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Wild About AZ Cats

A different slant on Wildcat athletics

Maybe the Arizona Wildcats were not who we thought they were

by on Dec. 30, 2010, under Sports

Everybody thinks they are better than Arizona coach Mike Stoops right now, including the guy who drank a six-pack during the Alamo Bowl and did not know the difference between No. 6 Travis Cobb (punt returner and wide receiver) and No. 6 Jonathon McKnight (cornerback).

Arizona should have passed more and rushed a lot less against Oklahoma State.

Why did Stoops send Alex Zendejas back on the field to try another field goal (only to miss) when he just missed another attempt?

Why didn’t Stoops try Matt Scott at least for one possession?

Why did Arizona not try to score before halftime when it seemed like the Wildcats had an opportunity with a third-and-25 at its 46-yard line?

Here’s a news flash to some: Maybe Arizona, 36-10 losers to the Cowboys, is not as good as most of us thought. Before some accuse this post for being too negative, what I’m writing is not to suggest the Wildcats were horrible. They were just not as good as we thought after a 7-1 start.

The only teams that qualified for a bowl game in that 8-game stretch: Toledo, Iowa and Washington. Their combined record: 22-16. Each of them had at least five defeats. No doubt: Arizona’s start was fool’s gold.

The best way to look at this through rose-colored glasses: Arizona mostly beat the teams it should have in its first eight games. The Cats lost to the opponents they should have lost to (except Oregon State, USC and ASU). Fans can take Stoops to task about the losses to the Beavers, Trojans and Sun Devils at home, but how can they ask for Stoops’ head regarding the losses to Stanford, Oregon and Oklahoma State?

The combined records of those teams: 34-3.

Ironically, the worst thing to happen to Stoops is Arizona’s mirage of a 7-1 start. The more magical season would have been a 1-7 start with a five-game winning streak at the end. Judging from Arizona’s schedule next year, a 1-5 start is not a far-fetched idea.

After the UA hosts NAU on Sept. 3, the Wildcats play in succession: at Oklahoma State, against Stanford and Oregon at home, and then at USC and Oregon State. That could mean a 1-10 stretch for Stoops between this season and next. Will he survive?

He is only the second UA coach to endure a five-game losing streak to end a season. The other is Dick Tomey, who was ousted after finishing with a five-game skid at the end of the 2000 season.

CHECK OUT SOME VIDEO OF THE GAME AT WILDABOUTAZCATS.COM

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 30th, 2010 at 1:52 am and is filed under Sports. Tags for this post: , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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  • PJBravo

    Stoops should not resign bc of this loss.  He should resign bc he is a classless windbag.  This is apparent the way he rants and whines on the side lines, seemingly disgusted with players, coaches, refs – anyone but himself.  At least three times this season I have seen him in screaming matches with his players.  
    Ditch Stoops and bring some class to the program.  Then UofA can start to work on its classless fans next

    • chris

      stoops will be fine and i love his sideline antics. we need an offensive cordinator real bad. and are fans are great obviously you didnt go to the university of arizona.

    • Drew

      PJBravo is an ASU fan. No wonder she is filled with anger.

  • chuck freitas

    Stoops sideline antics get the team more TV commentator remarks (and sideline views) than other teams. Long live his whining

    • madmac

      Is that the kind of publicity you want prospective athletes and their parents seeing?  Stoops seems like a decent guy, but he coaches out of control and his teams tend to play out of control.

  • football geek

    That was a very disappointing game last night.

    Coach- Stoops needs to get control over his temper, it shows his immaturity as a head coach.

    Kicker- Alex Zendejas need to be replaced, AZ needed those extra points. Hes had time to recover his confidence, and he failed again. Time for a replacement.

    QB situation – Nick foles was not sunshine last night. Horrible passing decisions (interceptions), repeated sacks from no mobility, just an all around bad game from the leader of this team. If anything Matt Scott should have been given a chance. It was obvious by the 3rd thrown interception that Uof A was not going to win under Foles. His confidence was low, and he couldn’t find a rhythm.  Why not try something different. Maybe with Scott there would have been less sacks (lose of yardage) because of his ability to make plays on the floor. Also Scott has proven he could lead the team to a win.

    Scenario- Lets just say Foles got hurt in the beginning of the game, and matt scott came in and played the remainder of the game like foles did. Everyone would be ready to crucify him. Saying that’s why he lost the position in the first place, hes not good enough to start.  But because foles is the starter he was allowed to continue to play extremely bad, which resulted in a horrible lost. I can’t even sit back and say at least they went out fighting. Attitude reflect leadership, and if the leader has no confidence and no drive, neither will the rest of the team. I am not saying Scott wouldn’t have made mistakes. But in previous games scott makes 3 mistakes he’s out for the rest of the game. While Foles can make 10 mistakes, and remain in the game leading his team to a lost (5 games in a row to be exact). I understand that he is the starter, but lets not be stupid. If your starter isn’t producing then try someone else if you want to win.

    Defense- Yes the defense left some WR open and that resulted in touchdowns. Also there was some missed tackles that resulted in a huge chunk of yardage. But I though they played well. I can’t blame the Defensive they were tired, and on the field way to often (because the offense wasn’t on point).

  • Storm

    I admittedly made the mistake of confusing Cobb and McKnight…If Cobb wasn’t returning kicks I would have had no idea who we was, he’s just not a premier receiver amongst a core of talent ( 27 catches and just over 300 yards receiving 1 TD), McKnight is even more unknown as a freshman DB working with notorious burn victims like Robert Golden.  All in all I shoud’ve known the difference, but nonetheless the duplicate numbering system ought to end in NCAA (It truly IS confusing to see two dudes with the same number, unable to read the name on the back)

  • Storm

    By the way, don’t blame Stoops for the entire loss.  While we would all like to rest blame soley on one guy, it’s still a team sport.  Things you can blame on Stoops include, continuing to trot out Zendejas from any distance longer than thirty (Zendejas has missed 5 kicks from beyond 30 yards this year alone), and calling screens on third down.  At some point these players have to be held responsible for their play and coaches need to be held responsible for their sideline antics, and poor decision making. 

    Stoops doesn’t need to be fired, under his tenure this team has become relevant in the conference.  While they still have not “arrived” so to speak, they are still a threat to do damage.  Beginning of next year doesn’t look pretty but good news is the Cats have apparently recruited a new punter from a Cali JUCO (according to ESPN.com)…I guess we may have to settle with Zendejas shanks, but maybe we can get punts longer than 27 yards (I’m looking at you Crier).

  • AzTransplant

    Javier,
    While I agree with the general gist of your article, I don’t think it takes away from the boatload of valid comments/question/concerns from fans about this game. No, I will not pretend that I am a better coach than Stoops, or that I could even coach a peewee football team. However, fans that  watch a lot of football, especially following one particular team can certainly have a deep knowledge and opinions of strategies, decisions, and personnel moves for the team that they watch week-in and week-out.
    I agree that the 7-1 start was a bit of fool’s gold, especially in light of how Iowa tumbled as the season progressed. So yes, the team was not as good as many hoped/believed. However, most of those comments are not mutually exclusive from Arizona simply not being as good as we wanted/thought. Most of those points were aimed at troubling decisions/strategies by the coaching staff or poor execution, which also reflects on coaching.
    Anyone that watched the team play all year saw how the offense excelled in the hurryup offense. Foles himself said the same thing. Yet, the team was so focused on a power running game that was going nowhere and constantly leaving them in 3rd and long downs, which end up being ideal situations for turnovers when your team is trying to make/force a big play. And this says nothing at all about the overall strategy of running the ball (your team’s offensive weak point to begin with), when you are down on the scoreboard by a large margin. I honestly felt like Stoops and the coaches spent the 2nd half trying not to get blown out instead of trying to get back into the game. All those running plays, and then all those FG attempts when you are down big and have a huge problem in your kicking game. Stoops even indicated prior to the game that because of the worries in the kicking game that the team would play 4-down football more frequently, but then he didn’t back up his words.
    I have moved past the point of watching a Stoops-coached team and saying, “ah, if only they had done this, or is this break had gone our way, or if they didn’t have that stupid penalty”. I spent a lot of time defending the team and saying that they were just so unlucky. But, when this stuff keeps happening again and again- dropped punts, dropped passes, dropped INTs, stupid penalties, mental errors (by players and coaches)- you have to accept the fact that it isn’t unlucky. It is poor training and execution, which falls to the coaching staff. Honestly, how can we not expect mental errors by the players when the coach himself is performing mind-numbingly stupid mistakes- “I thought it was 4th and 25″.
    Yes, this team wasn’t as good as we may have thought, but that doesn’t take away from their embarrassing display last night. Stoops and his staff need to be held accountable. I not screaming for him to be fired, but I also wouldn’t be upset if he were let go. He needs to make some fundamental changes in the way he prepares his team mentally and strategically.
     

  • Rob F

    I knew we were in trouble watching the Citadel game.  While being we were significantly better athleticly than this tiny school(1600 military cadets), they were tougher than our guys. The Citadel hit very hard to the final whistle. It appeared that many Arizona players were irratated by these little guys continueing to hit them hard. Adam Hall and Ricky Elmore in particular did not like being smacked by guys who will only see a bigtime game by buying a ticket. A Big Bad Sign. The Alamo Bowl was the only game in the last 5 that did not have a television feature on the HAIR of the Wildcats. Arizona’s hair is like its team and coach, undisciplined and sloppy. Half a decade into the Stoops era, maybe its time for some cuts in more than one way.

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