Arizona got a few minutes of air time on ESPN’s GameDay program this morning, but the hosts of the show incorrectly characterized what the Wildcats have to do the rest of the way to get to the Rose Bowl.

Looking at Arizona’s remaining schedule, Chris Fowler said, “All they have to do is win out their last four games.”

Soon after, Desmond Howard added, “If they need to win out to become Pac-10 champs, I just don’t have confidence they can do that right now.”

As we pointed out last Saturday night, Arizona doesn’t have to win out … which might held Howard’s confidence level.

The Wildcats “just” have to beat Oregon (Nov. 21) and win at USC (Dec. 5), and then split games at Cal (today) and Arizona State (Nov. 28). If that happens, Arizona would win any tiebreaker at 7-2 in the conference.

That means Arizona can lose today’s game at Cal and still control its destiny in the Pac-10 race. No doubt, a loss wouldn’t be preferable in terms of confidence, momentum and national rankings, but, barring a major injury, it wouldn’t be anything resembling a disaster and the stakes for the game against Oregon wouldn’t change.

Anyway, ESPN showed coach Mike Stoops wired for sound during practice this week, and Fowler referred to him as “Mellow Mike” and called him “slightly less spring-loaded.” Good line.

UA fifth-year senior defensive lineman Donald Horton addressed this Monday, when I asked him what was the biggest difference in Stoops from 2005 (the coach’s second season) to now.

“He doesn’t seem as stressed,” Horton said. “We have conversations now. When I first came here, I was like, ‘I ain’t never talking to that dude.’ Now, we can have conversations and stuff like a regular dude.”

For the record, Kirk Herbstreit and Howard picked Arizona to beat Cal. Lee Corso picked the Bears, but offered no analysis other than to say the Wildcats were on the road.

Fowler dropped clues that the GameDay crew could head to Tucson next Saturday to promote the Arizona-Oregon game. GameDay has never been here.

“Win it for GameDay in Tucson,” Fowler said of today’s game against Cal.

After Corso picked Cal, Fowler turned to him to say, “And if we’re there, they’ll remember you picked against them.”

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

Taryne Mowatt in the 2007 championship season/Tucson Citizen archive photo

Coming soon to a theater near you, Taryne Mowatt.

Well, you might actually have to wait a while, and you might have to look kind of hard when the time comes, but Mowatt — the photogenic pitching star of Arizona’s 2007 championship at the Women’s College World Series — will be coming to the big screen.

Mowatt was recruited to be among the extras for a mega-Hollywood movie starring Jack Nicholson, Paul Rudd, Owen Wilson and Reese Witherspoon, who plays a professional softball player and member of the USA Olympic team. The still-untitled comedy, written and directed by James L. Brooks, recently wrapped shooting, according to this video clip of Witherspoon from MTV.com.

When a casting call went out for softball players, a former coach of Mowatt’s from the National Pro Fastpitch league called the ex-Wildcat to see if she would be interested.

“I put together a little video and filled out a resume and they sent it over to the director,” Mowatt said.

“It took a couple of months to get it processed and for them to pick who they wanted, and then one day, they e-mailed me and said they wanted me to play a small part in the movie. I was like, ‘OK.’”

For sure, Mowatt is keeping busy.

She does clinics and other softball instruction. She is part of the PFX — a professional softball barnstorming tour. She and former UA teammate Sam Banister recently shot a untitled pilot for a TV show in which Mowatt is the host, meeting with athletes from other sports “and we kind of explain the similarities and differences between the training they do for their sport and the training we do for our sport,” she said.

Mowatt, who has two ESPY awards from her UA playing days, spent three days in Philadelphia last month for her scenes in the movie, which is set for release in December 2010, according to IMDB.com.

TucsonCitizen.com caught up with Mowatt to discuss her experience:

Q: What happened when you got to Philadelphia for the shooting?

Mowatt: “When we got there, (former UCLA coach Sue Enquist) took us all out to dinner. Coach Enquist was a big part of the movie. She had been working with Reese for months and months, teaching her how to play softball. Then, for two days we had rehearsals for seven or eight hours, just basically practicing, working on the scene setup, how we wanted it to look. The director hadn’t decided exactly what he wanted the scene to look like, so we came up with a couple of different options to present to him no the shooting day. After two days of rehearsals, we shot the scene.”

Q: So you spent all day on set?

Mowatt: “You have to get there really early, like 6 o’clock in the morning. I mean, they have every breakfast possibility you could think of.”

Q: How long do you think the scene will be in the movie?

Mowatt: “I think it’s like a 30-second scene that took, not including the days of rehearsals, about three to four hours. You have to keep doing it over and over, and from different angles and making sure everyone looks OK.”

Q: Did you love it or did it become tedious?

Mowatt: “I loved it. I know there were a lot of girls there who didn’t like all the waiting around, and I was like, ‘I love this. I could do this all day long.’”

Q: What did you love about it?

Mowatt: “I just loved seeing how everything worked behind the scenes. Keep in mind that it supposed to be set in Arizona. And it was cold there. I mean, it was freezing. I guess it had dropped down to 40 degrees. But we’re supposed to pretending that it is sunny and hot. Just the way they changed the field to make it look like it was in a different place; it was kind of cool to see that. I was looking at it, wondering, ‘How are they going to make this look like Arizona? There are trees and it’s green and it’s cloudy.’ It is going to be interesting to see how they changed what we filmed to make it look like it is set in a different place.”

Q: How do you describe the scene you were in?

Mowatt: “My scene is a very small scene. I just play a member of a team that is underneath the Olympic team. And what we’re doing is practicing little drills, and then Reese walks by practice and we all just kind of admire her.”

Q: Did you get to meet Reese?

Mowatt: “She came over to use and introduced herself. We talked for little bit before we shot the scene, and afterward we talked to her for a short time before she had to go shoot another scene.”

Q; What was she like?

“She was tiny. That was my first impression — ‘Wow, she is really small.’ Coach Enquist had said she is very small and petite, and I was thinking, ‘Yeah, obviously.’ But when you see her, she is even smaller than you think. I want to say 5-2 and just really skinny, almost like if you were to hug her, it would feel like she wasn’t there.”

(Witherspoon is scheduled to be on Friday’s Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien, so she might reference the movie.)

An Arizona assistant coach once told me that he thought one of the worst things that could have happened to the program was running back Chris Henry being selected in the second round of the 2007 draft.

Donald Horton

It was good publicity for the team, but the coach worried about the message. It was all wrong, he thought. He feared players would think that you didn’t have to work hard, you didn’t have to do all the right things, in order to be rewarded.

That was an interesting take, but he didn’t have to worry.

The Arizona program under coach Mike Stoops has evolved from a me-first outfit into, by most accounts, an all-for-one group that is 6-2 overall, 4-1 in the Pac-10, and has to rely on no one else to get to the Rose Bowl. That process resumes Saturday at Cal.

The earlier days of the Stoops era stand in the starkest contrast to the moment at hand. Defensive tackle Donald Horton, a fifth-year senior who arrived for Stoops’ second season in 2005, laughs when contrasting this team to early ones.

“Oh, shoot. Way different,” he said.

“When I first got here, it wasn’t necessarily about the team, or necessarily about winning. Guys were doing their own thing to try to get to the next level. It was kind of like a lost cause. It was the end of their road and they couldn’t see us winning any time soon.

“They were just trying to get as many good stats as they could to get to a good spot at the next level.”

The players are still talking about the next level, but in a larger sense. It’s about taking the team to the next level. It’s about the potential for this team to earn the program’s first Rose Bowl appearance.

“You feel like, man, if we can just knock off Oregon and USC, we can really be in a good spot, but what it all comes down to, you have to take yourself back to ‘one game at a time’ as far as the preparation,” Horton said.

“You can get beat anytime, but every now and then you start to wonder in your mind, ‘Man, if we can do this and that, we can put ourselves in a great position.”

Stoops, since the beginning of fall camp, has talked about this team’s maturity, which has helped breed winning, which has helped breed confidence, which has helped breed this very exciting final month of the season.

Stoops says there isn’t a sense of dread or doom that the Cats’ toughest tasks are still at hand. They have to play three tough road games — Cal, ASU, USC. They have to play Oregon at home on Nov. 21 for control of the league race.

There are no guarantees there. Some games look tougher than others, but, really, it’s a series of coin flips the rest of the way. Even against offensively challenged ASU.

Worry? Not Stoops. He says that while others might fret about who Arizona has to play, there is a sense among his guys that “they gotta play us.”

Mark Stoops, the defensive coordinator, added: “There is not a lot of fear in our players or coaches.”

Back at the beginning of his career, Horton said he hated going to practice, because “it was so gloomy. It seemed like every day was cloudy, even though it was Arizona.”

Now, even practice is fun.

That’s what happens when you work hard and do the right things. Maybe the Wildcats are about to get rewarded for that.

Welcome to our second installment of WWW. We lead off with a former football coach who writes a periodic newspaper column … you be the judge at which job he is better at.

Damon Stoudamire is part of the best backcourt in Arizona history, at least according to one ranking.

Palm Springs Desert Sun: Ex-Arizona coach John Mackovic writes that the man who succeeded him, Mike Stoops, is one of the top two candidates for Pac-10 Coach of the Year.

Wildaboutazcats.com: Ranking the top 10 backcourts in Arizona history. No. 1 on this list? Khalid Reeves and Damon Stoudamire.

NBA.com: Former Wildcat Andre Iguodala is known for his highlight dunks with the Philadelphia 76ers, but this story examines his defense and ranks as one of the league’s top two-way players. Says Sixers coach Eddie Jordan: “I call him ‘TCP.’ The complete package.”

USA Today: Ex-Cat Josh Pastner, the new head coach at Memphis, signed one of the nation’s top basketball classes this week.

Rivals.com: Ranking the Top 25 college basketball coaches. No. 1 is North Carolina’s Roy Williams, followed by Michigan Stats’ Tom Izzo and Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski. Where does Sean Miller fall on the list?

Previous World Wide Wildcats:
Oct. 29

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

With all due credit to ESPN.com’s Ted Miller, we now have a sampling of opinion from opposing coaches on what is making the Arizona football team tick this season.

Miller asked several coaches on today’s Pac-10 coaches teleconference with reporters a variation of this theme: Why is Arizona better this season? What have the Wildcats done to be so good?

Be on the lookout for something from Miller later in the week on his essential Pac-10 blog, and here is a taste of the reasons those coaches gave. Interesting that there are four different answers from four different coaches.

Oregon State’s Mike Riley — offensive efficiency
“I think Mike (Stoops) has had a good defense and system and guys have grown defensively. The system has been there and has been solid for them. I think where they have really made an impact is their efficiency on offense — the percentage passing by the quarterback, the good running game. I think that has been the missing ingredient for them until this year.”

UCLA’s Rick Neuheisel — speed
“I think they have as good of team speed as anyone around. Oregon and them are, in my mind, the fastest teams we have seen all year, and that includes Tennessee. I think they have done a great job that way.”

Washington State’s Paul Wulff — experience in system
“They have players who have been in the system and have been coached the same things over a four- and five-year period of time. They haven’t wavered in terms of how they went about it. They brought in some better athletes, and they all know the system and they have a tremendous amount of confidence in what they do. When you stay the course, and just keep bringing in the type of kids who fit your system, and you let them mature and grow up … then once you start having success, it just keeps growing.”

Washington’s Steve Sarkisian — secondary play
“The DBs do a great job of keeping the ball in front of them, not giving up deep balls. I think something they do well in comparison to maybe some other teams in the country, is their DBs have excellent ball skills. And they have been that way for years. These guys, when the ball is in the air, have the ability to make a play on the ball and create turnovers. I just think they do a nice job of coaching that aspect of the game.”

Running back Jordon James from Corona, Calif., who was in Tucson on an official visit for UA’s 48-7 victory over Washington State last weekend, will announce his college choice Thursday night on ESPNU, according to Scout.com.

If so, that means he won’t take his scheduled official visit to UCLA, although he has been to UCLA unofficially often enough that you can’t rule out the Bruins.

Looks like it will come down to Arizona, Cal, UCLA and Notre Dame. James is rated the 19th-best recruit in the nation, according to ESPN.com.

Arizona did pick up a commitment from last week’s visits — defensive back Jourdan Grandon from Avondale Westview High School.

Arizona inched higher in the AP poll released today, moving from No. 21 to 18 after its 48-7 victory over Washington State. The Wildcats are still 19th in the coaches poll.

This is UA’s highest ranking in the AP poll since the week of Aug. 29, 1999, when the Wildcats were 15th after beginning the season at No. 4 and getting wiped out at Penn State, 41-7.

Arizona is as high as No. 12 on two of the 60 AP ballots. John Hunt of the Oregonian newspaper and Steve Campbell of the Houston Chronicle each have the Wildcats at No. 12, ahead of every other Pac-10 team.

That doesn’t make complete sense to me, since Oregon, at 5-1 in league play, is still leading the conference by a half game over 4-1 Arizona. And the Ducks already have a win over USC in their pockets.

In any case, UA and UO can settle it on the field on Nov. 21 in Tucson.

(By the way, Ryan Finley of the Arizona Daily Star, who has the state’s lone AP vote this season, puts the Wildcats at No. 19.) You can see his full ballot, as well as everybody else’s, at pollspeak.com, a great place to kill a lot of time.

There are four Pac-10 teams in the AP Top 25 — No. 11 USC, No. 14 Oregon, Arizona and Stanford moved in this week at No. 25. Oregon State is No. 26, the leader in the “others receiving votes” category.

The Arizona football team, in a phrase you will often hear for at least the next two weeks, controls its own destiny.

But here’s the thing: The Wildcats don’t even have to win all of their remaining four games to win the Pac-10.

They just have to win three.

As long as they win the right three.

After another wild day of Pac-10 play — Stanford upsets Oregon, Cal star running back Jahvid Best is injured, USC holds on to win at ASU — here are the league standings:

Oregon, 5-1
Arizona, 4-1
Stanford, 5-2
USC, 4-2
Oregon State, 4-2
California, 3-3
Arizona State, 2-4
Washington, 2-4
UCLA, 1-5
Washington State 0-6

Arizona has four games left — at Cal, vs. Oregon, at Arizona State and at USC. The Wildcats can lose one of those games — as long as it’s against Cal or ASU — and still be in control of their own destiny.

But they have to beat Oregon and USC for that to happen.

Here’s how it works:

An Arizona team that finishes 7-2 with victories over Oregon and USC would win any tiebreaker involving teams with two league losses. That’s because the Wildcats, who already have defeated Stanford and Oregon State, would have beaten every potential two-loss team.

By the way, those wins over Stanford and Oregon State are looking better all the time.

Here is the upshot: Arizona can LOSE at Cal this week and still control its own destiny.

And that means this: You better get your tickets for the Nov. 21 game against Oregon because it will be the most important home game at Arizona this late in the season. Ever.

There is a breakdown of the rest of the Pac-10 schedule at our partner wildaboutazcats.com.

Postgame notes and quotes from Arizona’s 48-7 victory over Washington State:

YOU CAN HAVE A GAME BALL FOR ONLY $10 MILLION
Jeff and Sharon Stevens of El Paso, who donated $10 million Thursday toward the construction of the north end zone project at Arizona Stadium, were special guests at Saturday’s game. Coach Mike Stoops presented the Stevens — who are both UA grads — with a game ball in the postgame locker room.

UA assistant Jeff Hammerschmidt, who coordinates the special teams, was also given a game ball after his unit returned a kick and a punt for touchdowns. Word is, there was some joking in the locker room that the game ball should have gone to linebackers coach Tim Kish, who oversaw the special teams walkthrough on Friday while Hammerschmidt was out recruiting.

COOL STAT
The Arizona first-string defense hasn’t allowed a touchdown in the past two games. UCLA scored its only touchdown on a fumble return, and Washington State scored midway through the fourth quarter when the Cats were using second- and third-stringers.

REED READY TO ROLL
Defensive end Brooks Reed, who had missed almost all of the Pac-10 season because of a sprained ankle, entered the game against Washington State on the Cougars’ third series. On WSU’s fourth series, Reed beat the right tackle around the edge and circled around to knock the ball loose from quarterback Jeff Tuel. Lolomana Mikaele recovered at the WSU 14, and UA scored three plays later to take a 31-0 lead early in the second quarter.

The coaches took Reed out of the game soon after that.

Said defensive coordinator Mark Stoops: “I saw a couple of people rolling up on him and cutting him, and said, ‘That’s enough.’”

Basically, the coaches wanted to test Reed to see if he was full speed for a daunting final month of the season. They came away convinced that he is, which is a big boost for the defense, which now has a better chance of getting a consistent pass rush without having to blitz.

“He really showed his snap,” said head coach Mike Stoops.

RUNNING BACK ROULETTE
Stoops said that backup running back Greg Nwoko, recovering from a shoulder sprain, could have played against Washington State but didn’t. “We didn’t feel like we had to risk it,” Stoops said. Better to rest Nwoko and get him ready for the final stretch. No word from Stoops on starter Nic Grigsby, who has been behind Nwoko’s timetable in rehabbing a shoulder injury. We’ll hear more from Stoops about Grigsby on Monday.

Without those two, Arizona used Keola Antolin, Nick Booth and true freshman H-back Taimi Tutogi at tailback. Booth led the way with 18 carries for 84 yards. The coaches could have given Antolin a larger workload but were cognizant of the need to keep him healthy, too.

COOL STAT, PART II
For the second time this season, Arizona’s Keenyn Crier did not attempt a punt.

FOLES FEELING FINE
When quarterback Nick Foles was last seen on a football field, he threw three interceptions and was involved in two fumbles against UCLA while suffering from what he described as an upper respiratory infection that wiped him out. He played a little more than half the game against Washington State, leaving in the middle of the second quarter but coming back in after halftime for much of the third quarter.

Foles completed 12 of 19 passes for 136 yards, with one touchdown and no interception. The touchdown was a thing of beauty, as he threw an arcing pass from the left hashmark toward the right corner of the end zone. The ball went over a defender to Terrell Turner, who had just enough room to make a nice catch in bounds.

“Nick Foles is really, really good,” said Washington State coach Paul Wulff. “He was so accurate and poised. He’s just a sophomore and he’s really, really good.”

GET THIS MAN A SCORE UPDATE
Stoops admitted he was eager to cut short his postgame interview so he could catch the end of the Oregon-Stanford game. Before the Cardinal hung on to upset the Ducks 51-42, Stoops was asked if he would be surprised by a Stanford victory. “No. I know what type of team Stanford has,” he said. “I have seen them up close and personal, and they present some unique challenges offensively. No one really understands until you play them. They can score a lot of points.”

QUOTE TO NOTE
“The thing I was most proud of is just the way our kids took the field. It wasn’t a jump-up-and-down, hit-your-head-on-the-goal-post kind of week. We were just focused on the details that win you football games.” — UA coach Mike Stoops, on his team’s steady, serious demeanor.

Cats beat Washington State 48-7. Says UA coach Mike Stoops: “For the most part , we played a very complete game today. It was great to see special teams getting those two touchdowns. This was a very positive game for us, especially going into Cal next week.”

Arizona moves to 6-2 overall and 4-1 in the Pac-10, a half-game behind Oregon (5-1), which lost 51-42 at Stanford on Saturday.

* * *

Arizona goes up 48-0 with 7:06 left on a 1-yard run by Taimi Tutogi. John Bonano kicks the extra point at the end of an 8 minute, 7 second drive. Bring on Cal next Saturday.

* * *

It’s 41-0 heading into the fourth quarter. Matt Scott is back at quarterback for Arizona. The Cats are going for their first shutout of a Pac-10 team since Sept. 25, 1993, when they won 33-0 at Oregon State.

* * *

The Arizona defense has forced seven three-and-outs so far … halfway through the third quarter.

* * *

With 7:50 to go in third quarter, Arizona has gone to its second-string defense, which includes true freshman Adam Hall from Palo Verde High at free safety. (Former Tucson Citizen columnist Corky Simpson is in the press box representing the Green Valley News, and he comments that he is “greedy” and would like to see Hall pick off a pass to see what he can do with the ball.)

Another local true freshman, Jake Fischer from Ironwood Ridge, is playing linebacker.

* * *

Nick Foles is back at quarterback for Arizona. Why?

Arizona has freshman Taimi Tutogi — who has seen time at H-back this season — in at tailback, which is a sign that UA isn’t ready to take freshman Daniel Jenkins out of his redshirt.

* * *

Arizona entered the game with minus-1 yard on three punt returns for the entire season. In one swoop, Bug Wright just picked up up 86 and a touchdown. That was the fifth-longest punt return in UA history.

It was a classic case of Washington State out-kicking its coverage with a 61-yard boot. Wright started slowly, then picked out a spot along the right sideline. He got the blocks and sped the rest of the way into the end zone.

* * *

Looks like about half the student section didn’t come back for the second half.

* * *

Total yardage at halftime: Arizona 267, Washington State 91

* * *

Another way to track the Cats game is at the twitter feed from UA athletics — WildcatsLive. They’re experimenting this week with some video from the stands.

* * *

Shades of September. Matt Scott drives the Wildcats into the red zone, but the offense then stalls and settles for a field goal. Alex Zendejas connects on a 27-yard field goal for a 34-0 lead with 1:23 to go before halftime. It’s good to see Scott get some time, though. He did some nice running on the drive, including a 22-yard rush, but his passing is still inconsistent as he missed some throws he could have completed.

For Washington State, QB Jeff Tuel is out with a right knee sprain. Marshall Lobbestael is in. Tuel’s return is questionable.

* * *

Matt Scott comes in at quarterback for Arizona with 8:30 left in the second quarter. He runs from the shotgun formation on his first play, and completes a long pass to Chris Gronkowski on his second play … but it was called back because of a chop block. We’ll be seeing third-stringer Bryson Beirne in the second half.

* * *

Arizona comes up with a defensive stop after Washington State reached first-and-goal from the 9. After a holding penalty and an incomplete pass, WSU quarterback Jeff Tuel scrambles to his left but is caught from behind by linebacker Xavier Kelley, who forces a fumble that Arizona recovers. Tuel, who grew up in Tucson and attended Salpointe Catholic as a freshman, was hurt on the play.

* * *

Total yardage with 13:28 to go in the second quarter: Arizona 178, Washington State 1.

* * *

Arizona capitalizes on the turnover, with Nick Booth scoring a yard out for a 31-0 lead with 13:28 to go before halftime. We’re going to see some seriously deep reserves in the game for Arizona in the second half.

* * *

Brooks Reed, returning from an ankle injury, makes an impact on his second series of the game, speed-rushing past the left tackle and coming around to knock the ball loose from Washington State quarterback Jeff Tuel for a sack. Defensive tackle Lolomana Mikaele recovers for UA at the WSU 14. Reed’s early play is the best sign of the game for the Cats.

* * *

Arizona is finally stopped. Kind of. Washington State holds UA to a 21-yard field goal from Alex Zendejas after the Cats had first-and-goal from the 8. Arizona leads 24-0 with 24 seconds to play in the opening quarter.

* * *

Arizona defensive end Brooks Reed makes his first appearance of the game in Washington State’s latest series. On second down, he bull-rushed left tackle Alex Reitnouer and knocked him down, but QB Jeff Tuel threw the ball to the other side before Reed could get to him. On third down, the Cougars kept in a running back to help block Reed.

* * *

No worries. Arizona drives 65 yards for a 21-0 lead with 7:21 to go in the first quarter. Keola Antolin leaps for a 1-yard touchdown to cap the drive … now, the question is, how many times will he get tackled by his hair?

* * *

In about as pretty a play as you will see, Nick Foles threw from the left hashmark to the right corner of the end zone, where the ball dropped nicely into the hands of Terrell Turner just over a defender and inside the sideline for a 28-yard touchdown. Arizona is doing what it should do — jump all over Washington State. It’s 14-0 with 11:43 to play in the first quarter.

* * *

A couple of quick things from WSU’s first possession: UA’s Brooks Reed did not start at defensive end, and Arizona already has a sack of Jeff Tuel. The Cougars allow a national-high 5.0 sacks per game.

* * *

How do you like that? That didn’t take long. Arizona goes up 7-0 on a 95-yard kickoff return by Travis Cobb, and there is only 13 seconds off the clock. That is UA’s first kickoff return for a touchdown since Chris McAlister went 100 yards on the first play of the 1998 season at Hawaii.

I was there at that game in 1998, and if there was ever a sign of a great season, that was it. It was a stunning reversal of a season earlier when Oregon’s Saladin McCullough returned the opening kick of the season for a touchdown against Arizona. Anyway, that’s my little trip down memory lane.

PREGAME

Normally, we would do three “keys to the game,” but there are no keys other than for Arizona to avoid disaster with turnovers. Straight-up, there should be no way for Washington State to hang around.

So, instead, let’s go for “Three things to watch:”

1. Comeback players. UA receiver Delashaun Dean and defensive end Brooks Reed both could use this game to launch into the final difficult four weeks of the season. Dean has been banged up since training camp and hasn’t spent much time at full health. He said earlier this week that is he “95 percent.” Close enough. Reed has missed almost all of the Pac-10 season because of a sprained ankle, but went through pregame warm-ups today.

2. Will Daniel Jenkins play … and, if so, how much and how well? Jenkins, a true freshman running back, might be pulled out of his redshirt today because of shoulder injuries to Nic Grigsby and Greg Nwoko. It’s a little late in the season to come out of a redshirt; if he plays, that might be a sign than the injuries to Grigsby and Nwoko are going to last beyond this week’s game. Jenkins was one of the most highly rated recruits from the last signing class.

3. How the Wildcats respond to success? Good teams come out and step all over inferior opponents. Arizona has been receiving unusual attention in the past couple of weeks, entering the rankings and moving to second in the Pac-10 with a 3-1 mark. Coaches and players say none of it will go to Arizona’s head. We’ll see.

The Arizona media relations office brought in several football players for group interviews Monday. The player who spoke the loudest, most authoritatively … the one who was most at ease?

Nick Foles at Monday's press conference/TucsonCitizen.com photo

That’s the way you would want it, and for all the good stuff he is doing on the field, that’s only part of the story. He has been a starter for only four games, but this is his team.

“Nick is a leader,” said senior receiver Delashaun Dean. “Probably one of the best I have seen come through here. He keeps everybody loose. He’s just a guy you want to have as your general out there on the field. We just want to rally behind him.”

UA outside receivers coach Dave Nichol was at Baylor when he tried to lure Foles from Westlake High School in Austin, Texas. “I wrote him a million letters,” Nichol said, “which he never replied to.”

I asked Nichol what was it about Foles that he really liked in high school. “Just real sharp. His coach would say that he was the leader of the basketball team and he would organize seven-on-seven drills in the summer. Those guys at the quarterback position, that is what you look for. Obviously, he is big and he can throw it, but he just kind of has that savviness that says, ‘I’m a leader.’”

Foles said he didn’t remember those million letters from Nichol, but he did say that after he sent his letter-of-intent to Michigan State in February 2007, his dad told him that Baylor had come through with a scholarship offer for football and basketball. Before you get any ideas, realize that coach Sean Miller’s basketball team is plenty deep and Foles has absolutely no inclination to do any walk-on work with UA hoops, as quarterback Ortege Jenkins did about a decade ago.

“When you play quarterback at this level, it’s hard,” Foles said. “In the offseason, that’s your chance to become better — work on timing with the guys, go through film cut-ups. At this level, with this offense, you have to be studying your butt off in the offseason. So that is what I’m going to be doing.” …

Read more about Foles at our partner wildaboutazcats.com’s weekly Nothing but the Notes column.

The hallmark of this Arizona defense is speed over size, and that is especially applicable at linebacker, where the Wildcats have two outside ‘backers who are listed at 5-foot-11 (Xavier Kelley and Sterling Lewis) and a middle linebacker, Vuna Tuihalamaka, dubiously listed at 6-2. They are not major prospects from an NFL perspective. “I think maybe the knock on our linebackers this year is our overall size,” said linebackers coach Tim Kish. “I think everybody in the NFL would love to have 6-3, 6-4 linebackers because of the size of the offensive linemen they’re competing against. But nobody plays with as much heart as these three guys do. They’re students of the game, and I think all three will get a look (at the next level).” …

As far as linebackers of the future, Arizona is hosting Josh Shirley on an official visit this weekend. Shirley, from Fontana (Calif.) Kaiser High School, is rated the 117th-best prospect in the nation, and the seventh-best outside linebacker, as rated by Rivals.com. He has offers from a slew of schools, including USC, Tennessee, Notre Dame and Miami and Washington (which he visited in September). Another key recruit visiting this weekend is running back Jordon James of Corona, Calif. He is rated the 19th-best recruit in the country by ESPN.com, although he’s “only” No. 91 on the Rivals.com list. The Wildcats could end up being a finalist for James, who still has to visit UCLA but has said he could decide by the end of the month. … UA’s quarterback commit for next season — Matt Brown of Allen (Texas) High — is expected to be in town. In a 52-28 win over Plano East on Oct. 30, he threw for 260 yards and ran for 148. … For more football recruiting news for this weekend, check out Chris Bonney’s story at Wildcat Sports Report. …

In UA’s most recent game, Arizona guard Herman Hall went up against UCLA junior defensive tackle Brian Price, who is having an All-American kind of season, with a conference-best 12 tackles for loss, including four sacks. Has Price been Hall’s toughest competition of the season? Nope. “The toughest guy I have gone against this year is No. 54 from Oregon State,” Hall said. “He’s a big, strong kid — and a nice player, too.” No. 54 is Stephen Paea, who does fall into the underrated category. … Could Foles have a big game Saturday against Washington State? Consider that the Cougars have allowed five of eight opponents to gain at least 500 yards (and another put up 481). “Washington State is going to throw everything they have at us,” Foles said. “For a lot of teams, it’s easy to overlook games like this, but this game means as much as any other.” …

How good has Arizona been in the past two years? The Wildcats are 16-8 overall and 11-6 in the Pac-10 since Oct. 27, 2007 — which is a pretty remarkable turnaround since coach Mike Stoops likely was a whisker away from being fired before the Cats turned it around by rallying to win at Washington in late October 2007. Looking at how other Pac-10 teams have done in their past 17 conference games, USC has 14 victories, Oregon State has 13, Oregon has 12 and Arizona is next with its 11 wins. “We have played some awfully good football the last two years,” Stoops said.

Other national reading:
George Schroeder, the very fine columnist for the Eugene Register-Guard, wrote a piece for SI.com Thursday: Under-the-radar Arizona sitting pretty in Rose Bowl race

And there was this from Steve Megargee from Rivals.com: Arizona quietly making a move in the Pac-10

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