I was going to call this “Gone Too Soon 3: An ode to Matt Brown” but I didn’t have the heart.

The good news is we lost a guy we didn’t have yet so we technically didn’t lose him.

Matt Brown, the only quarterback in Arizona’s 2010 recruiting class, recently announced that because Sonny Dykes left he will no longer be attending Arizona but will instead go to TCU. It’s all part of the fun in the circus that is college football recruiting.

If you don’t follow recruiting you might just be better off for it. It’s a world of deception and betrayal. It’s a system that leads to players who think they have scholarships being left out, and players who don’t have scholarships pretending they do.

As with anything involving sports they came up with a way to keep score so fans can brag when they win and sulk when they lose. There are more recruiting websites than you can shake a stopwatch at and they all come up with rankings based on a star system. If you’re a five-star player you’re supposed to be the next Tim Tebow. If you’re a one-star player you’d better get used to filling water bottles.

But how do you rank high school kids from around the country who attend schools of all sizes and play against varying competition? That’s the magic of recruiting rankings. Or, if you prefer, that’s the steaming pile of worthlessness of recruiting rankings.

Logic says the best indicator of a player’s potential is the level of programs recruiting him. If USC, Texas and Florida all want a guy he has to be really good, right? But it becomes a chicken-and-egg thing. Is the player rated highly because of the scholarship offers he’s getting, or is he getting scholarship offers because he’s rated highly?

Even after all that you’re still curious about college football recruiting. You’re interested in seeing what all the fuss is about. Besides, September is a long time from now.

So come on in. Fire up your search engine and see what’s going on with your favorite team. To assist you I proudly present the following Guide to College Football Recruiting, for the novice, by a novice.

1. “Commitment” doesn’t mean anything.
The way the system works is players can be recruited at a young age (nowadays I think it’s once they start crawling) but they can’t formally accept a scholarship offer until their senior year of high school, on National Signing Day which is the first Wednesday of every February. Any time up until Signing Day a player may “commit” to a school. In theory said student-athlete is announcing he has made his college decision and the recruiting process is over. In reality it means the coaching staffs at other schools begin recruiting even harder often leading the player to “de-commit” and say he’s going somewhere else.

In the modern world of college football a “commitment” simply means “the school I currently think I might attend…maybe.”

2. Everyone always likes their class.
No matter how fierce the recruiting battles, no matter how many recruits are gained or lost during the year, by the time Signing Day rolls around every team will claim victory. Official recruiting parties will be held across the country and all coaches will say they got the guys they wanted and there are future stars in the class. Hands will be shaken and backs will be patted and everyone goes home happy. Optimism is undefeated on Signing Day.

3. Highly rated players aren’t always great…unless they are.
If you’re going to follow recruiting you have to learn one thing: If your team’s class isn’t ranked very high you immediately shout, “Recruiting rankings don’t mean anything!” Then you list all the examples of highly rated players who failed and lowly rated guys who succeeded.

For example, in Arizona’s 2008 recruiting class Robert Golden was a five-star recruit and Juron Criner was a two-star recruit. Both are starters but who has had the better career thus far, and whose stock would you rather own? Doesn’t this make the star system meaningless?

But if you look at the Wildcats’ 2007 class you see The Man Who Would Become GRONK! listed as a four-star recruit. He certainly lived up to the hype even in two short seasons. In the same class you have QB Bryson Beirne as a two-star recruit. Not much was expected of him and, sure enough, he’s third string on the depth chart with little chance of moving up.

People who want to mock Arizona fans who follow recruiting will always point to the class of 2006. Perhaps the most exciting moment in the history of UA football recruiting was the day Louis Holmes announced he was coming the Tucson. The story was that even as Holmes was walking toward his press conference Pete Carroll was on his cell phone trying to get Holmes to come to USC. The all-world defensive end chose Arizona and we all thought we had the next Tedy Bruschi. After two full seasons Holmes barely had more sacks (six) than recruiting stars (5).

On the other hand Cat fans who live for recruiting can point to 2005 as a year it was all worth it. Willie Tuitama and Eben Britton were four-star recruits, Mike Thomas had three stars, Spencer Larsen had two stars, and all of them became stars. Sometimes you win all the way around.

There’s nothing wrong with keeping up with recruiting. It’s a great way to pass the time as you wait for spring practice. Just watch out for the roller coaster highs and lows and be sure to celebrate the student-athletes who ultimately decide to attend your favorite university.

Happy Signing Day!

–

Basketball Note – In the last ten Pac-10 games the home team is 8-2. Guess who has the two? I’ll give you a hint: It rhymes with Barizona Date Fun Levels.

The Cats are alone in second place and the game on Sunday is a chance to move into first. If Sean Miller was a football recruit he would get eleven stars.

I know you want to skip ahead to the revised power rankings. Don’t do it! It’s like dessert. Save the best for last!

Thu. Jan. 28
Stanford (10-9 / 4-3) at ARIZONA (10-9 / 4-3) – 6 p.m. (all times Arizona/Mountain), Fox College Sports
Playing at home against an average opponent, coming off the high of the ASU win. This is the game where we find out if the Cats are truly getting better.

Cal (13-6 / 5-2) at ASU (14-6 / 4-3) – 6:30 p.m., FSAZ
The Devils did not take care of business last week but they can still get back into first place.

USC (12-7 / 4-3) at OSU (8-11 / 2-5) – 6:30 p.m., FSNW
The Beavers haven’t won since beating Arizona.

UCLA (9-10 / 4-3) at Oregon (10-9 / 2-5) – 8:30 p.m., FSN
Three of the Bruins’ four league wins have come by two points or less.

Sat. Jan. 30
WSU at Washington – 1:30 p.m., FSN
The Pac-10 beat Seattle U! The Pac-10 beat Seattle U! Hey, you’ve got to start somewhere.

Stanford at ASU – 2 p.m.
The Cardinal is 4-0 at home and 0-3 on the road. If they played Washington at a neutral site, would anybody win?

USC at Oregon – 4 p.m.
After winning six straight, the Ducks have dropped five in a row. There’s no truth to the rumor they’re adding Jeremiah Masoli to the roster to try and get more steals.

UCLA at OSU – 5:30 p.m., FSNW
The last two Pac teams with overall losing records finally meet. Instead of an opening tip they should start with a group hug.

Sun. Jan. 31
Cal at ARIZONA – 1:30 p.m., FSN
No NFL playoff games? No problem. How about The Battle For First Place In The Pac-10 If The Bears And Wildcats Both Win On Thursday?!

Did you do it? Did you last this long without peeking? I won’t tease you any longer. It’s power rankings time (last week’s rank in parentheses!)!

1. Cal (2) – With the next four on the road we’ll see if Cal is for real.
2. USC (3) – Four wins without playing the Oregons.
3. UCLA (4) – Same as USC, but lost to the Trojans.
4. WSU (6) – Road wins against UA and USC are strong.
5. ARIZONA (9) – UA > ASU.
6. ASU (1) – Just 1-3 against the top 5.
7. Washington (5) – Lucky the Cal and Stanford games were at home.
8. Stanford (7) – No road wins and half the home wins are against Oregons.
9. OSU (8) – Why did you lose to these guys, Cats? Why?
10. Oregon (10) – First in football, last in basketball.

That looks a little better, doesn’t it? The Cats can make another jump by beating Cal, or drop back down again by losing to Stanford. Such is life in a conference where 60% of the league has exactly four wins.

But we’re 1-1 against Seattle U!

The sun rises in the east.

I’m not going to lie. I didn’t see that one coming. At all. This is why sports in general and college sports in particular are so great. Sometimes logic says one thing but reality gives you just the opposite.

Sometimes the twist kicks you in the gut (“There’s no way Nebraska has enough offense to blow out Arizona!”) and sometimes it gives you a very pleasant surprise (“There’s no way the red hot, experienced team playing smothering defense gets blown out by an inconsistent young team that doesn’t defend anyone!”).

The “disciplined” team settled for jumpers all night. The “out-of-control” team attacked the lane and played inside-out.

Spring follows winter.

Sean Miller just earned a lot more bonus points. He took full advantage of the “bye week” and devised a plan to dissect ASU’s stingy zone.

At the start of the game the Cats fell into the trap of trying to beat the zone by passing around the perimeter and jacking up threes. Things turned around when they began getting the ball into the middle with dribble penetration and passes to the high post.

What it shows is we have a coach smart enough to come up with a successful gameplan, and good enough to get his point across mid-game. It also means we have players smart enough and good enough to listen to coaching and implement it. It all adds up to a lot of optimism about the long-term future.

Two key moments in the ASU game: The Sun Devils scored the first basket of the second half to go up by four. The two subsequent Devil possessions ended in good looks from behind the arc but Glasser and Kuksiks both missed. ASU wasn’t able to extend their lead and the UA ended up scoring the next 12 points.

The other turning point came with 8:03 left. The Cats were up ten when Horne hit a three followed by Fogg and Williams converting fast-break layups off of steals. In just one minute and one second of game time the lead had ballooned to 17 and the party had started in the upper deck.

Water flows downhill.

Just like that, ASU’s five-game win streak over Arizona was gone. The Devils didn’t even have a chance to start referring to it with a capital S. Before anyone starts boasting about five-out-of-six remember that Lute had an 11+ game winning streak against ASU three different times. You’ve got a ways to go, Sparky.

Arizona State’s longest streak against the Cats in the Pac-10 era was nine wins from 1979-’83. That streak ended with Lute Olson’s first game against the Devils. Coincidence? Coach O going 5-0, 16-1, and 43-6 says no.

ASU’s current winning streak ended with Sean Miller’s first rivalry game. Coincidence?

More happy stats:

The home team went 4-1 in Pac-10 play this past Saturday.

The Wildcats are above .500 for the first time since we were 3-2.

That was our third Pac-10 road win. The UA only had two all of last year and four the year before.

Lost in the Kevin Parrom: Good Hard Foul or Dirty Play? debate is the fact that Parrom led the Cats in rebounding even though he only played 20 minutes. In his last four games he’s averaging 5.5 boards a game as a wing. That’s a guy who wants to rebound.

Maybe Kevin just wanted to provide a visual interpretation of “Hit ‘em hard, let ‘em know who’s who.” (Although, the same could be said about the alternate version of that line from the fight song.)

Cream rises to the top.

As this team continues to develop its identity you have to like the mix of skilled West Coast players (20 points for Derrick Williams and four assists for Solomon Hill) and East Coast tough guys. Is Miller working on the perfect combination?

Right after the game Sean starting working on managing expectations again. He was quick to point out that this one excellent win doesn’t guarantee the start of a long win streak. The team that couldn’t hold a lead against Oregon State is still lurking.

If only every game could be played on the weekend. The Cats are now 4-0 in the Saturday/Sunday portion of their Pac-10 schedule. The Cal Bears should be very afraid of their matchup in Tucson this Sunday.

But Thursday still comes first. The UA’s next chance to win a season-long third consecutive game comes against a Stanford team still looking for its first Pac-10 road win. The Wildcats are looking to take another step forward and play with some consistency instead of just posting a single (albeit order-restoring) win in Tempe.

And Arizona Basketball beats Arizona State.

What might have been.

(If I have to write another one of these next week I’m going to be really upset.)

Wow. That came out of nowhere. I guess Sonny Dykes really got the head coaching bug when he expressed interest in the Texas Tech job. I worried when Jim Livengood went to UNLV and started looking for a football coach. I was concerned until Tuberville was hired at Tech and he had his offensive coordinator in place. Then I thought we were in the clear.

Louisiana Tech?

The Bulldogs have only had three winning seasons in the past decade. The last LA Tech coach to stay longer than four years and post a winning record retired in 1978. Yes, you can get to BCS bowl games from the WAC. But the league features a bully on blue turf that doesn’t look to be giving up its spot at the top of the heap any time soon.

Dykes will have to go great lengths to get his team a conference championship. Figuratively and literally. As the easternmost member of the Western Athletic Conference LA Tech has to travel 1,500 miles to Boise State, 1,700 miles to San Jose State, and 4,000 miles to Hawaii. Heck, they’re a full Texas away from their nearest conference foe (New Mexico State). At least Sonny will be killing it in the frequent flier miles department.

We did know this day was coming. Sonny has a head coach’s presence. If Mike Stoops took a job somewhere else Dykes was the guy I wanted to take over here. Whether in Tucson or elsewhere you knew Sonny Dykes was going to be following in his father’s footsteps. Eventually. We just didn’t want “eventually” to mean “right now.”

I thought Dykes would stick around at Arizona two or three more years, make a serious run at the Rose Bowl and then follow Mike Stoops’ example in taking over a rebuilding program in a BCS conference. He’s certainly shown he can rebuild an offense.

The Wildcat offense was dead when Sonny got here. Beyond dead. It had been buried, dug up, and killed again. In the first three years of Stoops’ tenure the Cats scored a measly 15, 23 and 17 points per game, ranking ninth in the Pac-10 each season. In Dykes’ three years the UA averaged 28, 37 and 27 points, and peaked as the third most potent Pac offense in 2008.

Sonny Dykes reintroduced the forward pass to Wildcat fans. Of the ten best games in terms of completions in Arizona history, eight of them happened under Dykes’ watch. Willie Tuitama owns every significant season and career passing record in the books, and he wasn’t even good enough to get an NFL tryout. Sonny knows offense.

And that’s what makes the timing of his departure so painful. Next year’s Wildcat offense is loaded, even without GRON… If we could get 2,400 yards from Nick Foles in Pac-10 play what could we get with a full season? If we scored enough to win eight games with a lot of new starters what could we do when the whole offense comes back?

Now we’re left with question marks. All the players are still here but their system might not be. Is there anyone on the staff capable to keeping everything in place? Is there anyone even left when Dykes finishes building his offensive staff at Louisiana Tech?

The good news is this is a fair more attractive job than when Sonny took over. Back to back bowl games and a head coach with four years left on his contract. A ton of experience on the offensive line and a quarterback in place. Whoever steps into the play-calling role will have every chance to succeed and build his own name.

Fare thee well, Sonny Dykes, and thanks for the memories. Three years weren’t enough but they sure were a great three years. Just leave our assistant coaches and recruits alone.

Goodbye, GRON…I mean, SONN…

The Cats don’t play on Thursday so you can turn on the TV and watch…well, two teams that are a combined 5-6 in league play. Maybe it’s just best to wait until Saturday after all.

Thu. Jan. 21
OSU (8-9 / 2-3) at Stanford (8-9 / 2-3) – 8 p.m. (all times Arizona/Mountain)
Two of the three Pac teams with overall losing records battle to get back to glorious .500.

Oregon (10-7 / 2-3) at Cal (11-6 / 3-2) – 8:30 p.m.
The Ducks are 0-3 in Pac-10 home games and 2-0 on the road. The Bears should be concerned.

Washington (12-5 / 3-3) at UCLA (7-10 / 2-3) – 8:30 p.m., FSN
The Huskies look like they’re going to be the anti-Ducks: dominant at home and diminutive on the road.

Washington State (13-5 / 3-3) at USC (11-6 / 3-2) – 8:30 p.m.
The Dead Men Walking took out a whole bunch of frustration against UCLA.

Sat. Jan. 23
OSU at Cal – 12 p.m., CBS
If the Bears and Devils take care of business at home it would set up a large showdown in Tempe next Thursday. Ick.

WSU at UCLA – 2 p.m., FSN
The Bruins beat the top two teams in the league and have lost to everyone else. Nothing about this conference makes sense.

Oregon at Stanford – 6 p.m.
If the Cardinal don’t get happy against the Oregons at home they’re just going to be sad.

Washington at USC – 8:30 p.m.
UW really wants to take care of business this week. They play the mighty Seattle U on Tuesday.

ARIZONA (9-9 / 3-3) at ASU (14-5 / 4-2) – 7:30 p.m., FSAZ
Since scoring 37 points against USC the Sun Devils have averaged 70 points a game in four wins without giving up more than 57. Stop the insanity!

As promised this week’s power rankings look completely different from last time. Remember, this isn’t a prediction of where teams will finish but a look at their performance thus far (last week’s ranking is in parentheses).

1. ASU (3) – I don’t like it any more than you do.
2. Cal (1) – Losing at UW is forgivable but the Bears need to string some wins together.
3. USC (6) – The head-to-head with UCLA nudges them into the top three.
4. UCLA (4) – The ASU and Cal wins are still better than anyone else below.
5. Washington (10) – Beating the Bears is a good start on a comeback.
6. WSU (7) – All three Pac wins are against bottom-half peers.
7. Stanford (5) – Hanging on by their one-point win against USC.
8. OSU (9) – Beat Arizona and Oregon.
9. ARIZONA (8) – Say what now?
10. Oregon (2) – Losing all your home games gets you the fast track to the basement.

I’m not trying to be harsh with the Cats. Our guys aren’t terrible but I can’t find a good reason to jump anybody else in the sub-division. We lost head-to-head against WSU and OSU, and Stanford’s win against USC is better than our win against UCLA.

The good news is Arizona can change its status in a hurry. First-place ASU is Saturday and second-place Cal is a week from Sunday.

And weekend games are what the Wildcats do best.