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AG's Wildcat Report - Dispatches on the Wildcats, from Anthony Gimino

Close-call Cats: Win some, lose some

by on Oct. 10, 2010, under Sports

Arizona's pass defense gave up 393 passing yards to Ryan Katz, including this 48-yard touchdown strike to Markus Wheaton/Chris Morrison, US PRESSWIRE

The Arizona Wildcats football team hasn’t really changed from the beginning of the season.

The AP ranking said the Cats were ninth in the nation last week, which, correctly, was a reflection of their resume. But, really? Ninth? Arizona is good enough to compete with a Top 10 team, to beat a Top 10 team, but actually being a Top 10 team seemed a little much.

Fun for the seven days it lasted?

I still think the same thing about Arizona as I did at the beginning of the season: The Wildcats are somewhere in the big, fat belly of the Pac-10 and they are going to play seven or eight conference games that:

1. Will go down to the wire.
2. Could turn on one or two key plays.
3. Might just be decided by the football gods.

If they go 6-3 in this Pac-10, that would be a heck of a fine season.

“The Pac-10 has a lot of great teams,” Arizona quarterback Nick Foles said after a 29-7 home loss to Oregon State on Saturday night. “And I know, for us, every week is going to be a tough game.”

During the bye week, a fellow Pac-10 sportswriter was trying to sell me on the idea that Arizona would get to at least 7-0. There was some logic to that. The Wildcats were already 4-0 and were going to be favored to beat Oregon State, and Washington State after that, and Washington after that.

The 7-0 projection made a lot of sense, one game at a time, but I argued that Arizona, collectively, just wasn’t good enough to win all three.

And then the Cats lost to Oregon State.

Arizona isn’t good enough to win them all, isn’t good enough to play well every time out.

Saturday night, the pass defense was horrible. Alex Zendejas’ place-kicking is worrisome again. Punter Keenyn Crier can’t down a punt inside the 20 to save his life. The production in the running game has slowed to a trickle. If only this team had a tight end to work the middle of the field.

Coaches and players were split after the game as to whether the team might have “lost its edge” or needed a “wake-up call” after the feel-good 4-0 start. Mostly, I just think the Wildcats got beat Saturday by a similarly talented team that played a little better.

Put me down for “win some, lose some.”

Things have been this close:

–Arizona’s past five conference games have been decided by a total of 13 points (UA is 3-2 in those games).

–Nine of Arizona’s past 11 conference games have been determined by eight points or less — basically, one score, including the two-point conversion (UA is 5-4 in those nine games).

That is a ridiculous amount of close games — Arizona had never played five consecutive Pac-10 games that each were decided by four points or less — but such is life for the competitive Cats in this competitive Pac-10.

“It is a long season,” coach Mike Stoops said. “None of the other teams in the conference really set themselves apart. We all have our strengths and weaknesses, and we managed to overcome some, but it just didn’t happen for us tonight.”

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 10th, 2010 at 1:32 am and is filed under Sports. 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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  • Scott King

    Are you the same Gimino that wrote so many astute things about Keenyn Crier in the past? 

    Where you on another planet when Crier kicked 3 punts inside of the 5 yard line against in 2009 against Oregon State, that some including perhaps you thought that performance won the game for the Wildcats?  How about the 7 punts inside the 20 yard line against USC in 2007 and garnering PAC-10 Special Team Player of the Week?  Perhaps, you are a different Gimino or Alzheimer’s has set in your mind or myopia is effecting your vision.

    Keenyn Crier arguably has probably one of the most diverse short and long punting games in the history of the PAC-10 and the NCAA.
    Keenyn Crier is the only player on the team that has garnered All-America honors until a coaching replacement arrived. 

    Perhaps your journalism contributed to Crier being named All-America by four different reputable college sports organizations in 2007 and 2008. 
    Keenyn Crier’s punting had nothing to do with the result of the game.  His punting seems to have given you something to vent about, with what seems to be your myopic vision. 

    Mr. Gimino, as coach Stoops said, “It’s a long season” so, maybe your venomous statements will change.

    Keenyn Crier’s placement punting can save your life.

    Go WILDCATS!!!

  • Anthony Gimino

    Scott…
     
    Quite an passionate defense of Mr. Crier. Hey, I’ve given him his due before — twice ranking him in the national top 10 among punters in Lindy’s magazines — but his performance in the past couple of seasons has been spotty at best. And what are these mysterious All-American honors to which you refer? He was a multiple second-team Freshman All-American in 2007; but he hasn’t been a “regular” All-American.
     
    He had three punts — three chances — to be a weapon on special teams against Oregon State. From the UA 48, he knocked a punt into the end zone. From the UA 45, he hit one (with no return) to the OSU 20. From the OSU 47, he nearly kicked it out of the end zone for a touchback.
     
    Against Cal, he had a punt from the Bears 39 … another touchback. He had one from the UA 44 that ended in a fair catch at the Cal 24. To his credit, he also hit one from the Cal 45 that was fair caught at the 4. (Arizona turned that field position advantage into a field goal … exemplifying how important he can be ).
     
    Against Iowa, he managed just a 21-yard punt from the Iowa 47.
     
    Those are seven “inside the 20″ chances in the past three games, and he converted only one. I don’t expect him to nail all of them, but when he fails to be better in tight games, I think that’s worthy of identifying as a current problem.

    • Scott King

      Passionate?  Um, you think so?  It must have been the coffee.

      Your article 4 years ago entitled and I’m paraphrasing “5 things about the Wildcats”, # 3 was the freshman Keenyn Crier has a big league leg.  Well, he may not be on his “A” game but, none of us are all the time.  Kicking and punting is more than physical ability it’s also mental and most of the 120 coaches in Division 1-A, don’t know what they are doing and are of little help, and it’s not their primary duty.  Most kickers and punters are their own coach and they don’t get paid for coaching.

      Your source of All-America data must be from the university’s website which is not accurate.  I can forward you my source detail if you like.  Freshman All-America Punter on 4 organizations selection, 2 first team and 2 second team and Sophomore All-America Punter tst team in 2008.  That’s the same freshman list that had Sam Bradford, Michael Crabtree and more as Freshman 1st Team All-America.  It’s still All-America honor recognizing extroadinary performance.  Is there another player on the roster that has comparable honors?

      Punters don’t win games and they don’t lose them, teams do.  Yes, indirectly it may effect scores but, not wins or losses.

      Do you know how many plays it took USC to score on us when Keenyn Crier kicked the 83 yarder to the USC 2 yard line, then a penalty move the ball to the USC 1 yard line?

      Thanks for the dialogue.

      GO WILDCATS!!!

  • Carlos J. M.

    Hey Gimino, yeah that one, the one and only, you nailed it, and  in chronological order with stats and all.  Spot on.  Crier’s been horrible, to say the least.  I don’t think I’ve seen three athletes with such a deer in the headlights look after screwing up like I’ve seen in Crier, Horne and, that’s right, Foles. 

    Special Teams is called that for a reason, but Crier and Zendejas and Bonano, with our onside kicking (what was that last night?!) and kickoff  (just once I’d like to see a return man catch it and be stopped for no return, or certainly one or two stopped before the 20 yard line, please!) teams both, leave a lot – a lot – to be desired.  Pathetic is one word that comes to mind.  And this is the No. 9 team, at home, in front of a sellout crowd, in a Rose Bowl hunt?  Is that Hammershmidt’s turf?

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  • J. Hall

    Team loses are simply that a big fat “L”.
     There is far to much season left,to throw anyone under the bus.
    This team will bounce back.There were too many distractions ,
    during the bye week ,IMHO.
    Watch them ,Smash the Cougs,in  Pullman.
    Go “Wild”Cats, and BEAR DOWN !

  • http://none JimBodkins

    I dont care – I’m not much of a football fan and probably shouldnt comment … but …

    There are two possible dialogues …

    1) Arizona is a second tier program that had a good game against Iowa

    2) Arizona was on the first tier and fell out of grace

    I’m picking 1 … by the way so is the team. I just watched the interviews and to a man they are relieved they are no longer tier 1 … that includes the coach. This team psychologically has no business in tier one. This program may develop a team that does … then again it may not. I wouldnt say that about OSU with their coach. The better program won.

    Smith never settled … here or at USC.

    I see settling … its ok with me as long at it doesnt infect UofA’s tier one programs.

  • http://none JimBodkins

    I wanted to mention that this year I think the upper 2 quintiles are clearly better than the bottom 3. (Speculation from a non-football expert)

    65% 20% 5% 5% 5% (The last three are averaged to 5)
      1        2      3    4    5

    or

    50% 35% 5% 5% 5% (the last three are averaged to 5)
       1       2     3    4     5

    maybe

    45% 30% 15% 5% 5% (the last two averaged to 5)
       1       2      3      4     5

    … with the UofA in the last two. I dont see the bottom 3 at least being a significant part of the whole. Maybe it is, but the distribution seems top heavy to me this year.

    It would be interesting to see how the distritution would look from a football fans perspective.

    (the quintiles are groups of teams not individual teams)

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