AG's Wildcat Report

This is it. The biggest home football game Arizona has ever played. Or at least the most important. Or the most anticipated. Or all of that.

It is Arizona vs. Oregon. ESPN’s College Football GameDay is here. Fans are encouraged to turn Arizona Stadium into a “Red Out” on Saturday night. Control of the Pac-10 race on the line.

Chuck Cecil is mobbed by fans after the 1986 victory over Arizona State/Tucson Citizen photo

Arizona isn’t a spoiler, its usual role at this time of the year. With a one-two-three punch, the Wildcats can knock down the Ducks, defeat the Devils, conquer the Trojans and grab a few hundred bouquet of roses.

Do we expect that to happen? No. But everyone can still dream. That’s the point.

That’s what makes this the biggest, most important, most anticipated home game Arizona has ever played.

For now, we see the five other biggest home games like this:

1. Washington, Nov. 7, 1992
No. 1 Washington had won 22 games in a row, including a 54-0 whitewash of the Wildcats a year earlier, and had been co-national champs in 1991. Arizona, out of the blue, had won four in a row behind the early stirrings of the Desert Swarm defense. The nickname was so new that ABC sideline reporter Jack Arute mistakenly called it “Desert Storm” that day.

Everyone knew what it was by the end of the game. A sun-drenched crowd of 58,510 watched Arizona upset the Huskies 16-3 to improve to 4-1-1 in the Pac-10.

Although Washington would eventually make it to the Rose Bowl, this marked the beginning of the end for the Huskies, who learned that week of an investigation into quarterback Billy Joe Hobert.

Arizona lost its final two games of the regular season in painful fashion — 14-7 at USC on a fourth-quarter halfback touchdown pass from Deon Strother, and 7-6 to Arizona State on a 51-yard tackle-breaking run from Kevin Galbreath … the only time the Sun Devils crossed midfield all game.

If Arizona had won its last two games, it would have finished 6-1-1 in the conference, a half-game ahead of Washington and Stanford at 6-2.

2. UCLA, Oct. 10, 1998
Ortege Jenkins’ Leap by the Lake happened a week earlier, so Tucson was as amped as possible as the No. 10 Wildcats took on No. 3 UCLA, the first Pac-10 meeting of top-10 teams in seven years. ABC yawned, opting to televise No. 21 Notre Dame at 2-2 Arizona State instead.

It was still early in the season, so the game didn’t take on a winner-take-all quality, even though that is how it turned out to be. Arizona was 5-0 overall, 2-0 in the league. UCLA, with Heisman candidate quarterback Cade McNown, was 3-0 and 1-0.

A crowd of 58,738 turned out to see two dynamic offenses, and it was quite a show through three quarters, with the Bruins holding a 31-28 lead. But one play early in the fourth quarter broke Arizona … and its best player was the one responsible.

McNown, as he had earlier in the game, ran down the line to his left, showing option. This time, however, he stopped, dropped back and hit a wide-open Danny Farmer for a 64-yard touchdown. All-American cornerback Chris McAlister had fallen for the fake.

”We ran a couple of options on them a few times and the corners blew off the wide receivers,” McNown said after the game. ”We had a feeling that it was going to work.”

UCLA scored 21 fourth-quarter points and won 52-28. The Bruins wouldn’t lose until a hurricane-delayed game at Miami on Dec. 5, knocking UCLA out of the first BCS national title game. If the Bruins had been able to tackle Edgerrin James that day, Arizona, at 11-1 in the regular season, would have gone to the Rose Bowl as the Pac-10 representative while UCLA played for the national championship.

3. Arizona State, Nov. 27, 1982
ASU fans brought roses to Arizona Stadium as the Sun Devils, coming in ranked sixth in the nation with a 5-1 league mark, needed just to beat a 5-4-1 Arizona team to get to its first Rose Bowl.

Arizona State, thanks mostly to coach Frank Kush, had a headlock on the rivalry at that time, winning 15 of the previous 17 games. But with 58,515 on hand, the Wildcats turned those red roses black.

The signature play was Brian Holland taking a short pass from Tom Tunicliffe and racing 92 yards for a touchdown. UA held on to win 28-18, sending UCLA to the Rose Bowl instead of ASU.

For Arizona, it was the glorious start of a nine-year unbeaten streak against ASU.

4. UCLA, Nov. 9, 1985
The Wildcats came into the game at 3-1 in the conference, and they played only seven conference games that season in what was an unbalanced league schedule in those days. The Wildcats, if they could win their final three games, starting with 14th-ranked UCLA (6-1-1, 4-1), would be the Pac-10 champs.

Arizona trailed 17-0 at halftime, but began to rally when Chuck Cecil — who else? — blocked a punt that went out of bounds at the UCLA 7. James DeBow scored two plays later to cut the lead to 10. The Bruins regained a 17-point lead with the help of a long pass from (future Pac-10 TV analyst) David Norrie to (future UCLA head coach) Karl Dorrell.

The Wildcats weren’t done, scoring on another short DeBow run and getting a 61-yard interception return for a touchdown from lineman Dana Wells. Arizona missed the two-point conversion, however, to keep the score at 24-19. That was important because Arizona had the ball at the UCLA 32 as time ran out.

Think Max Zendejas could have kicked the tying field goal?

Arizona would win those final two games to finish 5-2 in the league. UCLA won at 6-2.

5. Arizona State, Nov. 22, 1986
The Sun Devils had already clinched the Pac-10 title and their first Rose Bowl appearance, but the Wildcats still found a way to be spoilers.

Playing in front of 58,267 — the second-largest crowd in Arizona Stadium at the time — Arizona shocked fourth-ranked ASU 34-17 with the most memorable play in school history. If you’ve seen it once, you’ve probably seen it hundreds of times, and it never gets old. Chuck Cecil’s 106-yard interception return for a touchdown.

“I just ran,” Cecil told the Citizen years later. “I still, to this day, don’t know why I ran it out.”

UPDATE: ValleyCat on UAsports.net points out that I missed one — the 1968 “ultimatum game” when Arizona beat 20th-ranked Wyoming 14-7 and then strong-armed the Sun Bowl to take the Wildcats over Arizona State, which then turned around and smacked UA 30-7. Too late, UA was headed to El Paso, and Phoenix officials were steamed enough to eventually create a local bowl — the Fiesta.

But, when I sat down to write this, my intent was to look at only the Pac-10 years. I forgot to include that caveat in the original version, which is one of the hazards of posting at 3:30 in the morning. Anyway, consider my top 5 list an examination of the Pac-10 years only.

I’m perfectly happy to never discuss would-be Wildcat Brandon Jennings, and I’m sick of announcers mischaracterizing his snub of Arizona out of high school to be a young pioneer in the Italian pro league. Sure. How brave.

I’m still waiting for someone to tell me he had the grades to enroll.

Anyway, I thought this was funny enough to pass along, courtesy of The Onion, with the original page here.

Harvey Mason, left, with LeBron James and director/co-writer Kristopher Belman.

Perhaps you’re planning on an early Friday night so you can get up in the wee hours and be on campus around 5 a.m. to stake out a spot behind ESPN’s College Football GameDay stage.

The stage is being set up on the UA mall east of Old Main. You can find all the information about where and when from Arizona athletics official site.

But Wildcat fanatics might not want to miss another unique event Friday night. Former UA basketball player Harvey Mason will be in town to attend the 7:25 p.m. showing of “More Than a Game” at El Con Century Theaters.

Mason, an award-winning songwriter and music producer, is the executive producer of the film, and he also composed the score for the film. The documentary premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in 2008 and won first runner-up behind a movie you might have heard of — “Slumdog Millionaire.”

With rare footage and interviews, “More than a Game” follows LeBron James and his friends through their early basketball days through their quest for a high school championship.

The movie made its Los Angeles premiere on Sept. 26, when the guests included former UA coach Lute Olson.

Here’s an interview with Mason about the movie and the official site with a trailer.

UA quarterback Nick Foles, who leads an efficient passing game, answers questions from Tuesday's press conference/photo courtesy of WildcatSportsReport.com

Here we are for our third go-round of WWW. The big Oregon-Arizona game is approaching, so let’s start with that.

SI.com: Cory McCartney breaks down the matchup under this headline: Game of the Week: Oregon battles Arizona for Rose Bowl life.

I might rewrite that to say Arizona battles Oregon for Rose Bowl life … but whatever.

There’s some good stuff here scouting the Arizona offense, with comments from NAU defensive coordinator Andy Thompson.

He says, “They can line up and run right at you. They’re a tough, physical, very hard-nosed team, and then they have the game where they can spread you out and throw the football with a passing game that’s very efficient. They make you cover the whole field. They have the ability to do both and it makes it very difficult on a defense.” Check the link for more.

• CBSSports.com: Gary Parrish — who I find to be one of the best and most even-handed of the national college hoops columnist — weighs on in Josh Pastner’s coaching debut from Tuesday night. The Boy Wonder did well to have his Memphis team within a winning shot of No. 1 Kansas at the end. There’s more Pastner from SI.com, and even more from one of our new bloggers, Matt Minkus, who interviewed Pastner recently for the locally produced radioexiles.com.

• NewOrleans.com: Former UA All-American Chris McAlister is back in the NFL. Knee problems plagued his past two seasons, but the ex-Baltimore Raven All-Pro cornerback has signed on the New Orleans Saints and appears ready to roll. He joins ex-Cat running back Mike Bell with the Saints. Super Bowl bound?

• Eugene Register-Guard: The Oregon Ducks haven’t been very lucky with quarterbacks in their past two trips to Tucson.

• NBA.com: Nice Q&A with the Dallas Mavericks’ Jason Terry, who is still the same super sub he was for Arizona’s 1997 national championship team. Except one thing: He’s actually playing some defense this season. He explains.

Previous World Wide Wildcats:
Oct. 29

Nov. 12

Anthony Gimino can be reached at anthonygimino (at) gmail.com

Arizona sophomore quarterback Nick Foles will meet with reporters Tuesday morning in his only non-ESPN media gathering of the week.

Nick Foles/TucsonCitizen.com photo

The guess is that ESPN this week will be working up a feature on Foles for Saturday’s GameDay program from Tucson, and that a good part of the questioning Tuesday morning will be about his late-game brain cramp against Cal, when his illegal double-pass play took Arizona out of range for a potential game-winning field goal.

If he handles the mental anguish as well as physical pain, he should be just fine for the Oregon game this week.

One of the best background stories on Foles is from his senior season at Westlake High School in Austin, Texas. He played most of the season with a torn labrum in his throwing shoulder, but he kept on playing because he wanted to be there for his team. He led Westlake to the 5A Division I state championship game.

“I hurt it in the fourth game,” Foles said in a recent interview.

“I remember the hit that hurt it. I will always remember it. It’s on our highlight reel, so I get to relive it if I ever want to watch the highlight reel because somehow we scored a touchdown on it.

“It was one of those things where I told myself I was fine, and I didn’t tell anyone about it. I didn’t tell my dad. I wanted to finish my senior year. The shoulder kept popping out of the socket and doing all kinds of weird stuff. I was like, ‘It’s fine, it’s probably just a little bruise.’”

It wasn’t until after the season that tests revealed the torn labrum, which was repaired by the famed Dr. James Andrews in Birmingham, Ala.

How did that come about? With a little help from Drew Brees, also a Westlake alum.

“We know his mom and dad,” Foles said of Brees, “and we asked where he had his surgery, and they said, ‘Dr. Andrews.’ He actually called Dr. Andrews for me, and (Brees) have me a phone call and left a message on my phone.

“I have always looked up to him and what kind of guy he is. He’s an amazing guy, an amazing football player, so that was kind of cool.”

Related video at wildaboutazcats.com: Oregon coach Chip Kelly talks about Foles and Arizona

Dick Tomey gave Arizona football fans Desert Swarm, Tedy Bruschi, a team of Joes, Mike Streidnig up the middle, the I-bone, Chris McAlister, the Leap by the Lake, playing with your hair on fire, the Fiesta Bowl, the Holiday Bowl, Rob Waldrop, the fumblerooski, the Sports Illustrated cover, the tie that felt like a win, “Burn the Boats,” wins you’ll always remember, losses you can’t forget and teams that fought like the dickens.

Tomey at San Jose State/Photo courtesy of San Jose State sports information

That’s only part of how I remember him.

I got to thinking about all this last night because the news leaked that Tomey, at 71, will announce his retirement Monday as the head coach at San Jose State, bringing an end to 46 years in the coaching profession. Bless him.

I still remember meeting Tomey for the first time. It was the spring of 1991, and I was a way-too-green 23-year-old football beat reporter for the Arizona Daily Star, recently plucked off the copy desk.

I was in his little office at McKale Center. I mean, if Mike Stoops thinks he and his assistants have it bad now in their relatively palatial add-on to McKale, they should have seen how little head room there was before he arrived.

Anyway, I sat on the couch, Tomey pulled up a chair and, to his credit, I never once saw him roll his eyes or look at his watch as I asked my silly questions, tediously going through every position group.

I have always thought that a lesser coach, a lesser man, could have chewed up a rookie reporter, been intimidating, made the job unbearable or made it something other than fun.

It never happened.

Over the next several years — from a 38-14 loss at Ohio State to start the 1991 season to the 23-20 victory over Nebraska in the 1998 Holiday Bowl — Tomey and I developed what I would consider a good working relationship.

That didn’t stop me from criticizing some decisions and it didn’t stop him from pulling me aside or calling me at home (on Thanksgiving!) to say some of my stories were “horsesh–” — which must be his favorite curse word — but if there was thing I learned from Tomey it was this:

Say what you have to say … and then let it go.

It works in football, more so in life.

I actually learned a lot from Tomey. Most of what I think a coach should be, how he should act, how he should respond to adversity, how he should motivate, came from him.

But it is his common decency — or, perhaps his uncommon decency — that I most appreciate and admire.

When he was hired at San Jose State in late December 2004, he said he “unceremoniously left Tucson,” which is another way of saying he resigned under pressure, which is another way of saying he was fired.

But he never stopped being a Wildcat.

Just as I can’t forget my first meeting with Tomey, I know my most recent encounter with him will resonate forever.

Tomey and about 150 other Wildcats spanning five decades traveled to Phoenix in February of 2008 to attend a fundraiser for Tony Bouie, an Arizona All-American safety in 1993 and 1994 who was fighting stage-four lymphoma. (He is doing fine now.)

After a day of $300-a-round golf at the Arizona Biltmore Golf Club, most of the group and other guests ate dinner outside and participated in an auction. Near the end, Tomey got up and spoke for a few minutes on what it meant to be a Wildcat.

Earlier, he had told me, “You coach to win, but you also coach to have a team that feels strongly about one another and is brought together for a lifetime. This is illustrative of the fact that this bunch of guys, and the people who coached them, succeeded in that endeavor. That’s really what it is all about.”

As the evening wrapped up, Tomey led everybody in singing “Bear Down, Arizona,” and, journalistic objectivity be damned, if you didn’t have goosebumps, you didn’t have a heartbeat.

When he leaves San Jose State at the end of the season and retires to his home in Hawaii,
he’ll have been a Rainbow Warrior, a Wildcat and a Spartan across a successful head coaching career.

He’ll have been a lot of other things along the journey and meant a lot of things to a lot of people … even to a little ol’ sportswriter.

Final: Arizona 87, NAU 71. Solomon Hill hits two free throws with 11.9 seconds left to grab the team-high in scoring with 17 points. Nic Wise had 15. Jamelle Horne had 14 points and 11 rebounds. Kyle Fogg was a fourth player in double figures with 10 points.

Lute Olson won his UA debut in 1983 with a 72-65 win over NAU. Sean Miller does a little better (inheriting, of course, a completely different program, thanks to Lute).

Postgame reaction later …

* * *

Isn’t this supposed to be David Bagga time?

* * *

At the 3:03 timeout: Arizona leads 81-66: NAU won’t exactly fade away quietly, as UA point guard Nic Wise is back in the game after he was taken out with about 5-plus minutes left, presumably done for the day. MoMo Jones has been getting almost all the backup minutes at point guard, leaving Garland Judkins (four minutes in the first half, none in the second half) as the guy outside of the rotation, which has basically gone eight deep without Kevin Parrom.

Solomon Hill has 13 points and seven rebounds to lead the freshmen.

* * *

At the 7:10 timeout: Arizona leads 73-53. Time to talk some football. As you have seen (we hope) on this site and elsewhere, ESPN is bringing its College Football GameDay program to Tucson this week for the Arizona-Oregon game. The show typically brings in a guest to talk about the game and make a prediction. At our sports network partner, wildaboutazcats.com, you can vote on which guest you would most like to see.

I’m not going to pick Sean Miller. I can’t decide between Jennie Finch and Terry Francona.

* * *

At the 11:56 timeout: Love the one-man fastbreak, Solomon Hill. Going baseline to baseline after grabbing a defensive rebound, he was fouled while going to the basket, making both attempts. Coach Sean Miller said last week that he likes the way all his freshmen shoot free throws. So far, so good. The four frosh are a combined 12 of 16 … uh, make that 12 of 17 … now, 13 of 18. Good enough.

* * *

At the 13:43 timeout: Arizona leads 61-42. A bit of a sloppy start to the second half for Arizona, which has been outscored 11-10 so far. It’s easy to say the Wildcats have come out a bit flat, but I think UA’s style of plays will make this a rare occurrence. The man-to-man defense — the defense of accountability, as former UA interim coach Kevin O’Neill used to say — can leave a player embarrassed if he’s not dong the right thing. And coach Sean Miller wants to push the pace, so the fast breaks should keep everyone’s energy up.

* * *

Halftime leaders: Jamelle Horne and Nic Wise with nine points. Horne, Kyryl Natyazhko and Solomon Hill with four rebounds. Somewhat interestingly in Sean Miller’s deep rotation, Kyle Fogg and Hill came off the bench and each played a team-high 14 minutes.

* * *

Halftime: Arizona leads 51-31. Freshman Solomon Hill had another highlight, taking the ball coast-to-coast for a layup for the second time with about 2 minutes left. He doesn’t look fast with the ball, but he has big strides and looks like a running back weaving through traffic. He’s listed at 6-6, but he looks bigger and has a guard’s game. Nice combination.

And it is worth mentioning UA’s defense again. NAU, which lives by the motto “Recruit to Shoot” has made only 1 of 4 3-point attempts. That is a testament to Sean Miller’s man-to-man defense. Yeah, the Cats have given up some easy inside looks, but that will just give Miller more teaching points in practice.

Besides, NAU can only scare you if it is knocking down 3-pointers. The Lumberjacks aren’t dangerous when they are making 2s.

* * *

At the 7:52 timeout: Arizona leads 29-15. Solomon Hill has the play of the game so far, finishing a fast break — started by Jamelle Horne’s third block of the game — by deking a defender inside and then then going outside for a long-armed layup with 8:05 to play in the half. Hill, as you certainly have heard by now, has superb passing skills, which he also is showing. His upside is the greatest among the UA freshmen.

Horne has nine points and four rebounds.

* * *

At the 11:22 timeout: Arizona leads 17-11. NAU, which attempted 31 3-points in its season-opening win over Southwestern (sounds like an exhibition game, doesn’t it?) has been able to get free for only two shots behind the arc so far. Denying the 3-point shot should be one benefit of Sean Miller’s aggressive on-ball man-to-man defense, as opposed to the zone of assistant coach Mike Dunlap that the Cats played last season.

* * *

First basket of the Sean Miller era: Jamelle Horne.

First assist: Nic Wise.

First block: Horne, who flies from behind to swat NAU forward Shane Johannsen.

Second block: Horne, with only 44 seconds gone in the game.

First foul: Brendon Lavender.

First turnover: MoMo Jones, on an offensive foul.

First 3-point shot: Wise, after three team misses.

* * *

The band yells “Hi, Sean!” before the tip. Sean Miller waves back. All is well in the Wildcats’ world.

* * *

Starting lineup for Arizona:

F Jamelle Horne
C Kyryl Natyakhko
G Brendon Lavender
G MoMo Jones
G Nic Wise

Wise has been nursing an ankle injury, and probably won’t play any more than is absolutely necessary.

* * *

The band kicks off the season with the playing of “The Boys are Back in Town” as the Cats go through pregame warmups. Speaking of the band, why does the UA allow singers for the national anthem? The band’s version never fails to be powerful and poignant, the best I’ve ever heard.

* * *

Arizona’s depth will be tested right away, as the school announced today that freshman forward Kevin Parrom will be out four to eight weeks because of a stress fracture in his left foot. He averaged 8.0 minutes, 3.5 assists and 2.5 rebounds in UA’s two exhibition games.

Parrom’s absence likely means more time on the wing for Solomon Hill, and perhaps more three-guard lineups with some combination of Nic Wise, Kyle Fogg, Brandon Lavender, Momo Jones and Garland Judkins.

ESPN GameDay is bringing its popular Saturday morning pregame show to Tucson this week for the Arizona-Oregon game.

Chris Fowler

Even with Arizona’s loss at Cal on Saturday, the UA-Oregon matchup is still for control of the league race and is the best game of the day. Although ESPN on Sunday morning was still promoting the falsehood that Arizona’s loss meant that only Oregon was in the driver’s seat, the reality is that both teams are in the same position — win out and they will go to the Rose Bowl to play Big Ten champ Ohio State.

This will be the first appearance ever for GameDay in Tucson.

The big question: Will Lee Corso put on a Wilbur the Wildcat mascot head or an Oregon duck head to signify his pick to win?

Corso, in Saturday’s show, predicted Cal would beat Arizona, after which host Chris Fowler turned to him and said, “And if we’re there, they’ll remember you picked against them.”

Well, they will be here, so get your signs ready for the TV cameras and get ready to pack Arizona Stadium in what is the most important home game UA has ever played this late in the season.

The game will begin at 6 p.m. and be televised by ABC. The university is billing this as a “Red Out,” with fans encouraged to wear red. Also, 10,000 red rally towels will be distributed to the Zona Zoo student section.

See, I told you that there was no cause for doom and gloom after the loss to Cal. As I wrote: “By the end of this week, excitement should overcome the fans’ bitter reaction to the Cal loss.”

Fowler and an ESPN announcing crew were here two years when Oregon, then ranked No. 2 in the nation, played at Arizona on a Thursday night. Helped by a knee injury to Ducks quarterback Dennis Dixon, the Wildcats pulled off the big upset, 34-24.

Arizona football fans have been conditioned to expect the worse, and Saturday’s 24-16 loss at Cal is a reminder of the recurring nightmare.

Some of the stuff that haunts UA fans is hard to dream up.

Arizona lost at Washington this season on a once-in-a-lifetime interception that bounced off the foot of a receiver (actually, it bounced off the grass, but the refs missed it). And, now, on Saturday, Arizona lost at Cal 24-16, in part because quarterback Nick Foles caught his own batted pass and attempted another throw, which is a no-no.

You can’t have two forward passes on the same play.

So, Arizona ended up going from third-and-3 at the Oregon 25 — at worst in reasonable (if uncomfortable) field goal range for Alex Zendejas — to fourth-and-17 from the 42. Foles’ fourth-down pass was incomplete.

“You talk about two crazy ways to lose. Those are tough,” coach Mike Stoops said on the postgame radio show. “It’s crazy.”

After turning the ball over on downs, Cal’s Shane Vereen broke off a 61-yard touchdown run, but the Bears flubbed the extra point, keeping the margin within one score at 24-16. Alas, there would be no last-minute miracle from the UA offense.

Yes, Arizona played poorly. The offense was out of rhythm. Was it shoddy coaching and lousy play-calling? Or was Cal’s defensive front simply able to control the running game while keeping extra personnel to defend the pass … making it hard for Arizona to have success either way?

Whatever the case, here’s the upshot of the loss:

Before the game, Arizona controlled its own fate in the Rose Bowl race.

After the game, Arizona still controls its own fate in the Rose Bowl race.

With a little less margin of error, the Wildcats can still go to their first Rose Bowl if they win their final three games — vs. Oregon next Saturday, at Arizona State (Nov. 28) and at USC (Dec. 5).

It starts against the Ducks in what will be the most important home game Arizona has ever played this late in the season. By the end of this week, excitement should overcome the fans’ bitter reaction to the Cal loss.

Postgame comments from our partner wildaboutazcats.com:

mikey: “Two words. Sean Miller. Bandwagon member signing off.”

AzTransplant: “Shame on us for getting excited about UA football. Same old, same old.”

Phxcatfan Says: “We played terrible. I am embarrassed to have Sonny Dykes as a coordinator tonight. This game should not have been close. I still don’t understand why we didn’t run our best play the entire night. I think we get blown out next week. My best guess is emerald bowl.”

AzGood: “Been here, done this. I’m telling you, this team, this program can’t stand success. Doesn’t know how to handle it. What if? will be the call of the Wildcats, I guess. Oh well.”

That was very representative of the entire mood.

But it’s too early — way too early — to write the epitaph. The season still hangs in the balance. This could either be the most memorable football season in Arizona history or it could be the one you most want to forget.

Arizona is good enough on its good days to win each of the remaining games.

Arizona is bad enough on its bad days to lose each of the remaining games.

I have no idea what will happen, although I do know if the Wildcats play like this against Oregon, they will lose.

But the Cal game is a predictor of nothing. As Stoops has been saying, each game is a different season. Different matchups. Different emotions. Different crowd. Different vibe.

Performance varies wildly from week to week. It just does. I can’t explain why, other than to say these are 18-to-22-year-old college kids whose performance is something short of consistent.

That might not be so noticeable on elite teams such as Florida, Alabama or Texas, but it shows up every week among the teams that are in the “average to above average” category — which is where Arizona has lived in the past couple of years.

Fact is, the Wildcats will go into Saturday, Nov. 21, needing help from no one to win the Pac-10.

The last time that happened was … never.

Forget Cal. It was a loss, on the road, to a team that was slightly favored, to a team that was Top 25 timber as recently as last week. You have to give the Bears a little bit of credit. Arizona played poorly … and it still took a freaky play at the end to help turn back the Wildcats.

This is no time for crying, no time to take a flying leap off the bandwagon.

I have said for years that the local fan base deserves all kind of praise for blindly sticking by Stoops through some tough seasons.

This week is the reward for all that loyalty — a home game in late November with the frickin’ Rose Bowl still in play.

Don’t bail now because of one loss.

“Anything is possible,” Stoops said.

And so is everything.

Related: UA-Cal postgame quotes

Some of the most interesting comments from Arizona coach Mike Stoops and a couple of players after the 24-16 loss to Cal (courtesy of the Cal sports information office, and you can read the full comments here):

MIKE STOOPS

General comments:
“It was another tough loss. Tough to lose a game, but when you look at the bigger picture, I thought Cal made it very difficult for us all night defensively. We never really consistently moved the football. They seemed to have a good beat on everything we did offensively. Defensively we made enough plays to hang around and give ourselves a chance.”

On the late play involving QB Nick Foles catching the ball and making an illegal forward pass:
“The ball ricochets. It was just a mistake. It’s a natural reaction. I don’t think we’ve ever had that situation happen with Nick. He knows the rules, but I don’t think he’s ever had that situation happen to him.”

On whether his team played tight tonight:
“I didn’t think so. I thought we played OK. Defensively they just made it hard. They were dropping a lot of players (into coverage), and we still couldn’t run it. Their front guys just never made it comfortable for us running the ball.”

On Cal’s defense:
“Statistically they hadn’t played well, but I knew they had quality players. It’s kind of weird that they were giving up yards, because they’re very athletic, and they were awfully good tonight.”

DEFENSIVE TACKLE EARL MITCHELL

On the game:
“We didn’t play together. We didn’t play to our capabilities. We just need to put this behind us as fast as we can and move on. We know that we could have played better. We’re going to have to come out and prove that we can the next time we play.”

WIDE RECEIVER DELASHAUN DEAN

On Cal’s defensive pressure and the struggles on offense:
“They weren’t really doing anything defensively to throw off our rhythm. We were just killing ourselves with stupid plays, dropped balls and blown [blocking] on offense. We just have to come back in on Monday and clean everything up and get ready for Oregon.

“We definitely came out flat. It took us awhile to find our rhythm. It was kind of hard for us all night to find it. It happens though. You aren’t going to come out every night and score fifty points. We have to come out here and keep focused and pushing.”

Click for video highlights from Versus.