Arizona cans Mackovic

[Drbio]

Associated Press
TUCSON, Ariz. -- Arizona fired coach John Mackovic on Sunday, five games into the third season of his tumultuous tenure in Tucson.

Defensive coordinator Mike Hankwitz will take over as interim coach for the remainder of the season.

Athletic director Jim Livengood offered no specific reason for the firing when he announced it Sunday at a news conference.

"There's no one single event, no one happening, that all of a sudden had a weight to it," he said.

Mackovic, who turns 60 on Wednesday, survived a player mutiny last season after tearfully promising to do a better job of communicating. But this year's team lost to LSU, Oregon and Purdue by a combined score of 166-30.

The Wildcats (1-4) played their best game of the season in a 13-10 overtime home loss to TCU (No. 21 ESPN/USA Today, No. 20 Associated Press) on Saturday night, but pressure from boosters and unrest among the players led Livengood to let the coach go.

Livengood had insisted that Mackovic's status would not be evaluated until the end of the season but changed his mind. The athletic director met with Arizona's players for about an hour on Sunday morning, then spoke with Mackovic.

"I felt that at this particular point in time it warranted making a decision right now," Livengood said. "That's going away from what I've normally done."

Mackovic was 10-18 at Arizona. The Wildcats currently have lost 12 consecutive Pac-10 home games.

Mackovic signed a five-year, $4 million contract in December 2000, and the buyout of his deal will cost $909,000. He had been out of coaching since 1998, serving as an ESPN commentator.

Last November, more than 40 players asked for and were granted a meeting with university president Peter Likins to air their complaints about the coach.

For some 90 minutes, the players told Likins of what they believed was Mackovic's unwarranted verbal abuse, and the misery that was Arizona football. The team was 0-6 in the Pac-10, and 3-7 overall at the time.

Mackovic held a lengthy team meeting, then apologized at a news conference.

"I'm terribly sorry for my part in this turmoil and unrest," he said at the time. "I accept full responsibility for my actions and pledge to work tirelessly to mend any fences."

Later, Mackovic indicated that "outside forces,"apparently boosters and players' parents, had instigated the unrest.

Livengood stood by his side then, but the pressure got to intense as problems between the players and coach continued this season.

He coached at Texas, Illinois and Wake Forest, and has a 95-82-3 collegiate record. He also coached the Kansas City Chiefs from 1983-86.

Mackovic hired Hankwitz just before the start of spring practice this year. Hankwitz had been defensive coordinator at Texas A&M for the previous six seasons and is a 33-year veteran of coaching.