College football coaches often say they seldom pay much attention to other teams throughout the season, because they're so focused on improving their own.

It must be true, too, because just about every one of the Pac-12 coaches who was asked on Tuesday said he was surprised to hear that coach Mike Stoops had been fired at Arizona — a move that really was about as unexpected as a sunrise.

Truthfully, things had grown so bad for the Wildcats that the only real shock about the coaching change is that Stoops was allowed to head off on a recruiting trip before being summoned back to Tucson to receive the grim news from athletic director Greg Byrne.

"I was concerned with the direction of the program and where we were going," Byrne said.

Which was south.

Deep south.

The Wildcats have lost 10 straight games to Division I opponents, including — most embarrassingly — a 37-27 loss Saturday at previously winless Oregon State, which had averaged fewer than 17 points yet raced to a 24-point lead against a team playing with the best quarterback and receiving corps it has ever had.

Yes, Stoops had done an admirable job rebuilding the Wildcats after the disastrous tenure of predecessor John Mackovic. He took them to three straight bowl games and improved the academic culture on the team.

His ridiculous sideline frothing had attracted little admiration, though, and his supposed defensive expertise — Stoops was a star defensive coordinator at Kansas State and Oklahoma, remember — yielded a shockingly inept defense that ranks nearly last in the country by allowing 37.5 points and 488 yards per game.

Then again, Arizona's recruiting has not been nearly good enough, as evidenced by an offensive line so thin and ineffective that running the ball has been reduced to mere fantasy, hindrance enough to neutralize the prodigious talents of quarterback Nick Foles, a guy everybody thinks is going to wind up in the NFL soon. Do all that, and the real surprise would be keeping your job.

So now it's up to interim coach Tim Kish to try to turn things around after a much-needed bye week, and perhaps make a case to remain in a permanent role. Not many expect that to happen, with the Wildcats surely hoping to land a bigger name, though Kish is viewed as a much more positive presence than Stoops, under whom he had worked for eight years at Arizona.

"We've got some issues," Kish said, "and it's across the board and it's going to take all 120 of us — coaches and players alike — to get some things fixed."

No surprise there.

mcl@sltrib.com