Hansen's Sunday Notebook: UA legend Hunley eager to move on

UA legend Hunley eager to move on after Memphis stint ends 

Former UA football player Ricky Hunley, left, has coached at various levels, the last two years at Memphis, where he coached linebackers. The teams went 19-6 in those two seasons.

After coaching at USC, Florida, Missouri and with the Cincinnati Bengals, Washington Redskins and Oakland Raiders, Ricky Hunley relocated to Tennessee in 2014 and coached linebackers for the Memphis Tigers.

What came next was one of the most uplifting saga’s in Hunley’s long career: the Tigers went 10-3 last year and 9-3 this year. They spent time in the Top 25.

“We didn’t do this with 4-star and 5-star recruits,” Hunley said last week. “We were doing it with 1-star and 2-star players. It was such a great experience.”

And then head coach Justin Fuente took the coaching job at Virginia Tech and essentially was told to retain the defensive coaches from the staff of retiring Frank Beamer.

At 54, Hunley has seen it all in his playing and coaching career — he was executive vice president of the NFL Players Association for three years — until Memphis hired Mike Norvell as its head coach.

“He’s from Arizona State,” Hunley said with a laugh. “Arizona State. I won’t be staying at Memphis.”

Hunley will relocate after Memphis plays Auburn in the Birmingham Bowl.

In my opinion, Hunley is the best football player in UA history. He was a consensus All-America linebacker in 1982 and 1983, an NFL first-round draft pick who was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1997.

Ten days ago, he was selected to the Pac-12’s All-Century first team, which just about floored him. He knows the numbers: In the last 50 years, the Pac-12 has had 22 consensus All-America linebackers, from Junior Seau to Jack Del Rio. That’s the tallest cotton in college football.

“It’s not just that I made it; it’s about those who didn’t make it,” said Hunley. “It’s humbling. I’m proud as hell.”

After coaching in the Birmingham Bowl, Hunley will move to Los Angeles, where his wife, Camille, is an attorney.

“The West is home for me; that’s where we’ll live when I retire from coaching,” he said.

“This is a crazy business; I’m moving all over the country, but I love what I do, and I’m eager to get started again.”

Utter hits 400 and keeps climbing 

I saw Rincon/University boys basketball coach Rich Utter at Fred Enke Golf Course last week and asked him if he knew how many career victories he had.

I wasn’t sure I’d get an answer because Utter is a team-first, not a me-first coach, who has never pursued the spotlight.

“I got No. 400 when we played Nogales (Nov. 24),” he said. After beating Mountain View on Friday, Utter has 406.

I asked if he’d stay around long enough to get No. 500. He just smiled.

Utter was raised in upstate New York, went to school at Slippery Rock University and began his coaching career at tiny Valley Union near Douglas. He does not recruit players nor dabble in the AAU circuit; he takes what comes through the door at Rincon.

He is the best definition of an old-school coach and is No. 3 on the list of Tucson’s winningest high school boys basketball coaches. Sahuaro’s Dick McConnell is first at 774 and Salpointe-Ironwood Ridge-Green Fields’ Brian Peabody has won 442. Late last season, Utter passed Tucson High Hall of Famer Bud Doolen, who won 395. Former Santa Rita coach Jim Ferguson is fourth at 370.

Rincon is 7-3 this year and among a handful of Tucson teams vying to be the city’s best. Utter is doing a lot of it with 6-10 center Brendan Rumel who last week reached a milestone of his own: he scored his 1,000th career point and is up to 1,038. Rumel, who has signed to play at Portland State, has a long way to go to be Rincon’s career-scoring leader: Devon Eason scored 1,620 points for the Rangers in the mid-1990s.

Aztecs in demand following breakthrough season 

Pima College’s remarkable fall sports semester — men’s and women’s soccer, men’s and women’s cross-country and football — will be celebrated on the school’s West campus Sunday at 4:30 p.m. The Aztecs also bought advertising on two billboards around Tucson that say “Aztecs: Nationally Ranked Athletics.”

PCC has also become a center for football recruiting — Jim Monaco’s team is in demand. Last week, sophomore linebacker Wesley Payne, the ACCAC Defensive Player of the Year, committed to play for Oregon State. He became the second Aztec to commit to the Beavers, after wide receiver Timmy Hernandez did so last month.

Arizona is among those recruiting Pima safety Landry Payne, and Cal, Boise State and Oregon State are also in the hunt.

Now that Wesley Payne has agreed to be a Beaver, the most-sought Aztec is safety Markell Simmons. Coaches from TCU were in Tucson to recruit Simmons last week. Utah, West Virginia, Colorado State and Washington State also hope to get Simmons’ signature. 

Trier joins elite Arizona freshman club 

When UA freshman Allonzo Trier scored 27 points in a victory over Fresno State last week, he said, “The biggest thing for me is not being a defensive liability.” Well said. It has been rare that a Sean Miller Arizona freshman has scored more than 20 points in the last 6 ½ years. Derrick Williams did so six times, with a high of 31. MoMo Jones scored 27 in a four-overtime game at Cal. Aaron Gordon did it once, with 23 at Cal. Stanley Johnson exceeded 20 once, with 22 against Colorado. That’s it. Nick Johnson, Kaleb Tarczewski, Brandon Ashley and Solomon Hill did not score more than 20 points as UA freshmen. 

Pac-12 Networks ratings don't stack up against ESPN 

The difference between playing on ESPN and Larry Scott’s Pac-12 Network is enormous. The Arizona-Gonzaga game, on ESPN last week, drew a Nielsen TV rating of 1.2 million viewers. The UA-Fresno State game on Pac-12 Network was given a 0.0 rating by the Nielsen people, meaning fewer than 100,000 people watched. Viewership of 100,000 or fewer means that it is not enough to be validated. A day before the Fresno State game, an ESPN audience for West Virginia-Virginia drew 762,000. 

Despite hot start, Butts' Cats have tough task ahead 

Niya Butts’ Arizona’s women’s basketball team is 7-1 as it prepares for a three-game tournament in Puerto Rico that begins Friday. The competition is so weak — SMU, Florida Gulf Coast and Gardner-Webb — that the Wildcats are likely to be 11-1 when they open Pac-12 play against mighty Stanford on Jan. 2. The UA’s seven victories are against teams with a cumulative 24-33 record, and only one, a bad Kansas team, is from a Power 5 conference. The Pac-12 will be daunting for Butts’ club: No. 7 Oregon State, Oregon and USC are undefeated; Stanford, Cal and ASU are in the top 25. 

Yankees trade could make ex-Cat Refsnyder expendable 

Arizona’s 2012 College World Series MVP Robert Refsnyder had a bittersweet week. He was married on Saturday to former UA swimming standout Monica Drake. Three days earlier, his team, the New York Yankees, traded for Chicago Cubs infielder Starlin Castro, which makes Refsnyder, 24, expendable. Refsnyder started at second base in the American League wild-card game in October, and overall played in 16 MLB games. Castro is a three-time All-Star who, at 25, has already played in 891 MLB games. 

Former UA assistant Brooks battling cancer 

It was sad to learn last week that former Arizona Desert Swarm defensive line coach Clarence Brooks is undergoing chemotherapy to treat esophageal cancer. Brooks, 64, is the defensive line coach for the Baltimore Ravens, and has been in the NFL since 1993. During the UA’s 1991 spring softball game, an annual staff outing, Brooks broke his kneecap. The first man to his side that day was Dick Tomey, who told Brooks to make his recovery a priority and that staff members would pick up his recruiting and coaching duties. When fall camp resumed, with future Hall of Famer Rob Waldrop at nose tackle, Arizona led the NCAA in total defense. Chicago Bears head coach Dave Wannstedt noticed and hired Brooks after the 1992 Sun Bowl. The man Tomey hired to replace Brooks in a staff shuffle was Jeff Hammerschmidt, a former UA All-Pac-10 safety who will return to Tucson on Dec. 29 as the special teams coach of Colorado State for the Nova Home Loans Arizona Bowl. 

UA coaches' paychecks trump New Mexico counterparts  

When Arizona meets New Mexico in the Gildan New Mexico Bowl on Saturday, the biggest difference will be in the size of the coaches’ paychecks. Arizona defensive coordinator Jeff Casteel is paid $600,000. Lobos DC Kevin Cosgrove makes $186,000. Arizona co-offensive coordinator Calvin Magee is paid $500,000; Lobos OC Bob DeBesse earns $221,000. Arizona’s lowest-paid assistant coach, safeties coach Matt Caponi, is paid $185,000. The Lobos’ lowest-paid assistant, receivers coach Scott Baumgartner, makes $128,000. USA Today supplied salary figures of all assistants at NCAA public schools. 

Texas A&M's Allen likely won't transfer to Arizona 

Don’t expect former Texas A&M quarterback Kyle Allen of Phoenix Desert Mountain High to transfer to Arizona. That’s the UA’s one position that projects as a strength for the next few years. Allen was a five-star recruit in high school who rebuffed Arizona and ASU, then flamed out at Texas A&M — eerily like another five-star QB from Phoenix, Scottsdale Chaparral’s Connor Brewer. He went to Texas and did not play. He transferred to Arizona, and did not throw a pass. This season, at Virginia, he was 4 for 8 passing. At Chaparral, Brewer led his club to three state titles and set a state record with 100 TD passes. Recruiting is such an inexact science. 

Arizona fans can watch Cats in Tempe — for a price 

Rather than shut out potential UA fans for the Jan. 3 Arizona-ASU basketball game in Tempe, the Sun Devils last week put together a five-game mini-package from $92 to $350. In some years, ASU has blocked off upper-deck seats that remained empty rather than sell to Arizona fans. You can find the ticket information at thesundevils.com. 

UA softball star Palomino out for 2016 season 

UA freshman softball player Alyssa Palomino, who was among the top two or three hitting prospects in the class of 2015, had surgery for a torn ACL on Nov. 24. That means she will not be available for Arizona’s 2016 softball season and occupy a middle-of-the-order batting slot. 

Ex-Sun Devil finishes fifth in age group in Tucson Marathon 

In last week’s Tucson Marathon, former Arizona State softball All-American Jackie Vasquez Theodorakis finished fifth in her age group, 25-30, in 3 hours, 32 minutes. Jackie helped the Sun Devils win the 2008 NCAA championship. She is married to Tom Theodorakis, associate athletic director for development at the UA. 

Former Washington AD Lude skydives for 93rd birthday 

For his 93rd birthday last week, former Washington athletic director Mike Lude went skydiving near Casa Grande. Lude, who has lived in Tucson after retiring as Auburn’s AD about 20 years ago, could pass for 63. He is now, as he was in the Pac-10, a man who makes things happen. On the Pac-10 Skywriters Tour in 1987, when the UW debuted a renovated Husky Stadium, Lude invited visiting sportswriters to join him on the roof overlooking the north bleachers at Husky Stadium. There were no handrails and it must’ve been 100 feet from the roof to the bleachers below. You could clearly see Mount Rainier and all the way to Canada, but after about two steps on the roof, I froze. Lude walked to the edge and raved about the view. His legacy is powerful: I think he and Arizona’s Cedric Dempsey were the league’s two top ADs of the Pac-10 years, 1978-2010.

My two cents: City council meeting could spell bad news for Tucson golfers 

Item 9 on the Tucson City Council agenda Tuesday is “Amending Tucson City Golf Rates.”

It’s showdown day. OB Sports, which manages the five city courses, is expected to ask for rate increases. A bigger question is likely to be explored: Can any of the five courses be sold or shuttered?

In November, OB Sports improved its revenue by $38,000 over November 2014, but this is a complicated and unpredictable issue that has been brewing for about 15 years.

If you care about muni golf in Tucson, it might be a good idea to be in the audience Tuesday evening and make yourself heard.

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