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. 1: CHUCK CECIL, safety (1984-87)

The Minnesota Vikings better hope that Paul Wiggin, a personnel consultant with the team, has a better grip on player evaluations than what he showed with Chuck Cecil in 1983. The Arizona football program is thankful that Wiggin, the Stanford head coach at the time, allowed arguably the baddest of the badasses in Wildcat history to come to Tucson.

Wiggin did not offer a scholarship to Cecil — 6-feet and a scant 150 pounds out of San Diego Helix High School — and that helped fuel the fire for the “Heat-Seeking Missile” to succeed with the Wildcats. Wiggin reportedly told Cecil he was too small for major college football.

Cecil, who put all his suitors on hold while awaiting Wiggin’s decision, opted to follow the advice of former Arizona assistant Moe Ankney and walk on to the Arizona program. Cecil’s wait for Stanford cost him a chance for a scholarship with Arizona as a freshman because the Wildcats used their allotment of grants.

“He and his parents took a gamble,” Ankney told the Toledo Blade in 1987 when he prepared to coach against Arizona as the Bowling Green head coach. “They paid for his first year of college and I made a commitment to them that I’d get him grant-in-aid as soon as possible.”

Cecil, a three-time Pac-10 All-Academic selection as a safety, dedicated himself to earn that scholarship but his goals went far beyond that. A bookworm does not get the nickname “Heat-Seeking Missile”, given to the vicious-tackling Cecil by a North Carolina assistant coach after the Cats beat the Tar Heels 30-21 in the 1986 Aloha Bowl, their first bowl win in 65 years.

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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. 2: RICKY HUNLEY, linebacker (1980-1983)

Not too long after Ricky Hunley traveled west from Petersburg, Va., in 1980, he became the most talented and athletically gifted badass to play for the Wildcats.

As a freshman inside linebacker, Hunley recorded a team-high 14 tackles in the UA’s 23-17 win over No. 2 UCLA in Tucson. The previously unbeaten Bruins had a chance to be the top-ranked team in the country because No. 1 Alabama was upset earlier in the day.

Hunley sacked UCLA quarterback Tom Ramsey on key third-down plays in the third and fourth quarters to stave off the Bruins. Ramsey, rattled by Hunley and Arizona’s pressure, passed for only 58 yards in the second half.

He was one of 11 children who grew up in the Hunley household, which included younger brother Lamonte, who also became a standout linebacker with the Wildcats. Lamonte was only a year behind Ricky, so Arizona fans were treated to three seasons of the Hunley brothers wreaking havoc as on Pac-10 offenses.

When Arizona was ranked No. 3 by the Associated Press in 1983, Ricky’s senior season, Sports Illustrated described the brothers as, “Fire and Smoke, Mean and Nasty, Gotcha Now and Getcha Later.”

“I want to run through people,” Ricky told SI. “I want a hit you’ll hear for days. I dream, I mean dream, of hitting a wide receiver in midair. Something hellacious. If a team has no business on the field with us, I want to let ‘em know it.”

Oh, they knew about it, all too well.

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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. 3: ROB WALDROP, defensive tackle (1990-1993)

This badass list already has four members of the Desert Swarm — No. 4 Tedy Bruschi, No. 7 Brant Boyer, No. 8 Ty Parten and No. 9 Jimmie Hopkins — but none of these standouts was as dominant as defensive tackle Rob Waldrop.

“What he did in college speaks for itself,” Boyer told TucsonCitizen.com’s Anthony Gimino in May when it was announced that Waldrop was selected to the College Football Hall of Fame.

“I’m convinced there would not have been a Desert Swarm defense without Rob Waldrop. We had a lot of great players on that team, but it started and ended with that guy.”

Former Arizona defensive tackle Rob Waldrop will be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame next month (Otto Greule Jr., Getty Images Sport)

Waldrop capped his career as the Outland Trophy winner for the nation’s top interior lineman in 1993. Attempts by opponents to double- and triple-team Waldrop were futile. Among his 53 tackles his senior season 14 were for lost yardage, including eight sacks. In his final two seasons, he had 18 sacks.

Waldrop was a significant reason why the Desert Swarm led the nation and set a Pac-10 record with 33 rushing yards allowed per game in 1993. He finished his Arizona career with 164 tackles, an remarkable feat for an interior lineman, with 44 tackles for lost yardage and 22.5 sacks, which ranks fifth in UA’s history.

Former teammate Heath Bray told Gimino of Waldrop: “We’d see him laying out in the sun, and I’d say, ‘You need to lay out in the sun because you are one damn cold-blooded reptile.’”

As vicious as Waldrop was on opponents, he was also very calculating. He often said that as a nose guard it was easy to detect if an opponent was about to run by observing the stance of the offensive linemen. Waldrop, who always challenged himself, used his brains as well as his brute force to get the most out of his skills.

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