Matt Scott and the Wildcats landed safely at 7-1.
Photo by Kelvin Kuo/US Presswire

The Arizona Wildcats football team is trap-free in 2010.

By hanging on against UCLA the UA survived its final letdown opportunity. The four biggest games are here and each one has built-in motivation.

Stanford and Oregon are highly ranked. ASU is the rivalry game. USC still has the Greek guy on its helmets and decades of winning. If you can’t get excited for these games you don’t like college football. You probably don’t enjoy things like water and oxygen either.

In order to maintain the bigness of the Stanford game Arizona had to beat the Bruins. Four quarters and a lot of guts later the job was done.

You won’t see me saying anything negative about Matt Scott’s performance. The Cats don’t have a lead to hold on to without Scott’s tremendous effort over the first two-and-a-half quarters. He looked good throwing, he looked strong running and he looked like Houdini in the backfield.

The season could have fallen apart when Nick Foles went down. We could be talking about Arizona having zero momentum and needing a couple more wins to make the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl. Thanks to guys like Scott, Shaquille Richardson and Sione Tuihalamaka stepping in when injuries hit, the Wildcats get a chance on Saturday to earn their way back into the top 10.

Their coach is already top-10 in intestinal fortitude.

Mike Stoops never calls trick plays. It was like he was allergic to them. He was the anti-Boise State.

That’s why it was so stunning when he called for the fake punt. From his own 27. In a five-point game. Against a team that needed big plays to score all of its points.

It’s interesting that Stoops dialed up the trickery right after watching UCLA kill a crucial drive by attempting a reverse. The Bruins turned a first down at the UA 34 into 2nd-and-20 and a couple plays later had to kick it away. Thanks in large part to the fake punt, UCLA wouldn’t reach midfield again.

No, Jake Fischer didn’t score on the play. The Cats didn’t even score on the drive. What the fake did was put 80 yards between Richard Brehaut and the goal line and it made the Bruins so desperate they went for it on 4th-and-11 from their own 19.

That subsequent UA possession was the frustrating one. Pick up one first down and it’s take-a-knee time. Instead you have to attempt a field goal with a kicker who occasionally puts a 12-degree angle on his kicks, and then UCLA gets the ball back with one last chance to tie.

The Wildcat defense held. I’d like to think they were inspired by the fake punt. Two weeks ago we commented on Washington State’s onside-kick bravado:

There will come a time this year when Arizona needs to make equally bold moves to pull off a big win. Will the Wildcats have the courage of a 1-5 team?

Mike Stoops played that one like he was 0-11. Now he’s 7-1.

Stoops and the UA are also 4-1 in Pac-10 play for the second straight season. The sixth conference game last year was at Cal. Will the ’10 Cats have a better day near the Bay?

The thought before the season was this team needed to start 5-0 in conference play to allow for a split of the Stanford and Oregon road games. The problem is the Cardinal strayed from the script and kept winning so even at 5-0 the UA would still need to beat both Stanford and Oregon to avoid tiebreakers.

In other words, the Wildcats are in the best possible position at this point in the year.

Arizona survived the early season schedule, just like last year. The schedule is back-loaded with tough games, just like last year. Can the Wildcats write a happier ending than last year?

The current task is even tougher than that of 2009. Oregon had a loss last year. Every other Pac-10 team finished with at least three conference losses. There was greater margin for error.

The way to look at it is right now the Cats are #3 in the Pac-10. The Stanford game is for 2nd place. Win and the USC game is to stay in 2nd place. Win again and the Oregon game is for 1st place. Win yet again and the ASU game is for the championship.

Lose even one of the four and you drop back into 3rd. Don’t forget, that’s the Holiday Bowl’s pick this year and they might take a pass on Arizona to get a new set of fans to San Diego.

So beat Stanford and you continue to play for a conference title. Lose and you’re probably going to the Sun Bowl. How do you like your stakes?

Make no mistake; the UA is a big underdog in this quest. Stanford opened as an 8-point favorite this week. We can only imagine how big the spread will be against Oregon.

But right now the score is 0-0.

When the Cats fell short in double overtime to Jeremiah Masoli and the Ducks the fear was it would be a long time before the UA played another game with so much on the line. Turns out it only took 12 months.

When Nick Foles was on his back in Pullman clutching his knee the best-case scenario was Matt Scott leading the team to two wins and Foles returning in time for the toughest games. All indications are that Arizona is facing the best-case scenario.

How’s your patella, fella?

Lolomana Mikaele was robbed of his chance to live the dream.
Photo by Chris Morrison/US Presswire

The Arizona Wildcats are riding high after their dominant victory over Washington. Does it make them the team to beat among those trying to beat Oregon?

Sorting through the Duck-chasers, here are this week’s Survivor Rankings:

1. Oregon
2. Oregon State
3. ARIZONA
4. Cal
5. Washington
6. Stanford
X. Arizona State
X. UCLA
X. Washington State
X. USC

Not a whole lot of movement. Last week’s #2 drops to 5th and everyone else moves up. Cal and Washington are hanging on by a thread but they do both get a crack at Oregon so they’re technically still alive.

It’s worth noting that five of the six remaining contenders will reside in the Pac-12 North next year.

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The bowl bubble watch is crystal clear at the top as a couple more teams punched their postseason tickets:

ALREADY IN:
Oregon (7-0)
Stanford (6-1)
Arizona (6-1)

BUBBLE IN:
Cal (4-3)
OSU (3-3)
Washington (3-3)

BUBBLE OUT:
UCLA (3-4)
ASU (2-4*)

(*ASU’s second FCS win not included.)

Cal looks to be in pretty good shape after walloping Groupon U. The Bears still get WSU and they finish with three games at home. Yes, two of them are against Oregon and Stanford but there is the season finale against Washington in case a last-minute sixth win is needed.

Don’t dismiss the significance of the Wildcats getting eligible for a third straight bowl game. When you’ve only done something once before in your program’s history, it’s a big deal.

As for the rest of the team’s goals? We’ll see how things look after the UCLA game.

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More from the joy that was the Washington game:

The game started with a UA fumble and the secondary getting beat deep. Can’t start much worse, right? The Cats were so devastated at that point they went on to outscore the Huskies 44-7.

Matt Scott was a huge reason why. He made all the throws that were asked of him and even a couple that you won’t find in the training manual. There was the Tebowesque jump-pass to get the ball over the oncoming defender and into his running back’s hands. But nothing could top Scott’s final snap of the night when he dropped the ball, distracted the defense, picked it up and found Juron Criner in the end zone. It was the passing version of the fumblerooski.

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Nick Foles’ passing efficiency rating is 156.37 for the year. Matt Scott’s is 156.28. Foles has completed 75.3% of his passes. Scott is up to 72.7%. Does this mean Arizona is now producing system quarterbacks?

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The White/Red/Red uniform combination is now 3-0.

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Nic Grigsby is deservedly getting recognition for moving into 2nd place on the UA’s career rushing touchdowns list but it should be noted that Keola Antolin has joined him in the top 10. With his two scores against Washington Antolin now has 19 career TDs on the ground, tying him with Chuck Levy and Clarence Farmer for the 8th most in school history.

The best part of Antolin’s career-long run wasn’t the move he put on the safety to turn a double into a home run, it’s Grigsby leading the way as a blocking back and Scott sprinting downfield to run interference. The formation with those three lined up next to each other is the speediest UA backfield since Trung Canidate lined up behind Keith Smith.

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One Wildcat who did not have a good night was Trevin Wade. He absolutely whiffed on multiple one-on-one tackles and Washington’s second touchdown drive was the result of Wade grabbing air on a short third-down pass.

Maybe Wade could get some pointers from Nick Folk’s brother, the kicker who brought down Travis Cobb to save a touchdown. Why are your genes so strong, Nick Folk?

Speaking of strong-gened kickers, Alex Zendejas has now missed five extra points in the past two years. Why do you have no more eligibility, Nick Folk?

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Hidden big play: Trailing by 16 at the end of the first half, UW completes a 43-yard pass. The Huskies rush to the line and snap the ball but Sione Tuihalamaka breaks through and sacks Jake Locker to set up a 2nd-and-20 and effectively kill the drive. Tuihalamaka didn’t have time to get into his three-point stance so he just juked the guard and made the hit before Locker could think.

In other sack news, the defensive ends did a great job of finding the football when they got near Locker. Ricky Elmore swatted the ball loose to record his sack and later D’Aundre Reed ripped it out on the play that was (incorrectly) blown dead.

With the trio of B.Reed, D.Reed and Elmore continuing to wreak havoc the only thing missing is a nickname. Just in time for Halloween I give you Breed, Dread, and Hell More.

Back to the fumble that wasn’t, they should have let Lolomana Mikaele’s recovery and rumbling return stand on principle alone. Let the big man tote the coconut!

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Washington’s most embarrassing moment wasn’t the final score. It wasn’t Jesse Callier woofing with the Red Zone before the game and then dropping two passes including one off his facemask. The biggest Husky fail belonged to the UW cheerleaders. Late in the game, with the stands emptying, the Dawg cheer squad decided to try some new stunts. They attempted to do this but it ended up like this. There were no injuries except for bruised egos.

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Seeing the Boise State game Tuesday (?!) night got me thinking: What if Oregon loses to USC, Auburn loses to Alabama, Michigan State loses to Iowa, and Missouri loses to Nebraska? Do Boise State and TCU play for the national championship?

If the establishment were to allow it, it would be the third straight year the Broncos and Horned Frogs met in a bowl game. But since it would mean they went from the Poinsettia Bowl to the Fiesta Bowl to the BCS championship game, I don’t think you’d hear any complaints.

Cheers!

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