The Star's longtime columnist weighs in on Jedd Fisch's perseverance as spring drills begin, Jim Rosborough's pending milestone and the comings and goings by Tucson's coaches.
After going 0 for 4, Jedd Fisch is right on time as Wildcats' coach
Arizona football coach Jedd Fisch, right, greets players shortly after his December hiring.
Early Friday morning, UA football coach Jedd Fisch was sitting outside, overlooking Arizona Stadium from the fourth floor of the Lowell-Stevens complex. His defensive line coach, Ricky Hunley, was a few yards away, working on a podcast with Dannie Rogers, Fischโs new coordinator of public relations/communications.
Fisch first met Hunley at the Missouri Tigers football summer camp in 2000. A year later, Hunley was hired to be the line coach under Steve Spurrier at Florida at the same time Spurrier hired Fisch to be a graduate assistant.
โThe timing was amazing,โ said Fisch. โWe kept in touch. I called Ricky probably four times in the last five years. When I was interviewed to be the head coach at UCLA, Kansas and Temple, I called Ricky all three times and asked if he would want to come with me. He always said, โIโm with you.โโ
As Fisch was talking about Hunley, a two-time consensus All-American, the sun shone on Hunleyโs name and jersey number 89 that are on display above the press box on the west side of Arizona Stadium.
What were the chances they would finally hook up in Tucson 21 years later? Slim but not none, obviously.
It was surely a disappointment when Fisch was turned away by Kansas in November 2018. The Jayhawks chose to hire recycled LSU coach Les Miles, who was recently fired for sexual harassment allegations linked to his previous stop.
In retrospect, Fisch was fortunate not to get the Kansas job. The Jayhawks went 1-16 under Miles. KU was and remains a football graveyard.
In January 2019, Temple interviewed Fisch for its head coach job. It instead chose Rod Carey, the head coach at Northern Illinois. Temple went 1-6 last season. Again, in retrospect, Fisch was fortunate Temple didnโt hire him.
Fisch was one of two finalists for the UCLA coaching job when the Bruins hired Chip Kelly in December 2017. Fisch had been the Bruinsโ interim head coach for two games following the firing of Jim Mora. But Fisch landed on his feet as an assistant for the Los Angeles Rams, who soon reached Super Bowl LIII.
Before his Rams experience, Fisch was also turned away when Arizona hired Kevin Sumlin. That was a personal 0 for 4 that went beyond a baseball playerโs 0 for 4.
โI thought I had a good chance coming off my time at UCLA,โ Fisch said Friday. โI was interviewed and met with President (Robert C.) Robbins at that time. I felt good about the interview, but they went with Kevin.โ
Howโd that work out? Arizona is on a school-record 12-game losing streak.
When Arizona searched to replace Sumlin, Fisch was working for Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots. After being told no by Temple, Kansas, UCLA and Arizona, Fisch got the UA job on his second attempt. Talk about persistence.
โThe most challenging question President Robbins and (athletic director) Dave Heeke both asked me was, โAre you sure you want to leave the NFL?โโ Fisch says. โI had a great situation, with the greatest football coach of all time, so itโs understandable they wanted to know about the appeal of a college job. They brought that up all three times we talked.
โThey wanted to know if I understood what I would take on by coming to Arizona. Your phone calls at night are not the same. Your weekends arenโt the same in the offseason. You donโt just freely go on vacation. But I embrace those challenges. I love it.โ
The man who mightโve been the coach of the Temple Owls, the Kansas Jayhawks and the UCLA Bruins begins his first Arizona spring practice Tuesday .
After 20 years of preparation, Fischโs journey begins now.
'Roz' nearing 1,000th win
Pima College assistant Jim Rosborough, in white shirt, has notched 999 career coaching wins.
After his basketball playing career ended at Iowa in 1969, Jim Rosborough enrolled at John Marshall Law School in Chicago. He discovered it wasnโt what he wanted to do for his lifeโs work. So he got a job at the Corkery Middle School on Chicagoโs west side, teaching art, spelling and reading.
Rosborough worked in the PE department and supervised the cafeteria at lunch time.
In 1970, Rosborough asked the principal if he could start a school basketball team. And although he wasnโt paid to coach โ he had to charge 10 cents admission just to pay referees $7 โ Rosborough began to win and win and win and win.
His four Corkery teams went 127-22.
Amazingly, in 1974, he got an interview with new Iowa head coach Lute Olson and, against all odds, was hired. Six years later, the Hawkeyes went to the Final Four. By 1986, he was the head coach at Northern Illinois. He was later the lead assistant coach at Arizonaโs 1994, 1997 and 2001 Final Four teams.
On Saturday, Rosborough was on the bench as he has been for eight years as an assistant to Pima College womenโs basketball coach Todd Holthaus.
What few know is that Rosborough entered Saturdayโs loss to Central Arizona with 999 career coaching victories.
What makes Rosboroughโs 999 victories so impressive is that he didnโt sit in one place and start counting. After leaving the UA basketball program in 2007, he became the top assistant coach on Karl Pierowayโs Pima Collegeโs menโs basketball staff, and then spent four years as Vicky Maesโ assistant coach on the UA womenโs tennis team.
A couple of years ago, Rosboroughโs sons, Jon and Greg, began researching their fatherโs coaching career. They added all the victories, from Corkery to Iowa to NIU to Arizona and Pima College, and were amazed that it was getting close to 1,000.
Rosborough will get another crack at 1,000 this week against Eastern Arizona.
Now 76, his career has been an American success story.
โWhen Lute hired me at Iowa in 1974, I was paid $1,000 a year to be a grad assistant,โ he says. โI got $250 for helping run his summer camp and I made ends meet by using savings from my days teaching in Chicago. I guess you could say it all worked out.โ
Chris Rastatter on track to work big games
Chris Rastatter
Tucson basketball referee Chris Rastatter appears to be on a path to work the Final Four. He is the highest-ranked Pac-12 official in the Kenpom.com evaluations, No. 18 in the nation and was assigned to work a First Four game on Thursday and the Syracuse-San Diego State game Friday. Rastatter, a Rincon High School grad, has worked 69 games this season, the fourth-highest total in the NCAA. Those refs who work the most games are considered the most in demand, the most capable. Rastatter’s path to the Final Four was accelerated when Final Four referees John Higgins, Kipp Kissinger, Roger Ayers and Ted Valentine all were disqualified from the tournament for COVID-19 issues. Sixty men’s basketball officials began the NCAA Tournament; that number will be reduced to 40 for the Sweet 16. Tucsonan Bob Scofield is working his 22nd consecutive NCAA women’s tournament and has been in San Antonio since last Wednesday. Scofield has called 68 games this season ….
'Hammer' finds new home at Syracuse
Colorado State Rams special teams coach Jeff Hammerschmidt, formerly an Arizona Wildcats player and coach, heads for the practice field during the Colorado State Rams football practice at Kino Sports Complex in Tucson, Ariz., Saturday, Dec. 26, 2015.
After the New York Jets fired head coach Adam Gase in January, special teams coach Jeff Hammerschmidt was not retained by new coach Robert Saleh. Hammerschmidt, an All-Pac-10 safety at Arizona in 1988, wasnโt unemployed long. He has been hired to be part of ex-UA offensive coordinator Dino Babers' staff at Syracuse. Hammerschmidt, who had coaching stints at Arizona under Dick Tomey and Mike Stoops, spent five years with the Jets, and has also coached at Stanford, San Jose State, Colorado State, Cal Poly, Saint Maryโs, Montana, Indiana and Southern Utah. Whew. Hammerschmidt, only 53, is a survivor. โฆ
Ex-UA assistant Tim Kish joins HOF chapter
Arizona interim head coach Tim Kish, center, talks with officials prior to what wound up being a 34-31 UA win over rival ASU on Nov. 19, 2011, in Tempe.
Tim Kish, who was Arizonaโs interim head football coach in 2011 and coached the Wildcat linebackers for eight years, is involved in Tucsonโs football scene again. After retiring from coaching at Oklahoma a year ago, Kish returned to Tucson and is now on the board of the National Football Foundation and College Football Hall of Fame, Southern Arizona Chapter. โฆ
Justin Gainey experiences tough side of college coaching
Arizona Wildcats assistant coach Justin Gainey directs the forwards and centers in warm-ups before the first half of the University of Arizona Wildcats vs. Washington State University Cougars menโs college basketball game, Feb. 9, 2019, in McKale Center in Tucson, Ariz.
After Mark Phelps was dismissed from Arizonaโs basketball coaching staff, Sean Miller hired Santa Clara assistant coach Justin Gainey to be part of Arizonaโs program. But Gainey left after two years, taking a job at Marquette, a move that seemed to be more secure than waiting out the NCAA investigation at Arizona. Unfortunately, Marquette fired head coach Steve Wojciechowski last week, putting Gainey in limbo. Tough business. โฆ
Ex-Cat Clark Crist snaps up chance to coach River Turtles
Former University of Arizona baseball player Clark Crist stands in his Oro Valley office in 2004 while holding a bat given to him by major league player Kenny Lofton.
Clark Crist, a Palo Verde High School grad, was the starting shortstop on Arizonaโs 1980 NCAA championship baseball team. After four years of minor-league baseball, Crist became one of the most accomplished scouts in Major League Baseball helping to discover, among others, All-Stars Kenny Lofton and Albert Pujols. Crist signed Tucsonans such as Craig Bjornson, who went on to be a World Series champion bullpen coach for the Red Sox and Astros. Last week, the 63-year-old Crist made a career change; after scouting for the Diamondbacks for six years, and before that the Astros, Reds, Cardinals, Mets, Indians and Red Sox, Crist accepted a job as manager of the Appalachian Leagueโs Pulaski River Turtles, a collegiate summer league team created by USA Baseball and MLB. โIโm excited that USA Baseball trusts me to work with these kids,โ said Crist. โIโll move to Virginia in a few weeks and plan to enjoy a great summer.โ โฆ
Steve Botkin has insightful perspective
Sahuaro head coach Steve Botkin talks with guard Hayli Kubly (14) during the second half of the 2020 Class 4A girls state title game.
Sahuaro High School girls basketball coach Steve Botkin, the only girls basketball coach in Tucson to coach more than 500 victories, had a sad end to the abbreviated 2020-21 season last week, eliminated in the state semifinals with a 17-1 record. Botkin added perspective in a Facebook post that said: โWe started on Nov. 8. Only 10 girls could be in the gym at one time. The season was canceled, then started again. We had to stop a game at halftime due to us being in close contact and had to quarantine for 15 days. We then played 12 games in 16 days with one practice in February. What this team taught me is donโt let anything get you down. Keep moving forward and make the best out of the situation.โ Sahuaro, which reached the state championship game a year ago, has gone 60-6 the last three seasons. โฆ
Assessment of Archie Miller could apply to brother
Indiana coach Archie Miller calls out from the bench during the first half of the team's NCAA college basketball game against Illinois in Champaign, Illinois, Thursday, March 7, 2019.
After Indiana fired fourth-year basketball coach Archie Miller last week, longtime Indianapolis columnist/sports-talk host Bob Kravitz wrote the following, which in my opinion is almost a word-for-word description of Archieโs brother, Sean: โIf Miller had enjoyed some success, nobody would have worried about his lack of personal appeal, how he rarely if ever smiles, his lack of a deep connection to the community beyond the walls of the basketball offices. But combine the losing with the perpetually dour countenance, the fact people outside the program never truly got to see who he was or what he was about, and you have a massive disconnect. There was never a connection with Miller.โ Bingo. How hard can it be to wear a smile periodically, or to enjoy getting millions of dollars to coach a basketball team? โฆย
My two cents: Match Play field shows just how fleeting success can be
Success in sports is so fleeting, and rarely is the lack of longevity more apparent than in this weekโs WGC-Dell Match Play Championships in Austin, Texas.
Only four of this weekโs top 16 seeds were top 16 seeds at the 2014 WGC-Accenture Match Play championships held at Dove Mountain: Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed, Webb Simpson and Rory McIlroy.
Of the remaining 2014 match play field of 64 at Tucson, only 11 more qualified this week: Paul Casey, Ian Poulter, Sergio Garcia, Jason Day, Jordan Spieth, Bubba Watson, Hideki Matsuyama, Billy Horschel, Mark Leishman, Lee Westwood and Matt Kuchar.
That means 49 of the 64 golfers in Tucsonโs final match play field, 2014, didnโt qualify. How time flies.
