The Arizona Wildcats will reportedly need to look elsewhere to fill its head coaching vacancy. A report surfaced on Sunday morning, stating that Navy Midshipmen coach Ken Niumatalolo will not be headed out west.
Initial speculation was that Niumatalolo was in the running for the job. That things had grown considerably in his favor after he was unexpectedly absent from Navy's team facility on Friday. Niumatalolo has guided Navy to an 84-47 record over his 10 seasons as head coach and bowl appearances in nine of those campaigns.
Oddly enough, when the first reports surfaced that the Wildcats might go with a triple-option coach, it was met with backlash from a pretty important player on the Arizona roster.
Khalil Tate is Arizona's gunslinger. While people might want to claim Tate is part of the reason for this marriage not happening, it appears as though it is actually the Navy head coach removing his name from consideration.
Niumatalolo was also a candidate for the BYU opening a couple of years ago, but he declined to take that job.
The position at Arizona opened up after Rich Rodriguez was fired over allegations of workplace misconduct by a former administrative assistant. The school was unable to prove those claims, but still opted to fire Rodriguez because the university was "concerned with the direction and climate of the football program" as a result of those claims.
