Javier Morales took first place in the 2010 Arizona Press Club’s Metro Sports Reporting category

Don’t forget: For all the links, Twitter feeds and news feeds related to Arizona and its opponents, go to Morales’ site WILDABOUTAZCATS.NET. No other Arizona sports Web site is like it!

Wide receivers these days are perceived to be prima donnas who have more use of their mouths yapping than their guts making a catch in traffic in the middle of the field.

Former Arizona receiver Jay Dobyns is a talker — he has his own motivational speaking business — but that did not apply during his Wildcat career from 1982-84. His toughness spoke volumes, made opponents speechless and caused fans to hold their collective breath as they waited for him to get back on his feet after taking a lick.

“I just wanted to play like a crazy man,” Dobyns, our No. 1 offensive Arizona Wildcats Offensive Badass, told me this week. “I always felt that unless I scored a touchdown, no play should end on my feet. If I caught a pass, then someone was going to have to knock me down.

“If we ran the ball, then I was going to try to take someone out by any means necessary for a block. You can’t do that without giving up the goods.”

Dobyns, an agent for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), takes offense to the word “soft”. His look is a far cry from that — shaved head, goatee, tattoes and that sneer.

“The worst thing that anyone could ever say to me was that I was soft,” Dobyns told me. “You can tell me I was small, slow, etc., etc., etc. But don’t ever call me soft. That was my mentality.”

Here’s the rest of my Q&A with Dobyns (with an honorable mention of all those who did not make our Top 10 lists):

Q: I use the word badass as a positive term in this series. In your point of view what does it take for a player to be like that and be effective like you were?
Dobyns: All the players you selected have one common denominator: They were reckless with their spirit, enthusiasm and their bodies. They are guys who were willing to lose it all to win it all.

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Javier Morales took first place in the 2010 Arizona Press Club’s Metro Sports Reporting category

Don’t forget: For all the links, Twitter feeds and news feeds related to Arizona and its opponents, go to Morales’ site WILDABOUTAZCATS.NET. No other Arizona sports Web site is like it!

DEFENSE

No. 5: MARCUS BELL, linebacker (1996-99)

One Associated Press report entering the 1999 season suggested that Arizona senior Marcus Bell “might be the best linebacker in the country.”

Former Arizona coach Dick Tomey, whose analysis carries more weight, said of the diminutive 6-2, 235-pound Bell in a Sports Illustrated article: “He’s the best linebacker we’ve ever had here. He’s a tenacious competitor, and he runs like a defensive back.”

Tomey likely meant that Bell was the best linebacker since he started coaching Arizona in 1987. Ricky Hunley, Byron Evans and Chris Singleton — all Larry Smith recruits — might have something to say about who is the best linebacker. Bell, however, is one of the elite linebackers in the program’s history and he certainly belongs on this badass list of Wildcats.

Marcus Bell, a lightly recruited athlete out of St. Johns, led the Pac-10 in tackles in 1998 and 1999 (Arizona Republic photo, Jack Kurtz)

And being a badass has nothing to do with Bell accidentally leveling an NFL referee during a game with Seattle in 2003 (of which he was fined $25,000) but some fans might beg to differ.

Bell would have fit right in with his predecessors — the vaunted Desert Swarm — but he wanted to carve his own niche with the Wildcats.

“You can’t live off of tradition or heritage,” Bell said in an Associated Press report in 1998. “You have to work hard and make a name for yourself.”

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