AD Greg Byrne is facing the biggest decision of his time at Arizona. Photo by Chris Morrison-US PRESSWIRE

Ten things I believe about the Arizona Wildcats’ search to replace football coach Mike Stoops:

1. I believe ESPN analyst Mark May is right.

He was on KTAR 620-AM in Phoenix on Wednesday, saying, “Chris Petersen is at the top of the list. I can tell that you that for sure.”

Arizona athletic director Greg Byrne is going to go all out to get Petersen, the Boise State head coach. He should. Petersen is the biggest, best, most established, most “available” coach in the West.

Who wouldn’t want their athletic director to knock on that door and, if needed, try to kick down that door?

Yes, yes … Petersen has turned down Byrne before — at Mississippi State after the 2008 season. Petersen didn’t jump at the Stanford job after last season. If Petersen didn’t want to be in Boise, didn’t love his situation in Boise, he’d be somewhere else today.

But things change. Times change.

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Boise State's Chris Petersen ... Arizona fans can dream, can't they? Photo by Kirby Lee/Image of Sport-US PRESSWIRE

Arizona athletic director Greg Byrne says he won’t talk about the search for a head football coach until he is ready to make an announcement. In the meantime, everyone else will be speculating.

“In today’s world of instant information, a lot of times there is information that is inaccurate that gets out there. Sometimes, it’s accurate,” Byrne said.

“I want you to know that unless you’re hearing from us, and you’re hearing from me, that will be the only accurate information you can count on.”

Byrne, at the news conference Monday night to announce the dismissal of coach Mike Stoops, didn’t describe his ideal candidate. He didn’t say the new guy had to have head coaching experience, or had to be from the West, or had to be offensive-minded, for example.

At this point, Arizona is a moderately attractive job, certainly better than when Stoops was hired after the 2003 season.

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Is this the Mike Stoops we'll remember? Photo by Jason O. Watson-US PRESSWIRE

The images of Arizona Wildcats coach Mike Stoops will forever be of him on the sideline, screaming, shaking, stomping, contorted, cursing, out of control.

There really won’t be a whole lot of love lost for Stoops, who was fired Monday midway through his eighth season at Arizona, finishing with a 41-50 record. The timing of the decision might have been shocking, but the decision wasn’t.

The program wasn’t in position to move forward with Stoops at the helm.

Athletic director Greg Byrne knew it. He acted. Why wait?

“I felt we need a fresh start,” he said.

The end was excruciating.

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What would Mike Stoops say about the refs on Twitter? Photo by Chris Morrison, US PRESSWIRE

For now, Arizona Wildcats fans will have to be content with the Fake Mike Stoops.

The real Mike Stoops has no intention of following his athletic director, Greg Byrne, into the world of Twitter. We’ll just have to do without Stoops dispensing 140 characters or less on the Wildcats, life, instant replay, wine or his newest pair of designer shoes.

“No. No Twitter for me,” he said with a laugh.

“Nah. I’m not one of those social media guys. I get texts and e-mails. That’s as far as I go.”

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Gilbert Arenas recently tweeted this photo of him face-planking a cake.

Sports Illustrated released its Twitter 100 list for the sports world, and two very different Arizona Wildcats made the list.

There is the unpredictable (is that a nice way to put it?) Gilbert Arenas, whose recent obsession with planking compelled our Christopher Wuensch to not only chronicle it but join in.

And then there’s Jennie Finch, who, on Twitter, just as in real life, is one of the sun-shiniest people on the planet.

Check out this Finch tweet from Thursday afternoon:

Sometimes all you need is a piece of watermelon Bubblicious gum & chew it like your 10 years old!

On the other hand, there was this from Arenas:

my twitter is for jokes and trash talkin if u dont like it go follow sumbody who cares about there image and wont say honest stuff

(University of Arizona alum Jeff Goodman, a national college basketball writer for CBSSports.com, is also on the Twitter 100 list … as he should be. He had news Thursday about Arizona sophomore guard Jordin Mayes undergoing surgery for a stress fracture in his foot.)

If only Jennie Finch could tweet to us why she was holding a soccer ball during the All-Star legends and celebrity softball game at Chase Field. Jerry Lai-US PRESSWIRE

As far as a UA-related Twitter list, who do you think should be on it?

It should start with athletic director Greg Byrne, who in the past several months has broken news on Twitter about football assistant coaches and basketball coach Sean Miller’s contract extension. And he gives away free stuff, too.

Derrick Williams is off to the Minnesota Timberwolves, but he is still entertaining and prolific on Twitter. There might not be a better place to follow his rookie season … whenever that will begin.

In addition to Arenas and Finch, there are all sorts of current and former players to follow, depending on which flavor you prefer. Same with following the local media.

If you’re new (or going to be new to Twitter), this list is one place to start for your Wildcat needs.

Let us know who you prefer.

You can follow the TucsonCitizen.com network on Twitter to get a feed of all our stories. But we have plenty of other things to say on our personal accounts — here’s Javier Morales, Christopher Wuensch, Steve Rivera, Brad Allis, Scott Terrell, the 110SportsPodcast (Matt Minkus and Victor Rodriguez) … and mine.

Greg Byrne adds a Top 20 finish to his first-year achievments.
Photo by Mark Evans, TucsonCitizen.com

The Arizona Wildcats, coming off their worst showing ever in the Directors’ Cup, will be a top 20 program for the first time since 2006.

The Director’s Cup is an all-sport ranking that has been in existence since the 1993-94 school year.

Arizona used to live in the top 10, but it had become a fringe top 25 athletic department in recent seasons.

For this school year, UA is 17th (standings here), and should be 16th when the final sport of the school year — baseball — is completed. The Wildcats will score 25 points for advancing to the postseason, where they lost in the final game of a regional at Texas A&M.

The Wildcats received a boost from men’s basketball — 73 points out of 100 for reaching a regional final after missing the NCAA tournament in the previous season.

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Arizona athletic director Greg Byrne is trying to grow the Wildcat Club.
Photo by Mark Evans, TucsonCitizen.com

Arizona athletic director Greg Byrne launched a volunteer fund drive Wednesday, aiming to increase membership in the Wildcat Club through small donations.

“We know that the economic times are challenging, but at the same time, that doesn’t mean we’re going to stop here and stay still,” Byrne said at a news conference. “We have to continually be moving forward in what we’re doing.”

The broad theme of Arizona’s initiative is “turning fans into supporters.”

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Sean Miller will be keeping his eyes on Arizona for a while. Photo by David Kadlubowski, The Arizona Republic

Arizona Wildcats athletic director Greg Byrne isn’t ready to take a new contract, or an extension, of basketball coach Sean Miller to the state board of regents.

But he expressed confidence Wednesday that Miller is happy with his situation at Arizona.

“We’re in great shape with Coach Miller,” Byrne said at the end of a news conference to announce a new fund raising initiative.

Miller’s name was mentioned late month in connection with the North Carolina State opening. The Wolfpack filled that position Tuesday with the hiring of former Alabama head coach Mark Gottfried.

“Coach Miller wants to be the basketball coach at the University of Arizona. He made that very clear from the first time some rumors starting coming up,” Byrne said.

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Arizona athletic director Greg Byrne often keeps his hands free in order to use Twitter.
Photo by Mark Evans, TucsonCitizen.com

Twice in the past couple of months, Arizona athletic director Greg Byrne has released Wildcats football news on Twitter — announcing that Robert Anae was the new offensive line coach and making public that secondary coach Duane Akina was leaving to go back to Texas.

Welcome to the media’s new world.

Byrne, who spoke Wednesday morning on a panel discussion for the College Sports Information Directors of America, said he was initially skeptical of the value of Twitter. He has, however, become a convert, even if his two most high-profile coaches — football coach Mike Stoops and men’s basketball coach Sean Miller — have not.

(You can read the full transcript of the panel discussion at CoSida.com)

Byrne uses Twitter to break news, to inform on events, to give away tickets and to reveal a bit of a personal side. He also has to devote athletic department resources in the compliance office to monitor the activities of Arizona athletes in social media.

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Duane Akina, right, was well-compensated at Texas last season.
Photo by Bruce Thorson-US PRESSWIRE

All of Arizona’s assistant football coaches will receive a bump in salary for next season as the Wildcats try to keep up with an escalating pay scale, coach Mike Stoops said.

“We’re trying to get equitable and competitive with everybody,” Stoops said. “I think that’s a big part of stability. That is certainly something we’ve fought. Our guys have all made more money wherever they’ve gone.”

Arizona paid last season’s nine assistant coaches $1,506,510, a figure that ranked seventh in the Pac-10, according to a USA Today database of coaches’ salaries.

Arizona’s pool of money was slightly ahead of new Pac-12 member Colorado ($1,494,215). The Buffaloes’ total salaries likely jumped this offseason because they have a new coaching staff, including two assistants from Stoops’ 2009 staff — defensive tackles coach Mike Tuiasosopo and co-defensive coordinator Greg Brown.

Utah’s compensation for its assistants was $1,265,000. So, even with an across-the-board raise for Arizona’s assistants, they likely will stay in the lower-middle of the Pac-10 in terms of total compensation.

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