Ka’Deem Carey and the Cats got some revenge on the big bad Cowboys.
Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images

The Arizona Wildcats’ victory over Oklahoma State wasn’t just another college football upset.

For Wildcat fans it was turning the tables on a bully, and another big reason to believe Rich Rodriguez can be the man who brings peace to the UA’s troubled football neighborhood.

Those who haven’t been emotionally invested in this program the last few years won’t understand the magnitude of this win. To the casual observer it was an unranked team playing well at home and beating a middle-ranked team with a rookie quarterback. Not earth-shattering in and of itself. If the Wildcats and Cowboys played again next week Arizona would be the ranked team trying to avoid an upset.

What made this much bigger than simply beating the No. 18 team in the country was how lopsided the previous two Cat/Poke games were. Last week the UA players said this one was personal, and for good reason.

It was personal to those who made the long trip to the Alamo Bowl in 2010, only to be swallowed up by a sea of orange. It was the second round of thrashing nine months later, proving that the UA swoon that ended ’10 was alive and well in ’11.

It was the arm-waving thing OK State fans do after every score, a gesture their elite team allowed them to do over and over and over again the past two seasons. It was uncomfortable stares from this guy.

I have no ill will toward any Cowboy fans. I’ll be rooting for Oklahoma State the rest of the year. It would be nice if OSU didn’t make like 2010 Iowa and sputter after losing to Arizona so this win maintains its national significance as the season goes on.

But even if this year’s Cowboys turn out to be mortal they sure didn’t look it on the first two possessions at Arizona Stadium. Seven minutes and 10 seconds into the game OSU’s run of dominance over the boys from Tucson had extended to an 87-24 scoring margin over 8.5 quarters of football.

Wes Lunt looked like Brandon Weeden‘s son (age-wise it might be possible) and it looked like it was going to be another long night of arm-waving. It looked like the bully had gotten the lunch money again, this time in the scrawny kid’s own backyard.

Winning this game makes 2011 seem worlds away. Just two games in, RichRod has provided hope that old scores will be settled. Maybe not this year, but you can envision a time when the books will start to be balanced against Pac-12 bullies like Oregon (15-3 vs. Arizona since 1993) and USC (9-1 against the UA since 2000).

When one giant falls you stand a little taller as you face the next one.

* * *

Saturday was a night of celebration for the fans…but not too much celebration.

There was surprise when the official attendance was announced as only 45,602. We discussed crowd challenges last week so I won’t focus on the 6,000 who weren’t there. The 45,000 who did attend this week’s game were very loud, very involved and very rewarded at the contest’s end.

They were also, however, very confined to the seating area.

I cannot tell a lie: I was jealous of Oregon State fans rushing the field after their big upset win over Wisconsin. Look, I understand the need for safety. I realize the importance of preventing fans from emptying the stands before the end of a game that wasn’t even won. But there has to be a happy medium somewhere.

Maybe it could be like retiring jerseys where there are strict requirements that have to be met. Beating a 5-6 ASU team? A small army of cops rings the field. Losing the game? Army and a couple tanks. Beat a top-10 team? The officers take a strategically-timed break and the gates to the ZonaZoo are left open.

Trouncing your tormentor, the reigning champion of a major conference? The Beavers had the right idea.

* * *

The bulk of the accolades will go to Ka’Deem Carey, Jonathan McKnight, Matt Scott, Jared Tevis and Jake Fischer but I don’t want to be one of those people who only mention the kicker when he misses. John Bonano brushed off the Week 1 mishaps and made 92 yards worth of field goals and all six extra point tries without incident. They weren’t game-winners but any one of them would’ve killed momentum.

The Wildcat kicker beat up his own bully Saturday night.

- – - – -

Scott Terrell ran out of lunch money a long time ago. Stand up for yourself on Twitter and Facebook.

The Wildcats will try to get the “rivalry” with OSU turned upside down.
Photo by Richard Rowe-US PRESSWIRE

Three Pac-12 football teams lost on opening weekend. That might be considered a good result this week as the overall level of competition goes from cupcake to shark steak.

Here is your TV schedule and rapid-fire preview!

TWit-Pac on your television (all times Arizona/Pacific):

Now we see the hole in the “Every game will be on TV!” proclamation. Three games are scheduled to start at noon Pacific on Saturday and all will be carried by the Pac-12 Networks. Which game will you get if you live outside Washington, Colorado/Utah or northern California? It’s like Russian roulette where the bullet is a game featuring Sacramento State.

Utah (1-0) at Utah State (1-0)
The two oldest rivalries involving Pac-12 schools date back to 1892. One is Stanford/Cal. The other is this one, with the Utes holding a 77-28-4 edge over the Aggies across 120 years.

Eastern Washington (1-0) at WSU (0-1)
Uh oh, Mike Leach. EWU has posted a winning season in 12 of the last 13 years; the program you inherited hasn’t had a winning season in eight years. The Eagles beat an FBS team last week while your team got knocked around at BYU. Shiver your timbers.

Sacramento State (0-1) at Colorado (0-1)
The Just What the Doctor Ordered Bowl, part I. Colorado was humbled last week by in-state rival Colorado State and the Buffaloes have two straight away games after this one. CU is very happy to welcome a Sac State squad that got beat by 30 at New Mexico State.

Southern Utah (0-1) at Cal (0-1)
The Just What the Doctor Ordered Bowl, part II. Jeff Tedford’s seat was warm before the season, it got hotter after losing at home to Nevada and it might heat up to Mike Stoops level after road trips to Ohio State and USC. The Bears need to go Oklahoma State on Southern Utah.

USC (1-0) at Syracuse (0-1)
This game will be at MetLife Stadium, home of the NFL’s Giants, which may be good news for the Orange who had a giant disappointment in their season opener. Syracuse erased a 22-point second-half lead against Northwestern in the Carrier Dome only to surrender the game-losing touchdown with 44 seconds left. The only adversity facing the Trojans is being ranked No. 2 instead of No. 1

Wisconsin (1-0) at OSU (0-0)
The Beavers had their warm-up game blown away by a hurricane, which probably increases their chances of getting blown out against the top-15 Badgers.

Fresno State (1-0) at Oregon (1-0)
FSU put up 37 points in beating Weber State last week. The Bulldogs may need twice that to keep up with the Ducks.

Washington (1-0) at LSU (1-0)
In a week where there isn’t a single game between two ranked teams this one stands out. If the Huskies somehow pull it off, every team in the SEC will bring its own tiger to practice. Rich Rodriguez might go out and capture some ducks or dig up some dead guys from Troy.

Nebraska (1-0) at UCLA (1-0)
After meeting six times in a 12-year span in the ‘80s and ‘90s, this is the first Bruin/Husker showdown in 18 years, or three Rick Neuheisel jobs ago.

Oklahoma State (1-0) at ARIZONA (1-0)
I was tempted to list the Cowboys’ record as 1.5-0 after they scored 84 points last week.

Illinois (1-0) at ASU (1-0)
With a road trip to Missouri still to come this is the Toledo portion of Arizona State’s schedule. Except the part where Toledo won nine games last year while Illinois ended the regular season on a six-game losing streak.

Duke (1-0) at Stanford (1-0)
Who do you want to play after barely beating San Jose State at home? How about a Duke program that is 1-0 for just the third time in the past ten years? Better yet for Stanford, the Blue Devils haven’t gotten to 2-0 since 1998.

* * *

The Wildcats are preparing for the third game in their home-and-home-and-bowl series with Oklahoma State. In a competitively perfect world the teams would’ve split the first two meetings but the Cowboys have had their way to the tune of 73-24.

Talking about Arizona this week OSU wide receiver Isaiah Anderson said, “It almost feels like we are establishing a new rivalry with them.” True, like lions have a rivalry with wildebeests.

The one advantage the wildebeests have this week is the element of surprise. RichRod hasn’t lost to Oklahoma State. Matt Scott hasn’t lost to Oklahoma State as a starter. The Arizona program hasn’t lost to Oklahoma State in Tucson since 1932.

OSU is replacing two first-round draft picks on offense but this is year eight of the program’s revival under coach Mike Gundy, with the helping hand (and wallet) of billionaire T. Boone Pickens.

They say money can’t buy happiness but when you look at the before and after portraits of Oklahoma State and Oregon, it sure can buy a lot of college football victories.

Now where did I put my billion dollars?

- – - – -

Scott Terrell is making a difference one end-zone ticket at a time. Make your contributions on Twitter and Facebook.

Is Mike Stoops' kung fu weakening?
Photo by Chris Morrison-US PRESSWIRE

“All of a sudden we’re no good? I don’t buy that. We haven’t lost a home game by more than seven points in three years.”

Those were the words of Mike Stoops in August. The Arizona Wildcats are about to put them to the test in a big way.

It’s a valid indicator. People may complain about “moral victories” but margin of defeat is a legitimate way to measure progress. That was Stoops’ point before the season.

The problem is the current margins are showing regress.

To look for trends I examined Arizona’s scores against teams that finished the year in the AP Top 25. So, for example, last year’s win against an Iowa team that ended up unranked isn’t included.

To establish a baseline (i.e., rock bottom) here are the scores from the John Mackovic era:

Forget moral victories; those are some immoral defeats.

Now for the scores under Rebuilding Stoops:

Similar totals on offense but significant improvement on the defensive side. On to Average Stoops:

A decrease in point production but another step forward on D to get the margins even closer. Here are the Good Stoops numbers from the two eight-win seasons:

Now the offense gets going to make up for a step back on defense.

You’ll notice one of those scores is not like the others. If you use logic and split things before the Holiday Bowl the good averages change to 25.1 points for, and 25.8 points against. A program appears to be on the cusp of the Top 25 when it can play the Top 25 even.

But the UA has backed off the cusp significantly. Are we back to Average Stoops?

If you look at the raw scores “Average” is generous. The margins are eerily Mackovician.

To be fair the Cats didn’t get a chance to play anyone ranked in the 20s last year. But Average Stoops had a seven-point road loss to #3 USC in 2007 and Good Stoops had a seven-point home loss to #3 USC in 2008 and a 10-point road loss to #7 Iowa in 2009.

Another caveat is the last five games against ranked teams were all away from home. That’s where the above quote comes in and why it’ll be very interesting to see how the Wildcats perform against Stanford at Arizona Stadium this Saturday.

It’s also worth noting that even if the current ugly streak extends to seven games, the last six blowouts will be against the same three teams. Maybe the moral of the story is don’t schedule Oklahoma State anymore (thanks, Jim Click), and be glad Oregon and Stanford are in the Pac-12 North.

The numbers suggest the end of the 2009 regular season was a turning point. What happened between then and the Nebraska game? Defensive coordinator Mark Stoops took another job and offensive coordinator Sonny Dykes ended up leaving to become a head coach. Maybe it’s just that simple. Paging Dr. Anae?

Injuries also can’t be ignored when it comes to the most recent shellacking. If the Cats play a ranked team in the back half of the schedule (ASU?) will they have better results with a few extra starters back?

Blowout losses don’t change anything about this year’s goals. Last year’s Washington squad lost games by 35, 30 (to Arizona), 41 and 37, yet the Huskies still went to a bowl game and won it. So the UA fan motto remains:

“I will not give up on this team before the Oregon State game.”

But long term? People can make Is he the guy? decisions any time they want, and numbers like this are making it easier for folks to answer that question in the negative.

For the record, I have not reached my big-picture conclusion with Mike Stoops. The plan is to judge this entire season when it is complete and then survey the landscape.

Between now and then? The fewer blowouts the better.

Related:

Arizona’s loss to Oklahoma State another example of failing to compete

- – - – -

Scott Terrell hopes for happier math in the future. Cheer up your calculator on Twitter and Facebook.

The Cats will be facing Orange Power without a powerful weapon.
Photo by Matt Strasen-US PRESSWIRE

It’s the shortest possible game week for Arizona fans, a Thursday game following a three-day weekend. On just the third day of the work week the Wildcats are in Stillwater to take on the Oklahoma State Cowboys.

Well, most of the Wildcats anyway.

The UA will not have Juron Criner for today’s game. As a result the video intro has changed for next week’s home game and I got a sneak peek:

[Envision smoke and dark, ominous music]

2,054 receiving yards… [Clip of Criner beating USC in 2009]

22 touchdowns… [Criner beating Cal last year]

151 yards and a touchdown on Saturday… [NAU highlights]

…mystery illness on Monday.

This… [Willie Tuitama speaking (with a concussion)]

This… [GRONK! speaking (with mono and a broken back)]

THIS… [Mike Stoops speaking (with tears in his eyes)]

…is Arizona Football.

[And cue the fireworks]

TWIT-Pac trudges on with this week’s TV schedule (all times Arizona/Pacific):

ARIZONA (1-0) at Oklahoma State (1-0)
Just two games ago things did not go well for Stoops and the Wildcats. Has enough changed since then? Besides one less Juron Criner playing?

Missouri (1-0) at ASU (1-0)
The Tigers are ranked but Arizona State is the big favorite. Ironically, Sun Devil fans are having trouble understanding how the sun works.

OSU (0-1) at Wisconsin (1-0)
Loss to an FCS team, quarterback controversy, star player still injured. Not the best time to visit the #8 team in the land.

Cal (1-0) at Colorado (0-1)
The first Pac-12 game ever is not a Pac-12 game, as the Bears and Buffs are finishing up a non-conference home-and-home series. Colorado didn’t get the memo that the round-robin schedule is over.

Nevada (0-0) at Oregon (0-1)
The Wolfpack is so fired up they took a bye week before their first game. They’ll probably need the rest after the Ducks are done piling up frustration touchdowns.

Hawaiʻi (1-0) at Washington (1-0)
The Warriors are trying to go to 2-0 in Pac-12 play. The Huskies are hoping Hawaiʻi isn’t as good as Eastern Washington.

Stanford (1-0) at Duke (0-1)
This would be one heck of a women’s basketball game. Just for fun…

Who do Wildcat fans want to win?
Stanford. Because they’re not Duke.

UNLV (0-1) at WSU (1-0)
The Cougars scored 64 points last week. The Rebels gave up 51 points. I’m going to say Wazzu wins by 115.

Utah (1-0) at USC (1-0)
Here is the first ever Pac-12 conference game, for real.

Who do Wildcat fans want to win?
USC. 1) The ineligible Trojans’ can’t win the Pac-12 South. 2) If the Utes survive this one there’s a legit chance they come to Tucson in November with a 5-0 league record. Shouldn’t the new guys have to suffer at least a little?

San Jose State (0-1) at UCLA (0-1)
The only matchup of 0-1 teams on the board. If the Bruins don’t win this one Rick Neuheisel won’t make it to October.

- – -

This is the start of Arizona’s four-week exercise in extreme patience. If the Cats win you get to dance in the streets. If they lose you have to tell yourself, “I will not give up on this team before the Oregon State game.”

And beware of mystery illnesses.

- – - – -

Scott Terrell is already checking his temperature. Say “ah” on Twitter and Facebook.

UA optimism flew the coop a while ago.
Photo by Chris Morrison/US Presswire

This is the biggest bowl game of Mike Stoops’ career.

Was that dramatic enough for you?

The thing is…it’s true.

The 2008 Vegas Bowl was a celebration. The Arizona Wildcats’ decade-long bowl drought was over. A three-year losing streak to ASU had ended. Wildcat Universe would’ve quickly gotten over a loss to a strong BYU team.

Last year’s Holiday Bowl was dessert on an already-tasty cake. The 2009 season was a success. Finishing tied for 2nd with a new starting quarterback posting road wins against USC and ASU gave UA fans every reason to be optimistic about 2010 no matter what happened in San Diego.

This year? Optimism skipped town a couple months ago.

It’s easy to argue the season is already a major disappointment and the bowl game doesn’t matter. Losing conference record. Three home losses. The two biggest blowout Pac-10 losses in four years. An I-can’t-believe-what-I-just-saw loss in the Territorial Cup game.

One win over a Big 12 team doesn’t erase five Pac-10 losses, but it would help a lot. Think of it this way: If Arizona wins its home games and goes 10-2 where do the Wildcats play? The Alamo Bowl. So even if the journey up to this point has been a bunch of valleys the Cats can still finish on a peak.

Now the question is: How?

It’s one thing to say this is a huge game, or go so far as to stomp your feet and call it “must-win” but that doesn’t change the fact that the UA is a sizable underdog.

The main reason (besides Arizona having 2.5 times the losses of Oklahoma State) is the Cowboys lead the nation in total offense. Let me repeat that: THIS OFFENSE IS BETTER THAN OREGON’S.

Receiver Justin Blackmon had at least 100 yards and a touchdown in every game he played. Running back Kendall Hunter has two 1,500-yard seasons. Quarterback Brandon Weeden has more touchdowns than his age, and he’s 27 years old!

In order for Arizona to compete in this game – at the absolute minimum – Nick Foles has to be incredible. We’re talking something in the neighborhood of 400 passing yards and four touchdowns.

There was more than enough blame to go around against Nebraska last year but Foles set the tone with his horrible throw on the opening series. Facing 3rd-and-10 he badly underthrew a fade that resulted in an easy interception which led to an easy touchdown which led to a long wet night for the Wildcat faithful. The QB from Texas needs to start fast, finish fast and be very fast in between.

Everyone else on the UA side needs to make the plays that present themselves. If the ball hits Terrence Miller’s hands down the middle of the field he needs to catch it. If the ball lands in Joe Perkins’ arms he needs to grab it. If somebody gets a shot at Weeden he needs to bring him down on first contact.

That’s how the Cats hung with Oregon for most of three quarters: playing boldly, making big hits and forcing turnovers.

The goal is to get to the end of the game with the ball in Nick Foles’ hands with a chance to win.

Just make sure you’re only down five this time.

- – -

With the unveiling of this year’s bowl uniforms it appears as if Mike Stoops stumbled across last year’s advice. Blue-on-blue-on-white gives Arizona the best chance to win. The numbers don’t lie:

Arizona’s record under Mike Stoops…by color

- – -

Can’t make it to the Alamo Bowl? Ride shotgun here for all 1,736 miles from Tucson to San Antonio and back.

That’s right: shotgun. The cheap-seats lifestyle includes the open road, sleeping on couches, and tickets closer to the top of the dome than the field.

But we wouldn’t have it any other way.

- – - – -

Scott Terrell probably doesn’t know what he’s getting himself into. Get updates from mile after glorious mile on Twitter.

Where were you five years ago?

If you’re not sure let me give you a one-word clue:

Illinois.

Yes, that game, five years ago this past Friday. Even if you weren’t in Illinois you know exactly where you were and how you felt. We didn’t know it at the time but we were witnessing even more than a monumental comeback/collapse.

It was the day the Lute Olson Era died.

You can point to Lute’s failing health and a dip in recruiting as the technical causes for the slide at the end of Coach Olson’s tenure but this game was the axis-shifting moment. If missing the tournament in 2010 was rock bottom, the 2005 Illinois game was the ship hitting the iceberg.

Women and children first!
Photo by Francisco Medina/Tucson Citizen

The 2005 Wildcats were really good. Thirty wins for only the third time under Lute. An 11th Pac-10 championship. An NCAA tournament seed of 4 or better for the 16th time in 18 years. A fourth Sweet 16 in five years and the seventh in 10 years.

All gone, and none of it has been back since.

To commemorate the anniversary I did something for the entire Wildcat Universe. I rewatched the game. That’s right, from start to agonizing finish, I watched so you don’t have to. I hope you never see it again, or at least not until we’re celebrating the fifth anniversary of Sean Miller’s fifth national championship.

(But if you really want to be a punishment glutton, here you go.)

I started with the end of the Oklahoma State game to remind me how close we were to missing the Elite Eight entirely. The chalk said the ‘05 run should have ended right there. The 3-seed battles hard but loses to the 2-seed. No shame there. But Salim Stoudamire had other ideas.

The brooding lefty with the wild hair was incredible in the final five minutes. He scored 10 of the Cats’ final 15 points without a miss. Stoudamire’s game-winner would make the short list of greatest moments in UA sports history if it didn’t take place two days before the absolute worst moment.

Let’s reset the scene. Rosemont, Illinois, just outside Chicago, a mere 153 miles from the University of Illinois campus. The Illini were 35-1 and the arena was packed with loud people wearing orange.

The game went back and forth early. Illinois eventually built a seven-point first-half lead, but the Cats cut it to two before halftime behind the inside/outside play of Channing Frye, Hassan Adams and Ivan Radenovic. Salim Stouramire was struggling, going 0-for-4 from the floor.

Bill Murray got a lot of camera time, rooting for the home team. Now his son is on the Arizona staff and Bill’s on our side. So we got that going for us, which is nice.

Dick Enberg and Jay Bilas were calling the game for CBS and as the second half progressed it was eerie seeing how prophetic they were. “Arizona’s gotta be stronger with the ball,” Nostradabilas said with 13 minutes left. “Those traps are bothering the Wildcats.”

With about eight and a half minutes left Bilas said, “He (Jawann McClellan) got fouled,” to which Enberg replied, “They’re letting them go.”

Channing Frye hit a 3 with six minutes left to push the lead to 12. His final line: 24 points, 12 rebounds, 6 blocks. It was such a joy to watch Channing develop for four years. It’s great to see him finding pro success with the Suns.

With 4:04 left, McClellan made two free throws to make it 75-60 in favor of the Cats. Right about this time my friend looks at me and says, “We’re going to the Final Four!” Never, ever turn your back on Arizona Athletics.

A turnover in the frontcourt with 12 seconds left on the shot clock lets Illinois cut the lead to seven with 1:25 left. With 48 seconds left 90% shooter Stoudamire passes to Mustafa Shakur near midcourt only to see Shakur get stripped. The subsequent inbounds pass to Frye becomes the freeze-frame image for the referee-blaming segment of UA fans.

At this point the Wildcats are clearly shell-shocked and logic goes out the window. On the final possession of regulation with the score tied Salim dribbles down the clock up top like he always did but then he passes to McClellan for the last shot. I don’t care if you’re 2-for-37. That’s your shot.

The final 11.8 seconds of overtime were equally puzzling. Arizona is only down one and still has a chance to pull out the win. The ball is inbounded to Shakur who passes to Adams on the right wing. Salim stands on the left perimeter and doesn’t move. Channing walks down to the left block and doesn’t move. Hassan doesn’t make his move until there are three seconds left and he has to force up an off-balance shot from the top of the key that bounces off the backboard like it was fired by a catapult.

And then the Wildcat world stopped breathing. As fans it took a long time to get over. As a program we’re still trying to dig our way out.

But for the first time in five years we have hope.

In Derrick Williams we have a big man who has the potential to rival Channing Frye’s production. In MoMo Jones we have a budding leader with a flair for the dramatic. But most importantly we have in Sean Miller a coach who has proven he can build conference champions and win games in March.

Where were we five years ago? In a dark, dark place.

Where will we be in five years?

Don’t turn your back on Arizona Athletics.