Jim Livengood decided not to wait after all.
The Arizona athletic director removed head coach John Mackovic on Sunday, just days after saying he would evaluate the embattled coach’s status after the season.
“John Mackovic is a good man and a good football coach, but for whatever reason has not been a good fit for the University of Arizona football program, and that is as much my responsibility as it is his,” Livengood said in a press conference. “This is not about fan unrest, it’s not about Internet chat rooms and it is not about message boards. It is about players and doing everything we can to help them mature and have the experience at the UA that we need to have and they need to have going through a collegiate experience.”
Mackovic’s firing comes after three turbulent years at the helm of the Arizona program.
In November 2002, approximately 50 players went to university president Peter Likins to complain about Mackovic’s methods as head coach. And just last Friday, 20 players were banned from a team dinner because they failed to appear for personal meetings with him.
Mackovic was 10-18 in three seasons with the Wildcats, including a 1-4 ledger this season. Arizona narrowly lost to TCU on Saturday, 13-10, in overtime.
“I think just a lot of things built up over time,” Arizona safety Darrell Brooks told the Arizona Daily Star. “I don’t think you place it on one individual incident. It’s bad that it happened, but it’s something that you know in this business. It’s something we have to use as a motivating factor.”
Defensive coordinator Mike Hankwitz was named the interim head coach on Sunday, and it will be his first head coaching experience. This season is Hankwitz’ first with the Wildcats after serving as defensive coordinator at Texas A&M for six seasons.
Hankwitz was unavailable for comment with the Arizona media on Sunday, but Livengood told the Arizona Daily Star: “He is very well respected by our players and by our coaches. I don’t want to infer that any of the others could not have done a good job. But in my opinion, Mike fits this position probably the best right now.”
Livengood did not deny he would be looking to fill the head coaching position full-time. Former Washington State head coach Mike Price has been mentioned as a possibility, as has current Boise State head coach Dan Hawkins.
However, Hawkins is under contract and it would be extremely unlikely for him to leave his position during the season.

Cal knocks off USC … finally
There are no more unbeatens in the Pacific-10 Conference.
In addition to Oregon’s loss to Washington State, both USC and Stanford fell to California and Washington, respectively. The Golden Bears’ 34-31 victory was perhaps the sweetest, especially after losing to the Trojans last season, 30-28.
“Anytime you can have success against a team like USC (it’s a great accomplishment),” California head coach Jeff Tedford said. “They’re a tremendous football team and it means a lot to this football program to have that kind of victory in our home stadium on national television. It’s a tremendous feather in our kids’ cap.”
California fans stormed the field after kicker Tyler Fredrickson split the uprights in the third overtime. It even inspired a “Bedlam in Berkeley” headline on California’s athletic Web site after the game.
“They definitely came in and stung us,” USC defensive lineman Shaun Cody said. “They just had a few more punches than us. They came out and punched us in the mouth.”

A look around
Arizona State, Oregon’s next Pac-10 opponent Oct. 11, has scored 19 points in its last two games, losing both to Iowa and Oregon State. The Sun Devils allowed the Beavers to post 45 points against them Saturday. Arizona State plays USC in Tempe this week.
Oregon State, Washington, and Washington State all own the longest winning streaks in the Pac-10 after USC’s loss to California. Each team has won three in a row.
The Cougars, on the strength of their 55-16 win against the Ducks, are outscoring opponents 55-8 in the first quarter this season. Washington State hosts Arizona this week in a game that could get out of hand early.