspx
This morning the camera scanned the entire work area including the south end zone and the field. The field is almost destroyed by heavy equipment running over it.  It will be impossible to play a game on it this fall.
So, is there a secret plan to move a thousand workers in to put down artificial turf before kick-off ?????
Will Zona have to play home games some where else???????

Stoops Speaks Truth:
Stoops, now the defensive coordinator for his brother Bob at Oklahoma, said of the UA program during his time at Arizona: “We may have got it as good as it can get.”

“You have to be realistic with what your expectations are and you should have high expectations, I certainly did. But what you’re capable of and what the circumstances that are dealt to you, it’s hard to achieve those big goals of winning a championship there."

“There’s a reason they haven’t won a championship at Arizona and it’s not bad coaching or bad players. You can blame it on anything you want, football and championships are about commitments made university wide. It’s a commitment made to winning, not at all costs but there is a cost.

“When you don’t have a football facility and every Mountain West team has one and you don’t, that’s a problem. We were playing at a BCS level and I feel like I was fighting with a toothpick and they’ve got a bat.”

Well, don’t hate Stoops because he’s right about what has been a lack of university-wide commitment. The football facilities have been behind the times, inadequate when compared to UA’s peers.

That facilities gap is being at least partially erased with the current $72 million north end zone project. In addition to being practical, that construction sends a message: Arizona is committed to football.

For decades, it was hard to make that case, and Stoops is hardly alone in thinking so.“It’s wonderful that Arizona, after many years of lip service, is finally making a commitment to football excellence, because I don’t think they have done that,” former coach Dick Tomey (1987-2000) told TucsonCitizen.com in January.

“They have done it in little bits and pieces, but they are making a major commitment.”But Stoops is wrong to make it sound like a bigger commitment to football from the university was the only thing, or even the main thing, holding him back for winning bigger at Arizona. Tomey twice won 10 games in a season and produced many of the finest players in school history.

Stoops didn’t last long enough to benefit from the north end zone project, so we’ll never know how he would have fared with upgraded facilities. But the lack of those didn’t stop him from making a serious run at the 2009 Rose Bowl — a goal that might have been reached with a healthy Rob Gronkowski.

Gronk’s back injury is a good a reason as any as to why Arizona hasn’t won a championship.So, let’s not focus too much on facilities. If Arizona didn’t have a second-half collapse at Cal in 1993 or could cover UCLA’s Danny Farmer in 1998 or could have made one more play against Oregon in 2009, it would have some championships.

College football success is as much about the force of the head coach as anything else. Stoops rebuilt the Cats to a respectable level, but the fact that he didn’t deliver Arizona to “as good as it can get” is as much on him as the university’s previous commitment to football.
Source: http://tucsoncitizen.com/ above and below:

UA football coach Rich Rodriguez laments lack of intensity in first practice in pads
by Anthony Gimino on Mar. 22, 2012, under Arizona Republic News:

Rich Rodriguez wasn’t smiling much at Wednesday’s practice.
It’s a line that new Arizona Wildcats football coach Rich Rodriguez has used several times already. The process of starting something new, of changing schemes on both sides of the ball, of creating a new standard of excellence in offseason workouts is a discovery of “finding out the guys who really love football and the guys who just kind of like it.”

He said that before Wednesday’s practice, the third of the spring and the first in pads.He talked about being eager to begin to gauge how physical the players were, to see increased intensity.

More than a couple of hours later, it seemed as if his guys just kind of like football. Rodriguez was so unhappy with what he saw that he barred the players from their usual post-practice media availability and headed over himself to speak with reporters again.


“It wasn’t good,” he said of practice.“We’ve got some pretty good kids and some pretty good players, but I want all the guys, all the time, to have the same sense of urgency that the best guys do.

“There are different levels in the sense of urgency. I know our fan base has it. I believe our coaches have it, although we have to show it. We have to have a sense of urgency to have a championship culture. I didn’t feel that was there today.”

Early in spring practice is the right time to send a message, and Rodriguez will see if this one hits home when the Cats convene again on Friday for another practice in pads. He wants that one to go well enough that he is comfortable doing plenty of situational scrimmaging Saturday, when the team is hoping to show off for Phoenix-area fans at Glendale Community College beginning at noon.

“I’d like to be able to scrimmage and let the fans watch and have some fun,” he said. “If we don’t do well on Friday, then Saturday won’t be as entertaining as I’d like it to be.”

Arizona hadn’t practiced since March 7, taking a break for spring ball and to, hopefully, allow the players to digest some of the new information being throw their way. Rodriguez said before practice that he expected it could be “a little sluggish” and that the coaches would “try to yell them through that.”

Apparently, they didn’t yell loudly enough.Rodriguez wondered afterward if the coaches were putting in too much of the playbook, that maybe the players were over-thinking on the field. But he said before practice that he thought the coaches have been moving deliberately.

“We’ve really limited our installation and are keeping it really simple,” he said.“Maybe after this week we will be more than halfway through with what we want to put in on offense and defense. We might not go much further than that. … Our guys have so much to learn, so much to think about from a different scheme standpoint, that we’re just going to go slow with it.”

"... We’ll get it fixed. It starts with the coaching staff having things ready to have the type of practice I think a championship team has to have.”

North End Zone moves forward

Snow in Tucson? Yes, indeed. The live cam focused on the bleachers which showed a covering of snow. The background mountains were likewise covered in snow.
The construction is progressing. The huge pile of dirt has been reduced by half as dump trucks are loaded on schedule.Concrete pillars are rising out of the sandy soil.

Rumor is that the U of A picked up a new (and wealthy) supporter. I expect a new field of artificial turf will be in place soon.

About time

LOS ANGELES -- Leaders of the Pac-12 Conference agreed in principle Saturday to try to end college football's Bowl Championship Series, proposing its replacement with a playoff system that would allow only conference winners to play for college football's national title.

"I don't hear anyone saying business as usual is acceptable," said Edward Ray, Oregon State University's president and chairman of the Pac-12 universities' CEO group. "We need change."

Though a formal vote was not taken among the top Pac-12 university officials who attended Saturday, they expect that to occur at their next meeting later this year.

If the Pac-12 makes its formal recommendation as expected in June, it would come just before BCS bowls prepare late this summer to start negotiations on BCS contract renewals. The BCS contracts expire in early 2014.

The Pac-12 action is not unexpected. Arizona State University President Michael Crow advocated for the idea in Phoenix earlier this year. College football and the BCS have come under increasing criticism amid reports of lax financial oversight and administrative abuses and questions about the fairness of the bowl-selection system.
Source: http://www.theleafchronicle.com

Money and Pride

K-Stew:

Kristen Stewart has amassed over $55,000,000. Natalie Portman also has about $55,000,000. I never would have guessed that K-Stew would equal Nat's Earnings. K-Stew has three movies in the works in 2012. Her earnings will put her past Portman. She may become the richest female actor on earth.

Nat's career is ended. She wants to raise her child instead of acting. Good riddance. K-Stew is following in her footsteps at least in one regard: She is showing more and more of her body parts on screen.

Not that men mind her showing off her God-given assets, but her bottom is not the most attractive on earth. -And- She is small in the upper area. Many men prefer small in that area. Bigger is not better.

I used to think she had a fake romance with Robert. I may be wrong. It now appears that they have a real romance. The problem is; Rob has a roving eye for other "talent." He better watch it, as K-Stew is wanted by 99% of the world's population. Her bedroom-face appeals to both sexes.

Her personality was shaped by her High school years. She dropped out of school when she was 13 years old to pursue acting. That is sad. She missed the developmental era in a person's life when they learn to face failure.

This may account for her childish behavior when it comes to P'Razy. Her response is the raised middle finger. She has no other way to cope with the invasion of her privacy. Some have crawled over her fence to get photos in her own yard smoking weed. That is not judgmental of her, because I believe weed should be legalized.

Meanwhile back in Zona. RodRich is handling the arrest of his players well. Mainly, he is keeping his mouth shut. It is this blogger's believe that the players charges with trespassing will be spared. The 3 or 4 players who hit girls in the face are going to be OUT, period.

That's my prediction.

Bear Down

Players destroy AZ Football season

Source: http://azstarnet.com

Four Arizona Wildcats football players, all sophomores, were arrested early Friday morning for their roles in a fight at a campus-area party, according to police reports obtained by the Star.
Nickel back Jourdon Grandon, offensive tackle Fabbians Ebbele and guard Eric Bender-Ramsay were all arrested and charged with first-degree criminal trespassing and assault; a fourth, safety Jared Tevis, was charged with trespassing. Former UA safety Josh Robbins was also booked on assault charges and suspicion of DUI.
The UA athletic department is “cooperating fully with the Tucson Police Department, and disciplinary action will be handled accordingly," UA athletic director Greg Byrne said in a statement this morning. "Due to federal student-privacy laws, we will have no further comment.”
Ebbele, Grandon, Tevis and Bender-Ramsay all participated in Monday's spring practice on campus. First-year coach Rich Rodriguez will speak before today’s practice, but is not expected to comment because the investigation is ongoing.
According to reports, the football players arrived at a party near campus early Friday morning, but were asked to leave because only one of them — Tevis — had been invited. Robbins shoved the host and she slapped him, according to reports. Robbins then punched her in the face and a brawl ensued between the players and the 23 attendees, both male and female, at the party, according to reports.
The players returned 10 minutes later with between five and 25 other people, witnesses told police. Ebbele, 6 feet 8 inches and 310 pounds, began punching everybody he could reach, including the party’s host, witnesses told police. Grandon was seen punching both women and men at the party, witnesses told police. Ebbele told police that he was trying to break up the fight, and did not punch anybody. 

The immediate question is this: Will Rich Rod do what is best for the program and remove scholarships from all  members involved or cower in the corner?

Goal: Keep QB safe.

Keep Scott safe:

Quarterback Matt Scott will likely wear a "hands-off" jersey when spring drills open Monday.
It makes sense: Scott is the only scholarship quarterback on the roster, and the only player to take a college snap at the position.
"Normally, I wouldn't do it -- but because Matt's the only one with experience, we'll probable debate it, if he's going to be more limited," Rodriguez said.
Still, Rodriguez said, "at some point, I've got to see Matt."
Wide-receiver-turned-quarterback Richard Morrison will back Scott up during the spring, with walk-ons Tyler D'Amore and Alex Cappellini competing for the No. 3 spot.
Rodriguez said he expects incoming freshmen Javelle Allen and Josh Kern to push Scott once they enroll this summer.
Rodriguez repeatedly referred to Arizona Stadium's north end zone project as "The Lowell-Stevens Football Facility," though the name is still subject to university approval.
The $72 million construction project is named after its two largest
benefactors: Jeff and Sharon Stevens gave $12 million to the project, while David and Edith Lowell contributed $11 million.
The Wildcats' uniforms will stay the same this fall, though Rodriguez said he's open to tweaks starting in 2013.
"Our color scheme won't change and the 'block A' is going to stay the 'block A'", Rodriguez said. "I'm wide open an looking forward to (tweaks); we've got some great colors."
Source:  http://www.azcentral.com/
=======================
The video camera recording the North End Zone construction today showed close ups of the work. It also showed the south end zone where the field is torn up (?) The grass on rest of the field looks terrible. The Wildcat fan can see no way football can be played on the once gem of a field with special hybrid golfing grass. I predict the grass will be converted to artificial turf before a game is played, and maybe not until 2013 !! If so, where will the Wildcats play this season?

Watch Rich video

 http://www.arizonawildcats.com//allaccess/
cool.....

Bear Down Football news

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CW7e_HANXTM&feature=player_embedd
The news is this: Wildcat football is the new world order of excellence. Above video shows the Cats going through drills. The name of the game is FAst FASt FAST ! Arizona wants fast football players.

Meanwhile in the recruiting war. Arizona has the best staff in the PAC 12 to evaluate and recruit new football players. They are being noticed by the staff in Fairy-land, at UCLA. Gossip has it that the UCLA recruiters call every recruit that Arizona contacts within 24 hours to offer them a scholarship. They have that much fear, or respect for the Arizona recruiting program. Apparently they have no faith in their own staff.

Meanwhile, the North end-zone project at Arizona is plugging along. The contractor has been pouring concrete for several days.
Things are looking good for Arizona Wildcats

Turning up the heat on Direct TV

http://www.pacifictakes.com = Source:
The big question remains on how satellite companies like DirectTV and Dish (or broadband-based services like AT&T U-Verse and FiOs) will be willing to accept the channel and negotiations will probably progress long into the spring, perhaps even into the summer. Just remember that these sort of negotiations generally take time regardless, and eventually there'll be widespread demand on the West Coast, particularly if the Pac-12 decides to keep a premium allotment of games with some of the best matchups available on its network. It'll be hard for these providers to turn down the clamor. Regional sporting events must be distributed or providers will suffer the wrath of their customers.

In many ways, the Pac-12 Network is the first bridge to the future of college athletics. Brian Floyd of Coug Center wrote about this topic when the deal was first inked.

But the former, creating a network carried widely throughout the country, could only be accomplished by withholding a significant stable of inventory. And it couldn't just be the leftovers; There had to be premium content on the Pac-12 Network. Essentially, Scott withheld half the inventory of Pac-12 football games, an average of three a week, for the conference network. And he still secured a $3 billion primary contract with ESPN and FOX.

To call it a coup would be an understatement. By keeping the inventory and promising premium programming on the Pac-12 Network, Scott has sent a message: Carry our network or face the backlash of fans. He's forced the hands of carriers.

In addition to the Pac-12 inventory, the conference should also have room to add inventory from others. For a premium price, a conference such as the Mountain West could, in theory, broadcast games on the Pac-12 Network. It's why you see the Pac-12 creating a media entity to go along with the new television deal. Unlike the Big Ten, the Pac-12 will have full ownership over its network, not a minority stake in it. It all adds up to more profit.

Time to dump NCAA

The New PAC 12 Network is on schedule to open with a huge bang in August. They hired top people in every aspect of the project, Marketing, Digital, TV, and Revenue. The rest of the conferences are watching it closely.
The PAC 12 and Big 10-or whatever they call their conferences now days, have joined to cooperate in promoting their two historic conferences and Networks:  Money, Money, Money.

Rumors are floating that the NCAA is jealous of the new PAC 12 Network. The Network will also go digital on all portable devices in August, ALL OVER THE WORLD !
The NCAA thinks they deserve a cut of the Billion dollar action. WHY?
The NCAA is a leach. They do nothing except take a huge piece of the Bowl revenues. They have high paid bosses who do virtually nothing. Why does college athletics need the NCAA? Why on earth do they deserve a cut of the revenue from the new PAC 12 Network?
It's time to dump the NCAA.

TEXAS NETWORK a BUST ?

People are not happy in the Big 12:
A big challenge for the LHN (TV) is that it serves a niche market, said Adam Swanson, a cable television industry analyst with SNL Kagan. While Texas is a big name with a famous logo and tens of thousands of alumni from coast to coast, it's still just one school.
Major cable and satellite providers can look at regional or national networks such as the Big Ten Network, now called BTN, or the soon-to-launch Pac-12 Network and see more programming punch, Swanson said. Time Warner, Comcast, Cox and Bright House all have deals to carry the Pac-12 Network. Those carriers are in about 40 million homes.

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2012/02/14/texas-asking-fans-for-patience-with-network/

Happy Valentine - day PAC 12 $$$$$

Bryan Fischer: I think the athletic directors at Arizona, Arizona State, UCLA, Washington and Washington State should be sending a Valentine to Larry Scott this year. The Pac-12 commissioner unveiled his Pac-12 Network studios just yesterday, and that's appropriate considering the media deals he negotiated were the biggest reason those schools were able to off the sweetheart deals that landed their new coaches. Do you think the Bruins or Huskies could have afforded the assistant salaries before that money started flowing?
Or that Wazzu was able to land a coach like Mike Leach? I don't think they do.
 Source: http://www.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/24156338/34839389

Meanwhile, the new North end zone project at AZ is ticking. They stopped operations yesterday due to a cloud burst. Two cranes are now up and ready to start building. All have to wait while the underground work is finished.

PAC 12 Network on schedule

The conference held the groundbreaking for the Pac-12 networks in downtown San Francisco on Monday, about six months before it will hit the air with a national cable television network, six regional networks and a digital network.


"It's truly a seminal moment for the conference," Commissioner Larry Scott said at a ceremony featuring former great athletes from the conference, as well as San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee. "It's an exciting time for college sports in general and there's no more exciting place to be than the Pac-12. We've got a great dynamic and bold vision for the future of college sports and the future of our conference."


This network is a major part of that. After reaching a 12-year contract worth about $3 billion last May with Fox and ESPN, Scott announced plans to launch a new conference-owned network to supplement coverage and create more exposure for Pac-12 athletes. 
Source: Online News 

AZ Football in 2012?

Where will games be held in the 2012/2013 season? The end zone project cannot be completed by start of the football season. http://www.pdc.arizona.edu/webcam/NorthEndZone.aspx
The field from the 20 yard line to the end zone is covered in 10 feet of dirt.
I see no way this can be completed by kick off.

UA Football field damaged

http://www.pdc.arizona.edu/webcam/NorthEndZone.aspx?hq_e=el&hq_m=245711&hq_l=9&hq_v=c50c165e68
I can't hold it in any longer. I watch the live cam everyday for the progress at UA north end zone improvement project. A couple of days ago, two big bulldozers (with buckets) parked on the end zone overnight. Their 'tracks' ripped up the turf.  I'm still in shock.

Arizona Shocker

TUCSON, Ariz.--Arizona’s Rich Rodriguez completed his football coaching staff today with the appointment of Jeff Casteel to defensive coordinator, David Lockwood as a defensive backs coach, Bill Kirelawich as defensive line coach and Spencer Leftwich as tight ends coach. Source ArizonaWildcats.com

I told you so. Naa na na

What has not come out yet is the fact that Jeff is being paid $400,000. That's what I said. That is actually less than he made at WVU. He made $400,000 a year there plus $25,000 for each year he stayed there.

Jeff, or Rich I should say, raided the assistant coaches from WVU too.

Why in the hell would those coaches leave WVU ? Here is the real answer. None of them got along with the head coach at WVU. OTOH, they all love Rich Rodriguez. 

That is the truth. It may leak out in a few weeks.

Jeff Casteel to AZ

You read it here first. Jeff Casteel is on the way to Arizona to be the Defensive Coordinator or Defensive Coach, put it any way you like. He will be a little richer working for Rich Rodriguez. The head coach reportedly gave up part of his salary to snag Casteel. Jeff made $400,000 at WV. Rumor is that he will make $750,000 at Arizona.

His arrival is barely in time for the recruiting season that will get rocking next Friday. He is one of the TOP defensive coaches in America. He will run a 3-3-5 defense. Rich likes the 3-3-5 scheme. Jeff will recruit speed rather than muscle for his defensive teams.

Arizona will now have a foot in every region for recruiting including the East Coast, West Coast, the Rocky Mountains, Texas, Arizona, everywhere.

Big time football is coming to Arizona. Defensive recruits will find Arizona an attractive school. The stadium is being upgraded as I write this. The 72 million dollar end zone improvement and new player facility can be seen on this live cam:

http://www.pdc.arizona.edu/webcam/NorthEndZone.aspx

Zona is on the move in football.

Bear Down