Monday, December 14, 2020

Arizona Fires Head Football Coach Kevin Sumlin

Late last week Arizona fired head football coach Kevin Sumlin.  The Arizona Wildcats have lost twelve games in a row (going back to the 2019 season).  Here is a look at the University of Arizona football program since 2008 (the first year that I collected all the variables needed for the Complex Invasion College Football Production Model).  This time period spans head coach Mike Stoops last four seasons with the Wildcats (2008-2011), Rich Rodriguez (2012 - 2017), and the three seasons under Kevin Sumlin (2018-2020).

After the figure below is a more detailed look at the Arizona Wildcats football program during head coach Sumlin's tenure based on the Complex Invasion College Football Production Model using data provided by www.cfbstats.com.  (The vertical school color bars represent seasons where head coaches changed).

Kevin Sumlin [2018-2020*]

2018
Arizona finished the regular season at 5-7, and were bowl ineligible. The Wildcats' played against an “average” strength of schedule (SOS), meaning that Arizona's SOS was plus or minus one standard deviation of the "league's" average SOS.  Arizona's best regular season victory was again against #35 ranked Oregon by a score of (44-15) and their worst loss was to #103 ranked UCLA by a score of (30-31).  Arizona was the #80 ranked team overall, with the #73 ranked offense and the #88 ranked defense using the Complex Invasion College Football Production Model from the data provided from www.cfbstats.com.

2019 
Arizona finished the regular season at 4-8, and were again bowl ineligible.  The Wildcats played against an “average” strength of schedule (SOS).  Arizona's best regular season victory was against #83 ranked Texas Tech (28-14) and their worst loss was to #112 ranked Stanford (31-41).  Arizona was the #90 ranked team overall, with the #64 ranked offense and the #111 ranked defense using the Complex Invasion College Football Production Model from the data provided from www.cfbstats.com.

2020
Arizona is currently 0-5 with their worst loss of the season was to currently ranked #63 Washington by the score of (27-44).  The Wildcats' are currently the #121 ranked offense, the #62 ranked defense and the #121 ranked team in the Football Bowl Subdivision.

2020 NCAA FBS Head Coaching Changes