The New Mexico Bowl is Matt Scott’s last option.
Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images

The wheels were set in motion to get there when Rich Rodriguez was hired 13 months ago. Four months ago the hope was the Arizona Wildcats could get there this season.

In just a couple more days there will be here.

The Cats are playing in the very first bowl game of the 2012-’13 season. The early date has caused logistical issues for the team and fans but at least the players get some paint out of the deal.

Wait, the New Mexico Bowl sponsor isn’t Glidden, the paint company? Oh, Gildan? What do they do?

[Google break]

Socks? All right then. I hope the players get some cool socks.

Rich Rodriguez has waited six years to hoist a bowl game trophy.
Photo by Marc Serota/Getty Images

RichRod doesn’t have a lot of experience with lower tier bowls. All six of his teams’ postseason appearances at West Virginia were as either the first or second place team in the Big East. He coached in the 2002 Continental Tire Bowl on Dec. 28 but every bowl after that was in January. Even his one bowl game at Michigan, after going 7-5 in 2010, was the Gator Bowl played on New Year’s Day.

The short turnaround makes it more like an extended bye week than a full bowl preparation. The positive is it decreases the chances of the team coming out rusty and it’s less time for the Wildcats to hear how big a favorite they are against Nevada.

The challenge for Rodriguez and his coaching staff is to get their team ready to play its best and not worry about what bowl they’re in and what conference the Wolf Pack is from.

What I really want to see is Matt Scott completing some passes early. The big storyline is obviously the battle between the nation’s top two rushers but Scott hasn’t completed over half his passes in a game since returning from his injury. Scott excelling as a redshirt senior this year was a huge part of the team’s surprising success and it would be great to see him end his college career on a high note.

Challenging Nevada from sideline to sideline with the passing game will also open up running lanes so Ka’Deem Carey can break the long runs needed to win the rushing title.

We took a look at all the backs still in the hunt for that title but on Saturday it’s a two-man race. Arizona’s Carey and Nevada’s Stefphon Jefferson will share the same field with the Wildcat holding a 55-yard advantage.

The Arizona defense gives up 190 rushing yards a game while the Wolf Pack surrenders an average of 213 yards per game on the ground. The race may end up looking like a track meet.

It’s been a topic of conversation for the past month but don’t take it for granted. Arizona has a consensus All-American who is leading the FBS in rushing on a team that was 11th in Pac-12 in rushing last year.

Incredible.

Losing a bowl game is not incredible. I realize it happens to 35 teams each year but it still ruins half your trip. I don’t regret going to either of the UA’s last two bowls but those were not fun rides home. Add in the bad taste of losing the Territorial Cup and the Wildcats could really use one last 2012 victory. Taking a two-game losing streak into the offseason would put a damper on what has otherwise been an excellent first year for RichRod.

A win would mean an 8-5 record (matching Mike Stoops’ best two years) with five victories in the team’s final seven games. That would take the excellent first year and add an exclamation point.

One last game to enjoy and then we start counting down to the start of the second year of the Rich Rodriguez era.

Next stop…Albuquerque!

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Scott Terrell could use some extra socks to stay warm this weekend. Can’t make the trip? Look for reports on Twitter and Facebook!

The ASU defense forced Matt Scott into one too many turnovers.
Photo by Mark J. Rebilas-US PRESSWIRE

Ah, rivalry games.

They really are a season unto themselves. The 2012 Arizona Wildcats football season is absolutely a success considering the preseason expectations and the year could look even better with a bowl victory next month. But Friday’s loss to Arizona State will be another one of those head-shaking defeats that lives on in fans minds.

For UA coach Rich Rodriguez it was his first taste of the unpredictability that is the Territorial Cup but it was a rivalry game result that he has known too well in recent years.

In his post-game press conference RichRod was asked what most disappointed him about the game. He scoffed, looked away, muttered, “Wow!” before facing forward and giving his gruff answer:

“We lost!”

That’s it. It’s all that matters in any game but the bottom line is especially rigid in rivalry showdowns. Wildcat players and fans certainly aren’t happy about losing two of three to the Sun Devils, but Rodriguez has now lost five straight rivalry games spanning three jobs.

Rich Rodriguez’s Last 5 Rivalry Games

The first one on the list is the one that started all the transition in RichRod’s professional life. If the Mountaineers had won that game they would have played for the national championship which would have made it less likely Rodriguez leaves for Michigan which would have eliminated any chance he ends up in Tucson.

While it has been a while since RichRod got to enjoy the good side of local bragging rights, his resume shows that if he gets things going, he’s going to make the other guy suffer. During Rodriguez’s peak run at West Virginia he beat Pitt four out of five years and the average margin of victory in those wins was 20 points.

“We lost!”

It’ll be a fire that burns in this program for the next 12 months.

* * *

The Arizona defense started the game exceptionally well, forcing punts on ASU’s first four possessions. It was the Wildcat offense that struggled, only able to turn those stops into six points. And why six? Because of a missed extra point. That’s right, John Bonano, who had made 74-of-74 career PATs, missed. Against ASU.

Ah, rivalry games.

Arizona ended up with more yards (522 to 460), including almost 300 on the ground, and committed just one penalty. Even after the first two interceptions the Cats were able to take a 10-point lead into the fourth quarter.

Then there was the flurry of activity that had the Arizona Stadium crowd going from comfortable to concerned to panicking in what felt like three minutes.

The obvious turning point was the Matt Scott fumble in the middle of the final period but the tide started shifting two possessions earlier. The Cats had just gotten the Garic Wharton circus catch and Bonano’s sly two-point conversion to take their first second-half lead. On ASU’s next snap the Wildcats recovered a fumble and set up shop on the Sun Devil 24. Three plays later it was 1st-and-goal at the 2. Sparky was quaking in his tights.

But then Daniel Jenkins lost yards on two straight runs, Scott threw an incomplete pass and the Wildcats had to settle for a field goal. Would they have been able to punch it in if Ka’Deem Carey was available? Are things different from that point with a 14-point lead?

The victors get the hardware and the year of boasting. The losers get the what-ifs.

You only need to have been a Wildcat fan for three years to say this isn’t the most painful Territorial Cup loss but it’s always frustrating to know the Sun Devils are doing the “Two Hoe Rock” in the visitors’ locker room.

I have my own personal rivalry slump. The Cats are 1-4 in the last five Territorial Cup games I’ve witnessed from the stands and 2-0 in that span with me sitting at home. If you see me making plans to go to Tempe next year you may want to let the air out of my tires.

* * *

Turning the page. The Wildcats have one more football game this year. When and where will it be? Let’s look at how the possibilities have changed since last week. Assumpitons:

• Oregon (11-1), Stanford (10-2), UCLA (9-3), Oregon State (8-3) and USC (7-5) will all be selected before Arizona. For the sake of this exercise we’ll call them the Fit Four and Overhyped One.
• Oregon will receive an at-large bid to a BCS bowl.

That fills the Pac-12’s contracted bowls from the Rose down to the Sun. Here are Arizona’s slimmed down bowl scenarios from best case to worst:

Las Vegas Bowl – Sat. Dec. 22
The reasoning: Vegas decides it wants Boise State from the Mountain West. The bowl committee really wants a team from the neighboring state of Arizona but it prefers to avoid a rematch of last year’s game so they take the UA.

Fight Hunger Bowl – Sat. Dec. 29
The reasoning: The people of the Bay love the story of RichRod overachieving in his first year back. They want the nation’s leading rusher and the team that beat USC and Oklahoma State and took Stanford to the wire.
The reality: On paper this is actually a less likely destination for Arizona than Vegas. If San Francisco has a choice between ASU and UA it’ll take ASU for the head-to-head win and better conference record. If the options are Washington or Arizona the Hunger Game will most likely take the closer team.

New Mexico Bowl – Sat. Dec. 15
The reasoning: Albuquerque takes the only eligible Pac-12 team left.

The bowl possibilities aren’t as bountiful as they would’ve been if Arizona had finished with an 8-4 record but they’re much better than those of last year’s 4-8.

Keep your Saturdays free in December.

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Scott Terrell is still happy to be going bowling. Join the travel party on Twitter and Facebook.

Matt Scott is preparing for his first and only start against Arizona State.
Photo by Matt Kartozian-US PRESSWIRE

It’s the Arizona Wildcats against the ASU Sun Devils and a weekend full of Pac-12 intrastate rivalries.

Well, it would be a weekend full of the bitterest rivalries in the conference if not for the annoyance of USC and Notre Dame.

TWit-Pac bittersweetly brings you the final regular season TV schedule (all times Arizona/Mountain):

FX got stuck with Colorado again? That’s four consecutive weeks. FX needs to revisit its draft strategy.

To make it worse, every Pac-12 game this weekend involves a team in the BCS top 25 except the game between the new guys. Maybe Larry Scott should’ve grabbed Maryland and Rutgers when he had the chance

Next we take another stab at a Pac-12 bowl mock draft. Remember, this is not a projection of how things will look at the end of the season. This is how I think the bowls would select teams if the season ended today. Teams still have one (or two) chances to win their way up the ladder.

BCS Championship Game – none
Why, Oregon, why? If you see any Duck fans remind them that Arizona scored 34 more points and produced 212 more yards against Stanford than Oregon did. If they counter with something about head-to-head results or conference championships you say, “Well, Arizona has just as many national championships as Oregon, so there.” (You’re kind of childish when you argue.)

Rose Bowl – Stanford (9-2)
As of today the Pac-12 Championship Game would be UCLA at Stanford and I’m going with the home team.

Other BCS Bowl – Oregon (10-1)
Since only two teams from the same conference can play in BCS bowls it means three of those SEC teams in the top 10 are out of luck. It also means Oregon, the highest ranked non-SEC team outside the top two, would most likely get an at-large bid.

Alamo Bowl – UCLA (9-2)
Hollywood glitz beats out the Beaver Believers.

Holiday Bowl – Oregon State (8-2)
OSU would be playing in a San Diego bowl for the first time.

Sun Bowl – USC (7-4)
I wanted to put Arizona here but I think the Sun Bowl people would take the name brand Trojans and hope Matt Barkley heals over the next month.

Las Vegas Bowl – ARIZONA (7-4)
Putting the team from Arizona across the Hoover Dam and…

Fight Hunger – Washington (7-4)
…the team from Seattle in the northernmost Pac-12 bowl just makes sense.

New Mexico – Arizona State (6-5)
Every eligible Pac team finds a home and all the bowl partners get teams. Win and win!

To the last full weekend of games:

Washington (7-4 / 5-3) at WSU (2-9 / 0-8)
Cougar fans can rally around the fact that their 1-10 team in 2008 won the Apple Cup. Of course, Washington finished 0-12 that year. And it’s not a good sign if you’re looking to a one-win team for inspiration. But if Wazzu pulls the upset Arizona has a chance to be the only 8-4 team in the Pac-12 which would be good for bowl positioning.

ASU (6-5 / 4-4) at ARIZONA (7-4 / 4-4)
The five FBS teams Arizona State has beaten have a combined eight wins over FBS teams. And three of those eight wins were against Washington State. Add in Utah beating Cal and half of the FBS wins from ASU’s bad opponents were against ASU’s other bad opponents.

Oregon (10-1 / 7-1) at OSU (8-2 / 6-2)
The Ducks need a win and a Stanford loss to get into the Pac-12 Championship Game. Oregon State, at No. 15 in the BCS standings, still has an outside chance at a BCS bowl.

Stanford (9-2 / 7-1) at UCLA (9-2 / 6-2)
If Oregon loses to clinch a Cardinal/Bruin rematch next week, expect this game to turn into a scrimmage with neither team wanting to show much or get anyone hurt. Thanks for nothing, Notre Dame game.

Notre Dame (11-0) at USC (7-4 / 5-4)
Blah blah national championship implications blah blah. I get that USC has been playing end-of-season games against Notre Dame since the 1920s but there’s a conference championship game now. We don’t need North teams playing South teams on the final weekend. Who wants a game where it’s probably in the Bruins’ best interest to lose on purpose so they don’t have to play Oregon? Move these Notre Dame games to the beginning of the year where non-conference games belong.

You know how far Stanford’s tradition of playing Notre Dame at the end of the season every other year goes back? 1999. And if bowing to the Irish ends up causing the Territorial Cup to be played in October at some point there will be some desert-hot anger.

(Removes keyboard from soapbox.)

Cal (3-9 / 2-7) – season complete
Cal coach Jeff Tedford has already been fired and, unless more skeletons fall out of Mike Leach’s locker, Tedford will be the only Pac-12 coaching casualty this year. Let me be the first to tell Sonny Dykes that Berkeley is full of earthquakes, protestors and lots of other terrifying things so he should take his talents to another conference.

* * *

Red helmets! This does not annoy me. With this brand new look Arizona will have gone the entire regular season without wearing the exact same uniform combination twice. Quite the departure from decades of wearing white-on-blue-on-white.

ASU hasn’t beaten a team whose coach is not in hot water since Utah in September and, as we discussed above, the Sun Devils don’t have a quality win all year.

That does not change my anxiety that this is going to be a close game to the end. Wildcat fans can hope this year’s Territorial Cup is like 2008 where the home team dominated, but the ones you fear are 2005 (UA’s best two offensive players injured), 2006 (UA starts flat against inferior opponent) and 2010 (sheer lunacy).

All year the prediction has been that Arizona needs to score a bunch of points to win and that’s not going to change this week. It’s great that Matt Scott was able to play last week and shake off some rust because the 44% completion rate and measly 160 passing yards he turned in probably won’t cut it in the rivalry game.

Then again, Scott + Carey = SCarey good run game.

Two bowl teams, two new coaches and shiny new helmets for the home team. It’s going to be an exciting time in the Great State of Arizona Friday night.

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Scott Terrell is all about the Cup. Swap smack on Twitter and Facebook.

Where will Austin Hill and the winning-season Wildcats be playing this December?
Photo by Russ Isabella-US PRESSWIRE

This just feels like a really good win.

Arizona takes its 0-3 road record (allowing 56 points per game away from home)…against a desperate team…with a 4-1 home record…on its senior night…in cold, wet conditions…with injured defensive players falling like raindrops…with a rusty, nauseasy quarterback…and Arizona wins.

The victory in Salt Lake City locked up a winning season for the Wildcats and improved the team’s bowl standing. Now the problem is trying to figure out where exactly the Cats will be standing in the postseason.

When you begin thinking about all of Arizona’s bowl possibilities you start to feel like Matt Scott after too much Gatorade and too many running plays. The bowl picture becomes much clearer if you accept the following assumptions:

• Oregon (10-1), Stanford (9-2), Oregon State (8-2) and UCLA (9-2) will all be selected before Arizona. For the sake of this exercise and unnecessary alliteration, we’ll call them the Fit Four.
• Washington will beat Wazzu to finish 8-4.

So if Arizona beats ASU to get to 8-4 the Wildcats will be competing with Washington and USC for bowl position (no matter what the brand-name Trojans do against Notre Dame). It’s also safe to assume that ASU will get selected ahead of Arizona if the Devils beat the Cats and both teams finish 7-5.

The major determining factor in who goes where is whether or not the Pac-12 gets a second team into the BCS bowls. If Stanford beats UCLA to win the North and Oregon beats OSU to finish 11-1, Oregon would be in line for a BCS at-large bid (like the one that put 11-1 Stanford in the Fiesta Bowl last year). The remaining members of the Fit Four would then land in the Rose, Alamo and Holiday Bowls.

If Oregon fades and the Pac-12 only ends up with one BCS team, the Fit Four would occupy the Rose/Alamo/Holiday/Sun and the competition among the middle of the Pac would start there.

Add it up and here are the UA’s bowl scenarios from the best case to the worst:

Sun Bowl – Mon. Dec. 31

Here’s what has to happen for the Wildcats to end up in El Paso:

• Pac-12 gets two BCS bids
• Notre Dame beats USC
• Arizona beats ASU

It’s possible a 7-5 USC team still gets picked over 8-4 Arizona but we’re going to say the Sun Bowl chooses the geographically closer team that has won five of its last six games as opposed to the terribly disappointing team that lost four of its last five.

Las Vegas Bowl – Sat. Dec. 22

There are two ways for the Cats to get back to Vegas for the second time in five years:

• Pac-12 gets two BCS bids
• Sun Bowl selects USC or Washington
• Vegas Bowl takes Arizona over the other one

Or:

• Pac-12 gets one BCS bid
• Vegas Bowl takes Arizona ahead of both USC and Washington

Fight Hunger Bowl – Sat. Dec. 29

Dreaming of December in San Francisco? You want:

• Pac-12 gets two BCS bids
• Sun/Vegas select USC/Washington
• Arizona goes to Fight Hunger

Or:

• Pac-12 gets one BCS bid
• Vegas Bowl selects USC or Washington
• Hunger Game takes Arizona over the other one

New Mexico Bowl – Sat. Dec. 15

The options are:

• Pac-12 gets two BCS bids
• ASU beats Arizona
• Sun/Vegas/Hunger select USC/Washington/ASU
• Arizona is only eligible Pac team left

Or:

• Pac-12 gets one BCS bid
• Arizona beats ASU
• Vegas/Hunger select USC/Washington
• Arizona goes to New Mexico, even with an 8-4 record

Your worst-case scenario:

• Pac-12 gets one BCS bid
• Arizona loses to ASU
• Vegas/Hunger/New Mexico select USC/Washington/ASU
• Arizona gets shipped to a random bowl that needs a team

I have no doubt a seven-win Pac team finds a bowl home somewhere (I also believe a 6-6 ASU squad would still get an invite) but it’ll take one more win to guarantee the Cats stay out west.

As if Wildcat Universe needs any more incentive this week.

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Scott Terrell strains his brain so you don’t have to. Root for the bowl of your choice on Twitter and Facebook.

There will not be a second photo opportunity in 2012.
Photo by Andrew Fielding-US PRESSWIRE

So were you really in love?

That’s what determines how much it hurts after a breakup. Was it a serious relationship that had long-term potential or were you still in the getting-to-know-each-other phase?

The Arizona Wildcats and their fans had a short fling with the concept of a Pac-12 South championship. That relationship came to an embarrassing end at UCLA and the UA may be looking for a new dance partner without its starting quarterback.

Some fans will say they weren’t that into it from the start, that they didn’t take the idea of the Cats running the table seriously, and that’s fine. Some, however, fell head over heels after the USC win and thought, This is the one! Those are the UA fans that will have the hardest time moving past this and getting up for the remaining games.

Me? I was somewhere in the middle. I’m not going to apologize for digging into scenarios that would’ve put Arizona in the Pac-12 Championship Game or beyond. The buildup to the UCLA game was a lot of fun. I’d much rather have things play out exactly like they did as opposed to squeaking by Washington, losing to USC and having a “respectable” loss in Pasadena with nothing at stake.

The stakes have been lowered but there’s still a big milestone right in front of this team. Arizona needs one more win to become bowl eligible so all the focus now needs to be on Colorado. That’s not just a sports cliché because the UA’s worst-case scenario came true with Matt Scott’s injury. We got a glimpse of Life After MARS and it wasn’t pretty.

(Obviously the Hank Hobson scare was the biggest injury. It’s great to hear he was able to leave the hospital on Sunday and fly back to Tucson. But in terms of the rest of this season, Scott taking a knee to the head was a bigger blow than any of UCLA’s 66 points.)

The Wildcats are currently 10th in the nation in total offense. How far does that drop with B.J. Denker, Richard Morrison or even Javelle Allen playing quarterback? I expect those of us in Saturday’s homecoming crowd to find out.

Colorado is 115th out of 120 FBS teams in total defense. But you know who is below CU, allowing 0.67 more yards per game than the Buffaloes? Arizona. I expect Colorado to have a very enthusiastic week of practice.

The Wildcats will be looking to hold onto the hunger after a hefty dose of humility.

Mike Stoops’ rebuilding job gave this program two chances to play as a contender, two opportunities to face the big boys as a peer. In both instances – the 2009 GameDay showdown with Oregon and the 2010 top-15 clash with Stanford – the Cats came up short and it was soon determined Stoops and Arizona Football had irreconcilable differences.

The results of Rich Rodriguez’s first UA game with contender status were shockingly poor. Perhaps when it’s all said and done we’ll look back at this team and see it had no business being on that battle-for-first-place date, like a regular Joe somehow finding himself at dinner with a beauty queen. If that’s the case this year’s wins will be held in higher esteem and the upset of USC will far outweigh the UCLA loss. Or maybe these Cats have three more wins in them and we’ll look back at “L.A. Nights” and wonder what might have been.

Either way I don’t believe for a minute this will be the last time RichRod has Arizona playing a high-stakes game in November, and I expect the program to be ready the next time. It’ll take a lot of work in the weight room, possibly a wardrobe enhancement and definitely a boost to the bank account, but when that next shot at a dream date comes along the Wildcats will be far more charming.

And maybe, just maybe, they’ll be able to seal the deal.

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Scott Terrell is here if you need an Arizona Football shoulder to cry on. Feel the love on Twitter and Facebook.

Arizona stood up to USC. Can Wildcat fans now stand tall?
Photo by Matt Kartozian-US PRESSWIRE

Hello, my name is Scott and I’m an Arizona Football fan.

I knew when Ka’Deem Carey’s first-quarter touchdown run was called back the Wildcats would settle for a field goal. I knew when John Bonano’s second-quarter field goal was called back the retry would be missed. I knew Arizona wouldn’t be able to run out the clock with the lead. And I was right.

I also knew USC would run away with it after taking a 15-point lead. I knew the UA would not build a two-score lead in the fourth quarter. I knew the Cats would find a way to finish off another agonizing defeat. But I was very wrong.

The rehabilitation of wounded Wildcat fans has begun under the watchful eye of Dr. Richard A. Rodriguez.

You can’t blame long-time followers of UA football for expecting the worst. You can understand the collective dread. It’s like Pavlov’s dogs but with missed extra points.

Fumbling while running out the clock. Losing to a 1-8 team at home. Losing on an interception that hit the ground. Losing by throwing two passes on the same play. And that was just under the previous coach.

You want gut-wrenching defeats with history on the line? How about blowing a 20-point lead against Cal in 1993? Or falling 10-9 to Oregon a year later. Do you prefer epic collapses? There’s always the Snafu of ’72.

It takes a lot of work to go 76 years without an outright conference championship. To put it simply: Arizona Football has historically found a way to lose and Wildcat gridiron fans expect it to happen.

Are things now changing? Good stuff is happening in spite of the doubt. Records are falling and another long-time bully just left Tucson with a black eye. Arizona won consecutive games against the two best returning quarterbacks in the Pac-12 because it turns out the best returning QB plays for Arizona.

Is it finally safe to get optimistic?

Two weeks ago there was legitimate fear that RichRod would start 0-6 in conference play. Now the Wildcats are one more good weekend away from becoming the favorite to win the Pac-12 South.

The UCLA game is a crossroads and it’s not the kind we’re used to. Usually the sign says If the Cats lose this game the season is toast. Now it’s If the Cats win this a big fat opportunity smacks them in the face.

Lose and the goal returns to going to a bowl game and posting a winning record, which would still be a fine debut season for RichRod. But…if they win in L.A.? You won’t be able to hide from the possibilities anymore.

And, oh, what possibilities.

Consider this: Arizona wins out. USC, Stanford and Oregon State lose to Oregon. Arizona is competitive in the Pac-12 Championship Game. Arizona, currently No. 22 in the BCS standings, moves into the top 14 (Baylor and Oklahoma both finished in the top 14 with only nine wins last year). Oregon plays for the national championship. Arizona is selected to play in…I still can’t type it…the Nose Hole.

What on that list looks impossible after what we witnessed the last two weeks? Are we past counting out Rich Rodriguez and this group of Wildcats? Can we peek around the corner without the fear of getting hit by a bus?

As RichRod said after the USC win, “We’ve got a long way to go. But the process has started.”

The doctor is in.

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Scott Terrell is an Arizona season-ticket holder and he needs help. Support groups are forming on Twitter and Facebook.

Ka’Dream > Cactus Comet?
Photo by Cary Edmondson-US PRESSWIRE

The bye week gives us a chance to look back on Rich Rodriguez’s first half season as the head football coach at the University of Arizona.

After just six games one thing is certain: no offensive record is safe.

If you don’t like stats you may as well close your browser right now. But if you love sports records – I mean you really love sports records – you have come to the right place.

Wildcat quarterback Matt Scott made waves last week when he broke the 32-year-old Pac-12 record for pass completions in a game. Needless to say, it was also an Arizona record. Here’s the updated top five:

Most Pass Completions, Game

RichRod has Scott flinging the ball all over the place and the senior’s first full half-season as a starter has been enough to land on both the season and career completions lists:

Most Pass Completions, Season

.
Most Pass Completions, Career

Scott’s 400-yard passing day against Stanford was his second of the season and the 15th in Arizona history. He came within nine yards of becoming the second UA QB to throw for 500 yards in a game (there’s that “one more play” theme again).

Most Passing Yards, Game

Scott’s six-game spree has also put him on the career yardage chart:

Most Passing Yards, Career

He’s 248 yards short of the 10th-best passing season and Scott needs just five more passing touchdowns to register on both the season and career top 10.

Rodriguez’s offense has put the ball into lots of people’s hands so no receivers have hit the top-10 lists…yet. Sixty-three receptions get you into the top 10 for a single season and Austin Hill has 42 catches while Dan Buckner has 39 at the midpoint of the year.

The Arizona list of the 10 best pass-catching games is made up of Jeremy McDaniel making 14 grabs against Cal in 1996 and then players catching 12 passes in a game nine different times (Dave Hibbert did it first in 1958 and, most recently, Juron Criner accomplished the feat twice). Hill has an 11-catch game to his credit and Bucker and Johnny Jackson have also had double-figure receptions in a game this year.

Hill leads the team with 608 receiving yards. He only needs 308 more to get into the single season top 10.

As has been discussed, the guy chasing some of the Wildcats’ oldest records is running back Ka’Deem Carey. The sophomore’s 2012 rushing touchdown total is already among the 10 best in school history:

Most Rushing Touchdowns, Season

At this pace Carey will make a serious run the Cactus Comet’s 58-year-old record. Remember what a big deal it was when Willie Tuitama broke the single-season passing TD record that had stood for 42 years? The season rushing touchdown mark has been even more elusive.

(So what you’re telling me is Arizona has had a few struggles over the years on the offensive side of the ball?)

Carey is three rushing TDs away from the career top-10 list and he’s already on this chart:

Most All-Purpose Touchdowns, Game

The Tucson native also has a receiving touchdown to go with his 10 on the ground this year. Here are the only Arizona players to hit paydirt more often in a single season:

Most All-Purpose Touchdowns, Season

Rich Rodriguez has just begun making his mark on the Arizona program but his system has already put a dent in the record book.

This Saturday presents another chance for the Cats to add a positive tally to the most important record of all: the won/loss record.

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Scott Terrell isn’t writing any of these records in computer ink. Track the stats on Twitter and Facebook.

Fourth quarter, up two touchdowns, live ball on the ground…
Photo by Cary Edmondson-US PRESSWIRE

The Arizona Wildcats have been more competitive than expected this season and there are lots of reasons to be optimistic about the future.

But that doesn’t make losses like this any less maddening.

Toledo and South Carolina State were supposed to be wins. One OSU was supposed to be a loss and the other OSU was supposed to be a win. Oregon and Stanford were supposed to be losses.

So the UA’s 3-3 record is exactly what it was projected to be at this point. The Wildcats’ thin defense is struggling as anticipated. The one surprise is the UA offense is better than expected.

Muuuuuuch better.

During the five-game losing streak that cost Mike Stoops his job last year, Arizona averaged 24.6 points and lost by fewer than 10 points just once. This year’s team is averaging 37 points per game against one more ranked team (four) than last year.

An even more relevant way to look at it is to see what other teams have been able to do against the defenses of Oregon State and Stanford:

There isn’t a defensive coordinator in the Pac-12 that isn’t anxious about facing this offense now. Yes, the offensive coordinators are giddy but, again, we knew the D would be challenged. The guys out there are giving their all but we saw this unit finish last in the Pac-12 in 2011.

If you’re thinking this all-offense-all-the-time thing is what always happens when Rich Rodriguez shows up, that would be incorrect. RichRod’s first Michigan team averaged 18.8 points in his first six games and only broke 30 once the entire season. Rodriguez’s first six games at West Virginia produced 18 points a game and the Mountaineers hit 21 points in only three games that year.

Do not miss this part: On Saturday Matt Scott completed more passes in a single game than any quarterback in the history of the Pac-12. The history. More than Matt Leinart, Aaron Rodgers, Carson Palmer, Troy Aikman, John Elway, Dan Fouts, Jim Plunkett and everyone else.

It’s not like Scott did it in garbage time either. He was never trailing by more than one touchdown. Every completion was contested by Stanford’s first-string defense.

(By the way, RichRod and the current staff get some credit for Scott but if I’m a college head coach having any sort of quarterback problems I’m tracking down Frank Scelfo and kidnapping him in the dead of night.)

So the Cats showed an explosive offense for the third time against four ranked teams and the Stanford game was much closer than predicted.

And the loss still hurts. A lot.

Like a lot of fans, I discuss and analyze the game all week and try to set reasonable expectations, but as soon as the ball goes into the air on Saturday I believe my team can win. For three quarters against Stanford it was an exciting college football game with hope for an upset. The first six minutes of the fourth quarter were an example of why we do this sports fanatic stuff.

The final nine minutes were why the non-fans in our lives think we’re crazy.

Would I have gone for the win with 41 seconds left? Yes.

(By the by the way, it’d be great if there was a way for We The People to lock in our armchair opinions before every borderline decision. Then the postgame show could tells us, “Coach X’s decision to go for it on fourth-and-goal sure looks bad now but before the play 73% of viewing fans said they would’ve done the same thing.” Get on that, tech wizards.)

Yes, I would’ve let Scott extend his other Pac-12 record by a couple more pass attempts but that decision won’t haunt me nearly as much as the individual plays that could have changed the outcome. The Drew Terrell (no relation) catch and fumble in the fourth quarter was huge. If the call on the field of an incomplete pass had stood it would have been fourth-and-8 in Stanford territory. Better yet, if the UA defenders had played it like a fumble and took it from Terrell they would’ve had possession near midfield with a 14-point lead.

Then you had Scott failing to connect with Tyler Slavin on third down on the final possession with the lead. Get a fresh set of downs there and you never know. And, of course, there was the fourth-and-9 at the 20 with the Cats up seven.

Any one of those plays could’ve won the game. One play away from 4-2 and RichRod being a guest on every radio show this week. One play away from Matt Scott landing on the national radar in a big way. It doesn’t matter if the point spread is 50, it still stings when a game like this gets away.

So you look to the next game. And the one after that. There are officially no games left where Arizona doesn’t have a chance to win. Washington got blown out by Oregon, just like the Wildcats. USC lost to Stanford, just like the Wildcats. UCLA just got smoked by 1-4 Cal. Colorado and Utah have losing records. Anything goes in the rivalry game.

There could certainly be another Oregon game in there. Or we could be looking at a long string of Oregon State and Stanford games.

The fans need this bye week too. Watch some other teams play (stress-free viewing!) or take a week off from football altogether. Recharge for the second half of the season and dream of scoring one more point than the other guy.

Even if it’s 100 to 99.

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Scott Terrell may need some bigger spreadsheets. Double check his math on Twitter and Facebook.

Arizona’s good breaks went bad against Oregon State.
Photo by Rick Scuteri-US PRESSWIRE

At first glance the Arizona Wildcats’ three-point loss to Oregon State is merely the balancing out of the early-season upset of Oklahoma State. You were one game ahead of schedule at the beginning of the month, now you’re back to even as the month comes to a close.

Stay the course, stay on pace and get yourself a bowl game.

The problem is the course has gotten tougher and the Cats are on pace to challenge injury records. The team is getting thinner and the schedule is getting stouter.

We The People knew there would be ups and downs with the coaching transition. We haven’t forgotten this team finished 4-8 last year. But the hope was to sneak in a bowl bid with eight home games and a senior quarterback before the real roster reconstruction got underway.

Last year’s Wildcats didn’t make the postseason because they lost to 3-9 Oregon State and 3-10 Colorado. This year’s Beaver team certainly won’t be 3-9 so losing to OSU isn’t damaging in and of itself. The concern is there don’t appear to be any bad teams replacing OSU in the Pac-12 this year, at least not on Arizona’s schedule.

Cal got handled easily at home by ASU, and Washington State has already lost to Colorado. It’s not hard to argue the two worst teams in the conference are the two teams the UA doesn’t play.

When we were all looking at the schedule before the season we certainly weren’t expecting to see six straight games against ranked teams. At the very least it has to be a record for number of times playing the No. 18 team in a single season.

A revitalized Pac-12 with half its membership in the polls is great for the conference but bad for an undermanned team trying to hold things together with athletic tape. Lots of athletic tape.

I was calling for Matt Scott to run the ball more but, sure enough, the first time he takes off against Oregon State (for a 21-yard gain on third down in the second half) he hurts his ankle. Even if he was 100% healthy after the Oregon game it’s even clearer that the injury risk is too great to run the option portion of the read-option offense this year.

All the more reason to be impressed with Scott’s 403 yards passing on Saturday (and all the more reason to be excited about seeing Rich Rodriguez’s system when his team is deep enough to attack teams with a mobile quarterback).

Then you had safety Jared Tevis’ ankle bending like a chalupa and center Kyle Quinn unable to finish the game due to a leg injury. And that’s on top of three other banged-up starters who missed the game entirely. From that perspective it’s impressive the UA held the lead with 70 seconds left.

There are no moral victories when you’re trying to scratch out six wins but these Wildcats have proven they don’t quit. Down 14-0 to Oklahoma State they storm back to take a 30-14 lead. Down 17-0 to the Beavers they rally for a 21-17 advantage. That no-deficit-is-too-big mentality (What Oregon game?) will come in handy if the team finds itself with a record of 3-3…or 3-6.

What’s frustrating about this loss is the Cats burned a large number of breaks and still didn’t get the win. How often does your backup center catch a pass on a fourth-quarter scoring drive? Then you throw in the two pass interference calls in the red zone and the fumble scrum that looked like the end of a Monday Night Football game and the Beavers could’ve been thinking, This just isn’t our night. Yet they ended up at In-N-Out anyway.

The copper topper was Richard Morrison taking a big break – OSU DB Jordan Poyer missing an interception and tipping the ball right to Morrison – and turning it into a bigger break for Oregon State by bobbling it right back to a diving Poyer. That was the moment when Wildcat Universe felt its own cheeseburgers slipping away.

Stay the course. Arizona didn’t quit against Oregon State and it’s not going to quit on the season no matter how many players go down or how many ranked teams line up. What do you do when you lose the MIGY (Most Important Game of the Year)?

You set a new MIGY and try to come back.

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Scott Terrell is not a fan of injuries. Heal up on Twitter and Facebook.

Mannion’s Minions beat two ranked teams to become a ranked team.
Photo by Jaime Valdez-US PRESSWIRE

Wait, we’re already a handful of weeks into the 2012 college football season? Why does the summer take eight months while the fall flies by?

It’s sad but true. Most teams are already a third of the way through their schedule. Embrace the football!

The Pac-12 digs deeper into conference play with no battles between ranked teams (there are only two such games nationwide). What does the bowl picture look like and have the Arizona Wildcats had success wearing new helmets?

But first the TWit-Pac TV schedule (all times Arizona/Pacific):

Here is an early look at how the Pac-12 stacks up in terms of bowl chances:

I put them in order of likelihood to win at least six games based on current record and remaining schedule. The top four teams look strong due to quality of talent and/or remaining home games.

Of the middle four, UCLA and Washington rank highest because of the strength of the teams they miss. Arizona is slotted ahead of ASU because of the extra home games.

It looks like you draw the bowl eligibility line either above or below Utah. The Utes have the easiest Pac-12 schedule but with their struggles on offense I don’t see them beating USC or winning on the road against UCLA, OSU or Washington. That means it’ll come down to beating both Cal and Arizona at home.

Poor Cal and Col. They’re each 1-3 and don’t even get to play each other.

Will the deck get shuffled after this week? On we go!

Stanford (3-0 / 1-0) at Washington (2-1 / 0-0)
The Huskies came into the season as the favorite to claim the title of Pac-12 Breakout Team but they fell off the radar after being flattened by an LSU tornado (tornadeaux?). This is a great chance for Washington to climb back into the spotlight as they face the favorite to claim the title of Pac-12 Team That Has Been Good for a While but Is Still Better than We Thought This Year.

ASU (3-1 / 1-0) at Cal (1-3 / 0-1)
A starting quarterback! A starting quarterback!! It might only be Zach Maynard but he may as well be Aaron Rodgers compared to the guys Arizona State has faced thus far.

UCLA (3-1 / 0-1) at Colorado (1-3 / 1-0)
The Bruins looked very impressive in sweeping their non-conference games only to lose their Pac-12 opener at home. The Buffaloes looked awful in dropping every non-league game then opened conference play with a road win. This game is silly sometimes.

OSU (2-0 / 1-0) at ARIZONA (3-1 / 0-1)
Team In-N-Out is the current owner of Pac-12 Breakout status. Not bad for a group picked to finish last in the North division. After the Beavers’ first two wins maybe it’s a good thing the Wildcats aren’t ranked this week.

Oregon (4-0 / 1-0) at WSU (2-2 / 0-1)
The new worst team in the Pac-12 takes on the three-time defending best in Seattle. You may have heard about the most recent game at CenturyLink Field.

USC (3-1 / 1-1) – bye
Utah (2-2 / 0-1) – bye
The Trojans and Utes are resting up in preparation for next week’s Thursday night game. Last year’s Utah/USC matchup came down to a failed kick. Utah’s last home game came down to a failed kick. If you let it come down to a kick you have failed.

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Quick, when’s the last time you saw the Wildcats beat Oregon State at Arizona Stadium?

If you’re having trouble recalling it’s because it hasn’t happened since 1997.

The Beavers are in the middle of a five-out-of-six and 11-of-13 run against the UA. That’s a bad trend.

Arizona’s inability to finish drives is also officially a trend. The Cats’ four red-zone possessions against Toledo in regulation resulted in a field goal, a fumble and two missed field goals. The Wildcats went eight-for-eight in red-zone opportunities against Oklahoma State but three of the first four were field goals. And then…Oregon.

So if you take the first four red-zone trips against each of the UA’s three FBS opponents you have one whole touchdown. The others consisted of four field goals, four failed field goals, two turnovers and one failed fourth-down attempt. Trouble inside the 20 was expected with last year’s pass-heavy offense but the hope was Rich Rodriguez’s famous rushing attack would alleviate it.

The thing to remember is this isn’t RichRod’s famous rushing attack yet. The Arizona offense is still slanted toward the pass with 486 more yards through the air than on the ground. The Wildcats, in fact, are 11th in the nation in passing yards.

In time Rodriguez will build up the running game but for right now? If you can’t power into the end zone you have to quick into the end zone and that means Matt Scott being a true dual-threat quarterback on the goal line. Stretch the defense out and if no one is open, tuck it and head for paydirt.

That’s a lot of pressure to put on one guy – especially one banged-up guy – but that’s the situation with the 2012 Wildcats. For this team to be successful Matt Scott needs to be healthy and he needs to be Arizona’s best player.

* * *

So what else is new?

Oh. Hello, copper.

Arizona has had mixed results recently when debuting new helmets. The blue helmets got a win against NAU in Mike Stoops’ first game but then proceeded to lose seven straight. Everyone remembers the debacle that was the plain white helmets in the 2009 Holiday Bowl.

The most successful helmet tweak was the addition of the fading stripes on the white helmets in 2010. The Cats beat Toledo by 39 in them en route to a 4-0 and 7-1 start.

The first time wearing the white-on-white-on-white uniform combination worked just as well for RichRod (49-0) as it did for Stoops (33-0). Stoops ended up with an 0-3 record using the all-whites. Tim Kish, on the other hand, went undefeated with them, beating ASU last year.

I am 100% in favor of breaking out the copper helmets this week. It’s a challenging yet winnable game (unlike, for example, wearing them for a game like last week). Arizona’s season may be at a crossroads. If this provides even the smallest spark among the players and fans it’s worth it.

The Copper Cats are mining for a big victory.

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Scott Terrell likes shiny things. Get from-the-stands thoughts on Twitter and Facebook.