Arizona State AD Ray Anderson addresses Tracy Smith’s Arizona football tweet
Oct 21, 2014, 10:01 PM | Updated: 10:14 pm
The last time the Arizona Wildcats played a football game, things didn’t go very well for kicker Casey Skowron.
The former women’s soccer team manager had a field goal blocked and missed two others, including the potential game-winner from 36 yards, and Arizona fell to USC 28-26 for their first loss on the year.
Skowron received plenty of misguided hate from frustrated Arizona football fans on social media. He even (temporarily) got an ASU employee hoping he’d miss the kick.
According to Greg Hansen, a columnist for Tucson.com, ASU baseball coach Tracy Smith tweeted “Miss it” just before Skowron’s attempt. After the field goal went wide right, Smith tweeted a thumbs-up icon. Both tweets have since been removed.
“That’s juvenile and unprofessional. I was dumbfounded,” Hansen wrote.
Arizona State VP of athletics Ray Anderson was asked about the tweets during his weekly radio interview with Bickley and Marotta on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM.
“I’m aware of it,” Anderson said. “Do I condone it? Tracy is one who is rooting for his fellow coach. And certainly the thought that if Arizona loses a game, now we’re closer to them was on his mind.
“I think that if he had to do it over again, he might be a little more sensitive to the fact that some people are way oversensitive. Particularly, if you’re in a coach’s position, you have to be cautious about that. We’ve talked about it and I think he will be more cautious about his tweeting moving forward.”
