Arizona coach Mike Stoops had been given some leeway for last season’s collapse. He had, after all, led the Wildcats to three straight bowls for just the second time in school history.

But when the losses continued to pile up this season, including one to a previously winless team, the latitude was gone.

Arizona fired Stoops midway through his eighth season on Monday, ending a run that started off well before ending with a thud in the desert.

Defensive coordinator Tim Kish will take over on an interim basis for the rest of the season while the school searches for a new coach.

Stoops joins New Mexico’s Mike Locksley as the only coaches of major college football programs to be fired since this season started.