Never mind.

As we crossed the mountains heading into San Diego the cloudy skies tried to warn us this wasn’t going to be our day. As we sat in the rain with the time ticking away there wasn’t any doubt left.

If the N in ’98 stood for “Not today” the A in 2009 stood for “Anybody but you.”

The TV guys said it was the first time it ever rained on the Holiday Bowl. So in two years Arizona fans have brought snow to Las Vegas and rain to San Diego. Pasadena may never invite us for fear of falling into the ocean.

The only way the start of the game could have been any worse is if Travis Cobb took the kickoff and handed the ball directly to a Nebraska player. I feel especially bad for our fans watching on TV who saw we were already losing by the time ESPN switched over to the game. You didn’t even get to enjoy the minute and 15 seconds when we were still in it.

The team with the bigger name and the bigger star made the most of the big stage and their fans were ready for every photo opportunity. Did Arizona fans not make any signs? Or were the Qualcomm Stadium and ESPN cameras contracted to only show Ndamukong Suh puns? Suh-per Suh will Suh-n bring a Suh-nami to Suh Falls. Suh me.

At least we got to see a lot of fireworks at halftime. And I mean a LOT. If the ticket price was $60 they must have spent $58 of that blowing stuff up.

Talk about a bad week for UA sports. The Jimmer hoops game, the Holiday Bowl, and Gilbert Arenas just can’t shake the label that he’s a shooting guard.

We weren’t going to win on this particular night but a better game from Devin Ross could’ve made things interesting. His first dropped interception was a touchdown the other way which would have been a ten-point swing. His second drop was another field goal, and he was the guy biting on the pump-fake that turned into the 74-yard bomb (on 3rd-and-long). He played well enough to be in the middle of three really big plays but you wish he could have made a couple of them in his final game.

Devin certainly wasn’t alone in struggling for the White and White and White. From where I sat (in the very last row of the upper deck) there were two mismatches on the field. Nebraska’s O-line dominated Arizona’s defensive front. NU QB Zac Lee ran for 65 yards on simple read-option plays and he saw very little pressure when he dropped back to pass.

The other clear beat-down was the Husker secondary against the Wildcat receivers. Nobody was running free for Arizona. Nick Foles was having to hold the ball and try to force it into tight spaces. Of course, it didn’t help that the few times there was an open receiver our QB was horribly inaccurate, or our receiver jumped too soon, or he flat-out dropped the pass. That’s how you throw for 46 whole yards.

The one place where there wasn’t a mismatch was, surprisingly, Nebraska’s defensive line vs. Arizona’s offensive line. Suh had 2.5 tackles and a roughing-the-passer penalty. The Huskers only had four tackles for loss (Arizona had three). No, there wasn’t any running room, but Foles had time to throw against arguably the best defense in the country. So if you’re looking for a reason to get excited about next year start there.

Here’s your projected starting offensive line for 2010:

LT – Phil Garcia, senior – 2 starts in ’09
LG – Conan Amituanai, senior – 6 starts in ’09
C – Colin Baxter, senior – 13 starts in ’09
RG – Vaughn Dotsy, junior – 9 starts in ’09
RT – Adam Grant, senior (medical redshirt) – 13 starts in ’09

Four seniors and a junior. Add a junior quarterback, senior and junior running backs, and a senior-and-four-juniors receiving corp and that’s what a peak year on offense looks like.

(Well, there is one thing missing. If only we could find an NFL-caliber tight end. Hmm…)

(Forget it, I’m not proud. Pleeeease come back, GRONK! Please, please, please! Foles-Gronkowski could be the biggest pair to hit Tucson since Davis-Monthan.)

The flip side is the 2010 UA defense is going to be one massive question mark. A new coordinator and seven new starters don’t build a lot of confidence. Because of that it’s probably good that this team will not be getting an offseason’s worth of hype. If the Cats had beaten Nebraska people would have started printing 2011 Rose Bowl tickets. If the UA had been the team doing the 33-0ing we would’ve heard national title talk. Slowing down the preseason chatter is a good thing. We already lived through 1999 once.

When you step back and look at the big picture this was a very good year for Arizona Football. As we’ve talked about before, every season can be divided into four parts and this year Cat fans can be happy with three of them. The UA won the out-of-conference home games and hung around in the tough road game. We’ll call that a tie in part one.

Part two includes the games against the members of the old Pac-8. This year’s five wins are better than last year’s four so that’s a definite win.

Part three is the rivalry game. Arizona 20, ASU 17 is obviously a win.

And the bowl game stunk. So that’s two wins, a loss and a tie for 2009. Not great, but considering all the fears going into the year it’s a success. True, the ’09 Cats weren’t quite good enough to take advantage of the chances they had to do some great things. But the program took another step in the right direction and we shouldn’t let the Holiday Bowl thrashing cause us to lose sight of that.

Another silver lining from a loss like this is the motivation factor. The best thing to happen to the 2009 Alabama team was losing to Florida and Utah in 2008. Hopefully this humiliation can light a similar fire in the Wildcats that burns for the next eight months.

It could be just what this team needs to go 4-0 in 2010.

I don’t know how much success Arizona’s offense will have against Nebraska’s defense. But I do know this: the Husker offense is bad. Fewer-yards-per-game-than-UCLA-and-ASU bad.

So does a team that is solid but not great on both sides of the ball beat a team that is half great and half awful?

Good-Good might not beat Great-Bad but Great-Good would. In other words, the Wildcat defense needs to dominate.

No long passing plays like against ASU. No extended run-dominated drives like against USC. It is the Cat D’s mission to shut down the guys in red from kick to gun.

It’s Defense 101. Stop the run, force 3rd-and-long, pressure the quarterback, make plays on the ball.

Nobody is talking about anybody on the Arizona defense. As of 5 p.m. Pacific on Wed. Dec. 30 that needs to change.

Bear Down.

Holiday Bowl week is here!

The Las Vegas Bowl trip was an absolute blast and I’m looking forward to more of the same this year. I do hope we make this bowl game thing an annual tradition.

Although, looking at UA history the return bowl trip shouldn’t have come as a surprise. Dating back to the ‘80s every time the Cats broke a bowl draught they made it back to the postseason the following year. Now, going bowling again next year would be a bigger accomplishment as the Wildcats have only played in a bowl three straight years one time (1992-’94).

Arizona’s all-time bowl record is 6-7-1 so a win on Wednesday would even things up. That wouldn’t be bad at all considering the school went 65 years between its first bowl game (1921) and its first bowl victory (1986).

This is the first time we’ve played a school in a bowl game a second time. In our previous 14 bowls we played 14 different teams, from the obscure (Centre and Drake) to the name brand (Auburn, Georgia and Miami), but Nebraska is the first rematch.

The ’09 Cornhuskers are known for three things: defense, defense, and defense. In their last seven games Nebraska has only given up more than one offensive touchdown twice. They kept the other team’s O completely out of the end zone three different times. The Huskers intercepted 14 passes over their final six games.

This is not a game for Nick Foles to try and buy time with his feet. Holding the ball against these guys is a turnover waiting to happen. The game plan has to be read-read-read-throw it away.

I would love for our guys to score two quick TDs and coast but we’re probably going to see a game similar to the last two we played. What we need to not see is a third quarter like the last two. Just one first down in the opening period of the second half against both ASU and USC. What’s the opposite of halftime adjustments?

Sustaining long drives is going to be difficult so the Cats have got to look for a couple opportunities to take a shot deep with Juron Criner. We need to get the ball into #82’s hands as often as possible (remember the huge inside screen against Oregon) but it makes a lot of sense to try and set up a quick score or two with a one-on-one jump ball deep.

Field position is crucial in defensive struggles so Keenyn Crier needs to come up big. Thirteen-yard punts aren’t going to cut it. Along the same lines Alex Zendejas can’t miss any short field goals. Hopefully his kick against the Sun Devils will have him ready in case more 4th-quarter heroics are needed.

The fans won’t like it but I don’t see Mike Stoops doing a lot of gambling in the red zone. Yes, touchdowns are huge in this game, but field goals are semi-huge.

I will say this: One act of well-timed deception could make all the difference. I’m thinking something along the lines of going for it on 4th-and-inches, lining up in the “Hey! We’re running a quarterback sneak!” formation…and then passing. If that happens I will leave my nosebleed seat, storm the press box and lift Sonny Dykes onto my shoulders myself.

So word must have gotten out about our poor record wearing white jerseys and white pants. It’s like someone said, “Uniform stats, shmooniform stats. I see your fear of White-on-White and give you White-on-White-on-White.”

Whatever Arizona wears the program will be trying to finish a season ranked for just the sixth time in the Pac-10 era. A win would also give the Cats a rare year-ending win streak. Since leaving the WAC Arizona has only won three or more to end a season four times, with three-game streaks in 1984 and ’88 (no bowl game either year), a four-game streak to end 1997 and the seven-game run that took us to our first Holiday Bowl in ’98.

That’s a lot at stake for the guys from Tucson. What’s not at stake is a successful season. Mike Stoops has already proven that last year was no fluke and he’s providing solid evidence that he’s building a program with staying power.

Because of that it’s a perfect opportunity for the Wildcats to come out relaxed, confident, and ready to play their very best.

Grab your beef jerky and let’s ride.

Does your opinion of the 2009 Arizona football season depend on the result in San Diego? To answer that you need to look back at your feelings before the season. How we react to things in life is directly tied to our expectations going in. What was your personal Line Of Agonizing Disappointment, the win total required for you as an individual fan to feel satisfied?

From where I sit the votes have been read and the decision is final.

The 2009 Wildcats are a success.

We all know about the Pac-10 media picking Arizona to finish 8th in the league standings but it wasn’t just them. The consensus was a step back for Arizona, and you couldn’t blame them. Take a look at this list of departed players again:

Willie Tuitama
Mike Thomas
Eben Britton
Ronnie Palmer
Marquis Hundley
Nate Ness
Adrian McCovy
James Tretheway
Joe Longacre
Jason Bondzio

Throw in GRONK! not playing a single snap and that is a ton of star power lost from last year’s team.

Now factor in the strength-of-schedule numbers and there’s no debate: #57 last year compared to #5 this year.

The bottom line is there’s no possible way to argue that last year’s regular season was better than this one. So what looked like a rebuilding year with a tougher schedule turns into a better record and at least the same overall record. This should not be understated.

Some people will point to giving up the lead in the 4th quarter against Oregon in a game that ultimately cost the Cats the Rose Bowl and say this team blew it. But there’s a big difference between missing an opportunity and failing. Yes, Arizona had a real opportunity to win that elusive Pac-10 championship. We’ll always look back on the close losses this year and wonder what might have been. But the fact that this year’s team – with all the circumstances heading into the year – was good enough to have that opportunity makes this season anything but a failure.

While I wasn’t predicting a return to the Mackovic years I was prepared to be happy with anything above “not stink.” In August a wise (and great-looking) man said:

But what if this year’s team doesn’t stink? What if Team Stoops replaces the most prolific passer in school history, the leading pass-catcher in conference history, both offensive tackles, and still posts a winning record? What if he matches or – heaven help us – actually improves on last year’s 8-5? The fans’ confidence would be reinforced, the media would have to admit that Mike Stoops might just know what he’s doing, and all limits would be removed as to how high this thing can go.

You know what? We’re there. Mike Stoops has already matched last year’s win total (and bettered last year’s season). He’s preparing for a chance to post a new career-high. As a result there is no ceiling in sight.

You can no longer know for certain that Mike Stoops has peaked. Last year it was an easy case for the doubters to make. Senior quarterback, experienced offensive line, favorable schedule = the best we’re going to get.

But it wasn’t. And win or lose on Dec. 30 we’re going to spend the offseason wallowing in optimism.

Do we want to win the Holiday Bowl? Of course. We want the Cats to win every single game possible. There is a significant difference between 8-5 with a loss to end the year, and 9-4 riding a three-game winning streak. Beating Ndamukong Suh and Nebraska would allow this team to finish in the top 25 this year and put Arizona in the discussion with Oregon and USC next year. Add in the always-beneficial recruiting momentum and there is a ton to play for in a week and a half.

My point isn’t to try and paint the Holiday Bowl as irrelevant. I just don’t want people to overreact to a potential loss to a ranked team with one of the very best defenses in the nation.

Even if the unthinkable happens and we get blown-out by the Huskers, or even if the unfathomable occurs and a pass bounces off a seagull or something, this has still been a very good year. And it is very important that it was very good.

Arizona Football is free to dream again.

Meaningless.

What is the best way to attack Ndamukong Suh?

Inconsequential.

Will the UA D let up against a struggling offense? Will Nic Grigsby be able to play? Can the special teams win the field position battle?

Not interested, don’t know, don’t care.

Only one question matters as Arizona prepares for the Holiday Bowl.

What are we going to wear?

That’s right, the uniforms. I’m not talking about looking good on TV or trying to impress recruits. I want cold hard facts.

If the Wildcats were the designated home team the answer would be easy: wear blue jerseys. The UA hasn’t lost wearing blue shirts in three full seasons. Since the start of the 2007 campaign Stoops’ troops are 3-0 when wearing blue jerseys and white pants (the Central Michigan and NAU games this year), and an eye-opening 5-0 in Blue-on-Blue (including this year’s Stanford game). I don’t want to hear anyone complaining about the “blueberry” look ever again.

But what about the “lucky” red jerseys? We wore then in the Vegas Bowl and that turned out well, right? True, the Cats were in Red-on-Red for the victory over BYU, but that’s also the combination we wore in last year’s USC and OSU losses and this year’s Oregon heartbreaker. We’ve only gone with Red-on-Blue once the last two years and that was this year’s UCLA win.

(The one potential home combo yet to be used is Blue-on-Red. Could we be waiting to break it out in a key November game next year? It would probably look top-heavy with the blue helmets but, hey, sometimes when you need a little magic you’ve got to play the colors you’re dealt.)

On the road the chromatic schemes get trickier and, of course, Arizona is the designated away team against Nebraska.

My favorite road look, White-on-Red, is on a three-game losing streak. In fact, our two most lopsided losses in the past two years (Oregon in ’08 and Iowa this year) came on the road in red pants. Beauty knows not wins.

White-on-White was even worse, losing five straight games from ’06 to ’08 before finally breaking through against ASU this year. Can we count on another last-minute muff?

That leaves white jerseys and blue pants. This combination has had its ups and downs: 0-3 in 2005 but 3-0 in 2006. It went 1-3 in ’07-08 but bounced back nicely with a 2-1 record in 2009.

So there you have it. My official recommendation of the uniform combination that gives us the best chance of success is White-on-Blue.

It’s the combo we wore when we beat the Beavers in Nick Foles’ first start. It was the uniform in action when we took down USC. It’s hot.

Granted, White-on-Blue is also what we wore in this year’s Washington game.

To be safe, maybe we should change the color of our shoes.

Las Vegas Bowl
#16 Oregon State (8-4) vs. #15 BYU (10-2) – Tue. Dec. 22, 6 p.m. (all times Arizona/Mountain), ESPN
I know this game officially has a new corporate name but I don’t care. It still annoys me that in Arizona Stadium we have a plaque for going to the Sun Bowl in ’69 and ’85 and then a separate plaque for going to the “John Hancock Bowl” in ’92. It’s the same bowl, people!

Anyway, back to the Brigham Young Invitational. In the past four years in Vegas the Cougars have lost to Cal, smoked Oregon, squeaked by UCLA, and been absolutely dismantled by Arizona (OK, we won by ten). How will they fare against the Fly Sweep and the Quizz?

Poinsettia Bowl
Cal (8-4) vs. #23 Utah (9-3) – Wed. Dec. 23, 6 p.m., ESPN
Why is the 6th place bowl played after the 5th place bowl? Why did Cal look so bad against Washington? If the Bears had won they would’ve had nine wins and a great case for the Holiday Bowl. Perhaps the better question is: Where do we send our thank-you cards?

Emerald Bowl
USC (8-4) vs. Boston College (8-4) – Sat. Dec. 26, 6 p.m., ESPN
Cal saved USC from 6th place but the Trojans can’t be happy. The last time USC played in a non-BCS bowl they scored six points against Utah. This year’s team might score that few even if they’re fired up.

EagleBank Bowl
UCLA (6-6) vs. Temple (9-3) – Tue. Dec. 29, 2:30 p.m., ESPN…maybe
Don’t you dare put a space in that name. They should have gone all-out and called it TheEagleBankBowl.

Army has an automatic tie-in to this game so UCLA only gets to play if the Cadets lose to Navy this Saturday. I wonder how the Bruins feel about being EagleBank’s fallback team. Are they just going to put up with it or will they finally stand up for themselves and wait for someone who loves them for who they are?

Holiday Bowl
#22 ARIZONA (8-4) vs. #20 Nebraska (9-4) – Wed. Dec. 30, 6 p.m., ESPN
Can the Wildcats play with the spirit of Chris McAlister and Trung Canidate? The Huskers on the other hand would gladly take Eric Crouch back at quarterback, even at 31 years old.

Nebraska came this close to winning the Big 12 and playing in the Fiesta Bowl. Add in their 16-15 loss to Virginia Tech and 9-7 loss to Iowa State and the Huskers were this close to being 12-1 and possibly playing for a national championship. So, yeah, Arizona better be ready.

Sun Bowl
#19 Stanford (8-4) vs. Oklahoma (7-5) – Thu. Dec. 31, 12 p.m., CBS
Bob Stoops got his wish and won’t have to play his brothers, but he may end up playing the Heisman Trophy winner instead. Big Toby has rushed for at least three touchdowns in each of his last four games and his per-carry average has gone up each of his last five games. I’m very glad to hear him accidentally say he’s leaving early for the NFL.

Rose Bowl
#7 Oregon (10-2) vs. #8 Ohio State (10-2) – Fri. Jan. 1, 2:30 p.m., ABC
The Big Ten hasn’t won this game since the 2000 season. Oregon hasn’t won the Rose Bowl since 1917. The Ducks are also the only team to lose in the Rose Bowl against Harvard. Now you know.

Who do we root for?
This is the time of year when you put rivalries aside and root for your conference cousins. Posting a record similar to last year’s 5-0 would be great for the Pac-10’s national perception.

But I would gladly take 1-6 if that one came on Dec. 30.

[Coming Monday…are you ready for this?...BASKETBALL!]

With comeback #1, Nick Foles has officially arrived.

It was the missing piece from a successful rookie season. He had led the way to securing a bowl bid and put up decent stats but up until this point Foles had failed with the game on the line and the ball in his hands.

If you don’t count the muff drive Nick Foles was 0-3 on potential game-winnings drives in the final four minutes. Down three at Washington (post-foot) with 2:29 on the clock he took a sack with 43 seconds left and threw an interception with 26 seconds left. Down two with 2:06 left at Cal was the Faux Pass. Tied with 1:54 to go at ASU (pre-muff) was a three-and-out.

Throw in the horrid display of offense in the third quarter of the USC game and you’ll have to forgive us for doubting a bit when the final four minutes rolled around.

To say the game-winning drive came out of nowhere would be an insult to nowhere. After taking a 14-7 lead in the second quarter the Cats had five consecutive drives that didn’t even get to midfield. We had 27 yards of offense in the third quarter. That overthrow of C.Gronk on third down was the type of play that can haunt you for months. The game was tied heading into the fourth but it felt like a two-touchdown deficit.

So, naturally, Nick Foles manufactured a 4-minute, 10-play, 80-yard drive to retake the lead. Of course he orchestrated three third-down conversions. Without question he audibled into a fade route and threw the pass perfectly.

That’s what heroes do.

Heroes also don’t let a little pain get in the way. Nick’s Luke Skywalker glove looked twice as big this week. He couldn’t even hand the ball off with his left hand. To top it off Matt Scott wasn’t in uniform due to injury so if Foles had been unable to finish we would’ve had to turn the game over to a guy without a single collegiate pass attempt.

And did I mention all this was on the road against a team that was 48-2 in its last 50 home games?

The defense deserves a lot of credit too. Don’t brush off the fact that we just won two consecutive road games after scoring just 20 and 21 points. No, we weren’t exactly facing Jake Plummer and Matt Leinart but that side of the ball could have folded after the Oregon game and it has instead done just the opposite.

The Arizona defense did not end the USC game by barely holding on. The Cats made quick work of the final Trojan threat. Sack, incomplete, incomplete, incomplete. We only had to sweat for 54 seconds of game time.

(Well, that’s not entirely true. Arizona continues to make up its own click-killing strategies. Taking a knee too soon, calling timeouts, falling down before contact. Someday Mike Stoops will get over that ’04 Washington State game.)

You could argue the ASU game was merely surviving against a bad team, but don’t even try to dismiss this Trojan team as worthless. USC hasn’t been USC! this year but they still went into Columbus and beat the Big Ten champs. They still throttled Cal and beat Oregon State. They were still ranked coming into the game.

They were still ranked. Is there extra significance to Arizona re-entering the top 25 the same week USC’s 130-poll streak ended? We’ll have to wait until the fall of 2010 to find out.

What we do know is the fall of 2009 is officially a success. Even if Nebraska blows us out in the Holiday Bowl (which, for the Huskers, would mean a score like 11-3) this has been a very good season. Anytime you finish with a winning record and beat USC and ASU (both on the road! in back-to-back weeks!) you have to feel good about yourself.

For you fans of the Territorial Cup you’re going to want to write this one down: In the past 50 years the UA has finished a season with twice as many wins as ASU only three times. 1994, 1998, and 2009. Enjoy every second of it.

Enjoy the day Nick Foles became a hero.

Dream of the day he becomes a legend.