Brad Cesmat
Rich Rodriguez has said nothing definitive to squash the rumblings that he is looking to move on from Arizona. The Wildcats’ head coach has done a solid job in making UA something more than just a basketball school. A Pac-12 South title and a Fiesta Bowl berth in 2014 were big-time steps. After losing to Arizona State on Saturday afternoon the Wildcats are done with their regular season schedule. They won’t find out their bowl game matchup for at least another couple of weeks.
LSU, Virginia Tech, South Carolina and possibly Georgia are all open or are possibly going to make a move with their current head coach. All are better jobs than Arizona right now. Rodriguez would be crazy to let them go by the wayside.
If as expected and he moves on here are just a couple of names that would make sense to be in the mix as the next Wildcat football head coach.
-Sonny Dykes-head coach, California Golden Bears. He was on Mike Stoops’ Arizona staff from 2007-2010. Rob Gronkowski was part of his offensive attack. He’s done a good job at Cal.
-Dino Babers-head coach, Bowling Green. 16-9 record in two seasons. He was an offensive coordinator at Arizona from 1998-2000. His name is all around the vacant Missouri job.
I would like to Rich Rod stay. He’s good for Arizona football. The Wildcats are interesting with him in place. I just don’t see that happening with some of the major jobs that are open or about to become vacant. All he has to do is call a press conference and say, “I am staying, I am not going anywhere, stop with all the speculation and sourcing, we need to get our 2016 recruiting class in place.” I haven’t heard a peep from him or the UA for that matter to knock down this story.
In a strange scheduling twist, Arizona State still has one game left on their schedule. For years the Territorial Cup game would be the last one on the regular season. Not this year. 
Saturday night at California isn’t going to be a picnic. The Golden Bears have a quarterback that will playing on Sundays as early as next year in junior Jared Goff.
Goff was scouted by the 49ers and Cleveland Browns last Saturday against Stanford. It’s significant that both those organizations were there to see him in person. Both will be drafting VERY high in next May’s draft.
Underclassmen have until Jan. 18th to announce if they are going to apply for entry into the draft. Saturday night against Arizona State, Goff can add some content to his resume.
