Bob Stoops worked with brother Mike for five years at Oklahoma. Photo by Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images

Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops said his brother Mike Stoops was hit by a “perfect storm,” which led to Mike’s dismissal as the Arizona Wildcats’ head coach on Monday.

“It’s really unfortunate and it always hurts when you are close to someone and this happens,” Bob said at his weekly news conference in Norman.

“He just kind of hit a perfect storm. They had injuries early, actually before the season started — so kind of playing short-handed, and then you play three of the first four games against top 10 teams between Oregon, Stanford and Oklahoma State. So you kind of get beat up some more, or you get demoralized, and it’s just kind of hard to recover.

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A sampling of opinion from around the internet on the firing of Arizona Wildcats head football coach Mike Stoops:

Matt Hinton, Dr. Saturday

Maybe the low expectations of a “rebuilding year” are part of the problem in and of themselves — after eight years, who’s still “building” on such a scale that justifies a regression below .500? The sense of stagnation is very real. Maybe new athletic director Greg Byrne took a look at the ashes-to-glory trajectory at Stanford over the last five years and thought, “Why not us?” Maybe he’s got the next Jim Harbaugh lined up to take the reins in 2012, and all of Stoops’ defenders are going to look like shortsighted sentimentalists in three or four years. Then again, maybe he has the next Walt Harris, or Tyrone Willingham, or John Mackovic, and Wildcat fans will be reminded in short order just why they were so patient with Stoops in the first place.

Read the rest at Yahoo.com …

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Here is a blog from columnist Paola Boivin of the Arizona Republic, one of our Gannett partners:

Gut reaction to Arizona’s firing of Mike Stoops …

Substandard recruiting has hurt the program. I took a look at Rivals.com’s recruiting rankings of conference teams the past five years and the Wildcats were always at or near the bottom.

For the 2011 class, they were ranked 12th among the new-look Pac-12 teams. From 2007 to 2010, they were seventh, eighth or ninth in the Pac-10. It surely didn’t help that Arizona State was ranked higher in recruiting each of those years and so far this recruiting season (for 2012 class), the Sun Devils are atop the Pac-12.

Granted, recruiting is subjective and this is only one site’s opinion, but when the perception is similar for so many seasons, you have to consider it seriously.

Recruiting is also reflected in depth of talent. ASU, which, like Arizona, has dealt with a variety of injuries, has been far more successful handling the loss of players this season.

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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Former Arizona Wildcats coach Mike Stoops released a statement Monday night through his agent Neil M. Cornrich. Stoops was fired Monday afternoon with two seasons left on his contract.

“I am very proud of the Wildcat football program and the many accomplishments we have enjoyed. Topping that list is our qualifying for consecutive bowl games the past three seasons for only the second time in school history.

“I am also proud of the success our players demonstrated off the field. Not only has our team Academic Progress Rate (APR) improved significantly each of the past five years, but also our players have made great strides in conducting themselves in a manner that reflects the ideals of this University.

“When I took this job, I was hoping to be the first coach to lead this program to a Rose Bowl. Although we fell short of that goal, we made significant progress, and our organization continues to strive for excellence.

“I wish the entire Wildcat football program the best of luck going forward, and I thank the University of Arizona for the opportunity to be a part of the successes we have achieved over the past eight seasons.”

Mike Stoops is 41-50 at Arizona. Photo by Chris Morrison-US PRESSWIRE

Arizona Athletic Director Greg Byrne announced this evening that he has fired head football coach Mike Stoops.

Byrne discussed the possibility of making a change with interim school president Eugene Sander on Sunday. Sander said he replied: “Fine.”

“Decisions like this are never easy to make. There is always a great deal of heartache that goes along with these things,” Sander said. “But I do believe, on behalf of the University of Arizona football, this decision was absolutely necessary at this time.”

Sander also praised Byrne’s decisiveness: “Dragging something like this out is just painful, particularly for the players.”

Byrne pulled Stoops off a recruiting trip Monday and informed the coach of his decision on Monday afternoon.

“He handled himself with class and dignity,” Byrne said. (STATEMENT FROM STOOPS.)

Stoops was 41-50 in seven-and-a-half seasons at Arizona. The Wildcats have lost 10 consecutive games to FBS opponents.

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Arizona's Kyle Dugandzic had this punt blocked and returned for a touchdown by Oregon State. Photo by Thomas Patterson, Salem Statesman Journal

“Hi, Chris. This is your old buddy, Greg.”

Too soon?

The Arizona Wildcats football team, following a full-of-folly 37-27 loss at Oregon State on Saturday, has lost 10 consecutive games to FBS teams. It’s easy to imagine Greg Byrne checking out that list of coaching possibilities that every athletic director has at the ready and starting to gauge the temperature of certain candidates.

That’s just doing his job.

Who would your first call go to?

Boise State’s Chris Petersen?

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Mike Stoops might be in a better mood when he doesn't have to play a top 10 team. Photo by Chris Morrison-US PRESSWIRE

If Utah had played Arizona’s schedule, it would be 1-3.

If Washington had played Arizona’s schedule, it would be 1-3.

If USC had played Arizona’s schedule, it would be 1-3.

And, yes, even while Arizona State fans are giddy over a Top 25 ranking and the program’s first victory over USC since 1999, the Sun Devils would be 1-3 if they had played Arizona’s schedule … and everyone in Tempe would want coach Dennis Erickson fired. Right. Now.

Go through the college football standings, and you’ll find almost every team would have three losses if it had played Arizona’s schedule of Oklahoma State, Stanford and Oregon in consecutive weeks.

“Ninety percent of teams would have lost to those three teams,” Arizona coach Mike Stoops said.

“I mean, is that a rational statement or is that irrational?”

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It was a tough night for coach Mike Stoops. Photo by Matt Kartozian-US PRESSWIRE

The Arizona Wildcats trailed Stanford by 20 points early in the fourth quarter Saturday night. Hope and time were running out as quickly as fans were fleeing the stadium.

The Wildcats had the ball, although in the unenviable position of fourth-and-19 at the Stanford 40 after the Cardinal had sacked Nick Foles for the fifth time.

What to do?

There weren’t any good options.

Punting was the worst of them.

But that’s what coach Mike Stoops did when his team was down 30-10 with less than 12 minutes left.

“You go to the end and you go for it,” Foles said. “If I was the coach, I’d go for it. I’d do anything I could to get that fourth-and-20, I don’t care what he says.”

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Arizona's Nick Foles was sacked five times by Stanford; linebacker Trent Murphy gets him here. Photo by Chris Morrison-US PRESSWIRE

It’s going to get worse before it gets better for the Arizona football team.

“We just get exposed some times when we play top teams,” coach Mike Stoops said after a 37-10 home loss to Stanford on Saturday night, “and hopefully we’ll be better because of it.”

That might happen at some point. But probably not next Saturday against preseason Pac-12 favorite Oregon. Will this nightmare ever end?

At this point, in Stoops’ eighth season, you would hope that the Cats would be competitive against everybody. That notion has gone flying out of the stadium.

It’s one thing to routinely lose to top 10 teams, it’s quite another to routinely be a chew toy on ESPN, again and again.

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