There’s an old saying that goes “losing breeds apathy” and never has there been a better example of that than the end of the Mike Stoops era at Arizona.
A program that regularly put butts in seats during Stoops’ best days, Arizona Stadium became a ghost town by the time he was done in Tucson. In Stoops’ final home game before he was fired last fall, 56,000 people showed up to watch the Wildcats take on Oregon…but if you watched on TV, you know that by the beginning of the second half, there were likely closer to 10,000 people still in the stands. If that.
Enter new coach Rich Rodriguez, who has decided to take a rather unique approach to riling up a disinterested fan-base: He’s taking his young Wildcats on the road.
That’s right, with Arizona Stadium in the midst of an expansion project, Rodriguez has elected to hold his first scrimmage next Saturday at Glendale Community College in Phoenix, a full two hours away from Arizona’s Tucson campus. In addition to some football, the school will also provide giveaways and an autograph session. Not a bad way to reconnect with a fractured fan-base, huh?
Rodriguez seems to think so, as he told the Tucson-Citizen, the goal of moving the practice to Phoenix was to:
“Make our presence felt in the Valley, but also to provide a service for all the fans we have in that area. … It’s a chance for the local fans to see some of the players and see some of the things we’re doing.”
It’s an interesting move for Rodriguez and Arizona, and one that’s not entirely unprecedented in major college football either. While programs like Alabama, Nebraska and Florida will always be able to fill their stadiums for spring football scrimmages, others have to think of creative ways to reach their extensive fan bases, and often times going on the road in the spring is a good way to do so. Last spring in Al Golden’s first few months at Miami, the Canes played all three of their scrimmages on the road, with their spring game held in Fort Lauderdale, a half hour or so away from their Coral Gables campus. Whether the move truly worked or not, only Golden knows. However, it only seemed to help recruiting, as the Canes inked one of the top classes in the country this past Febraury. The group was made up almost exclusively of South Florida kids.
And whether he’ll admit it or not, you’ve got to think that recruiting is at the forefront of Rodriguez’s mind as well. Arizona is a big state geographically, but not one on major college football talent, meaning that the new coach has to do anything he can to get an edge on his cross-state rival Arizona State. Moving one of his spring practice scrimmages just minutes away from the Sun Devils Tempe campus will very likely do that. At the very least, it’ll get some local publiciity. And as they say, there’s no such thing as bad publicity.
As for what fans should expect when they show up next weekend in Phoenix, well, Rodriguez has some honest words for them. He told the Tucson-Citizen in February:
“This is going to be the ugliest spring that we will ever have. A part of me doesn’t know how much we want people to watch it.”
Apparently, Rodriguez never saw the last few games of the Stoops era, huh?
For all his opinion, insight and articles on college football, please follow Aaron on Twitter @Aaron_Torres.
