Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2002 is a day Arizona coach John Mackovic probably would like to see disappear from his memory.
That was the day more than 40 players on the Wildcats’ football team marched to the University president Peter Likins to complain about his actions.
That was the day he realized he lost the confidence and trust in the players he coached.
That was the day he almost lost his job.
The players of the Arizona football team closely resembled the players in the movie Varsity Blues as they attempted to oust their coach from the team. They formed a revolt, a mutiny. They said Mackovic made a habit of verbal abuse and had taken the fun out of the game.
“It was a feeling that was echoed throughout the team,” All Pacific-10 Conference linebacker and then-senior Lance Briggs told the Associated Press. “As soon as I heard [about the meeting with the president], I was like, ‘Let’s go.’ I was one of the first guys to speak and bring it all out into the light. I had a chance to get a lot of things off my chest.”
At the time, the Wildcats were in the depths of a disappointing season. They were 0-6 in Pac-10 play and 3-7 overall. They lost the two previous games by a combined score of 75-10, and the emotions of the players were ready to burst.
The day after the player revolt, Mackovic held a press conference. He fought back tears to the best of his ability as he apologized for his part in the turmoil and unrest.
“This afternoon I met with my coaches and our team separately to express my feelings and regrets,” he said during the press conference. “I accept full responsibility for my actions and pledge to work tirelessly to mend any fences.”
One particular fence was shredded in the Wildcats’ previous game against UCLA when Mackovic told tight end Justin Levasseur that he was a disgrace to his family because of the way he was blocking.
Senior cornerback Michael Jolivette told the Tucson Citizen last year: “It’s like he took the fire out of the program. We came in here to play football, and he took the fun out of it. It’s like we are here on a business trip, and basically we are just playing football. We want to have fun and want to try to win.”
LSU cornerback Corey Webster thinks it is not up to coaches to make the game “fun.”
“I just think it’s football,” Webster said. “I just think the fun is in winning. Whatever the bad talking or whatever they said he did, I just think that’s motivation, trying to get them to do better. I think the fun is all in the winning.”
That may have been the problem. The Wildcats were not winning.
LSU quarterback Matt Mauck has never been in a situation similar to what went on in Tucson last year, but can understand how it happened.
“I definitely see how in a real competitive environment something like that could happen,” Mauck said. “But I think even more than the coaching staff, you have to look at the players. The players have to not let that happen.”
The Arizona players complained about Mackovic taking the fun out of the game, but Mauck thinks that is part of the “game.”
“People say it’s a game,” Mauck said. “But really, after you get done with high school, sports isn’t a game anymore, it’s a business. There’s a lot of pressure on the coaches. Obviously, everybody would like to have it to where you get cookies and ice cream after each practice, but that’s not the way it is. These guys have a job to do. You’d like it to be fun, but a lot of times it’s not going to be fun.”
The Arizona mutiny was led by upperclassmen, players who were not recruited by Mackovic. And four days after the mutiny Arizona beat California 52-41, and the coach was carried off the field on the shoulders of two freshmen – players he did recruit.
Mackovic is entering his third season as head coach of the Wildcats. At the 2003 Media Day, he said things are better in the locker room.
“I think the camaraderie among the players is different and better,” said Mackovic, who blamed cliques and outside influences for the revolt. “I see fewer groups of people who just cling together, and they spread around and talk to each other more. That’s always healthy for a team.”
LSU coach Nick Saban said there is a lot of pressure on coaches, but it is important to be fair and honest.
“We’re expected as coaches, whether it’s at Arizona or here, to hold our players to a high standard of what we expect them to accomplish as people, as students and as players,” Saban said. “And we get criticized if they don’t do that.”
Saban said he holds senior meetings and likes to visit with the players to get feedback on what they like and what they don’t understand about the program.
“I like to have them have input in the goals and things we want to try and accomplish as a team so that they feel they have ownership in it,” he said.
Things are better in Tucson, according to the players and coaches of the Arizona football team. Mackovic eased off his tough, old school coaching style he used to be a successful head coach at Texas, Illinois and the Kansas City Chiefs. But he still roams the sidelines in his classic coat and tie. He has a career record of 98-78-3, but holds a 9-14 record as the Arizona coach.
“We come out to coach,” Mackovic said. “We treat everybody the same way. We work them hard. I believe that the players have enjoyed the new coaches, and they like the way the coaches get after them. The players crave performance, and discipline is part of improved performance. The players want to play better and have success.”