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Arizona stayed at No. 15 in this week’s AP poll, as there was little movement (i.e. losses) from the teams just ahead of the Wildcats.
Arizona moved ahead of Iowa (which suffered a narrow home loss to Wisconsin) but was jumped by undefeated Missouri (which delivered the first loss to Oklahoma).
Speaking of Iowa …
How is that that the 6-1 Wildcats still trail 5-2 Iowa on three of the 60 AP ballots?
Arizona swarms to the ball to take down Washington running back Chris Polk/Photo by Chris Morrison, US PRESSWIRE
The focus, deservedly so, was on Arizona Wildcats quarterback Matt Scott in the 44-14 victory over Washington, but don’t forget about the standout performance by the defense.
Arizona, as I noted last week, had held four of its first six opponents to their season-low point total and had (in a different combination of teams) held four foes to their season-low yardage total.
How did the Cats do against Washington?
The Huskies’ 14 points tied their season low (against Arizona State) and their 290 yards were their second-lowest total of the year.
“As we keep going,” said senior defensive end Ricky Elmore, “every win gets more satisfying, makes us hungier and makes us want to work harder.”
It helped that Washington quarterback Jake Locker was bothered by a rib injury, which limited what the Huskies could do with him in the running game. He was 17 of 29 passing for 183 yards, and the Cats sacked him four times. He had only two other runs.
“He’s beat up,” said Washington coach Steve Sarkisian. “His ribs are hurting and I didn’t want to expose him.”
Arizona is seventh in total defense (13.43 points per game) and 10th in total defense (285.14 yards per game). Both marks lead the Pac-10.
It would be a quick show of hands from those who saw that coming.
Nick Foles took a few snaps in pregame warmups and later had his uniform on. He is out tonight because of a knee injury, but he was seen doing some light jogging, too, which can't be a bad sign/Photo via Twitter from KOLD-TV's Damian Alameda
Arizona, through portions of its Pac-10 existence, hasn’t always had one quarterback it can win with. Now it has two.
The Wildcats’ 44-14 victory over Washington on Saturday night was most notable for the stellar play of backup quarterback Matt Scott, starting in place of injured Nick Foles, who was dressed out for the game but not available to play because of a knee injury, coach Mike Stoops said.
Arizona didn’t need to use any other quarterback other than Bryson Beirne in mop-up time because Scott did everything Foles can do in the passing game, and also brought a running dimension to the position.
“I thought Matt was outstanding,” Stoops said.
“Matt did a great job of being Matt tonight. I told him, ‘Just be yourself. You don’t have to be anything but that. You have talent. Use your instincts.’”
Scott mostly stood in the pocket and made his reads, completing 18 of 22 passes for 233 yards, with two touchdowns and no interceptions. He also ran seven times for 65, including a 32-yarder when he found open space after fooling the defense on a read-option play.
“We ran a little bit, passed a little bit and mixed it up pretty good,” Scott said. “We really had them confused all game.”
* * *
It’s all going the Wildcats’ way as Matt Scott drops the snap, picks it up and, in one motion, lofts a pass to Juron Criner in the end zone for a touchdown. It’s 44-14 Arizona with 11:09 to play. The Zona Zoo has mostly gone off to other campue venues, as the student section is about one-third full.
I’ll be going down to the field soon, but Javier Morales of WildAboutAZCats.com and I will be back with postgame reaction later.
* * *
Looking ahead already: Arizona will be at UCLA next Saturday, and the Bruins announced tonight that quarterback Kevin Prince will miss the rest of the season after undergoing knee surgery. That makes sophomore Richard Brehaut, who started Thursday night as the Bruins were wiped out at Oregon, the presumed full-time starter.
* * *
What? No drama in the fourth quarter? Doesn’t look like there will be any, as Arizona leads 37-14 at the end of the third quarter. Keola Antolin has 10 rushes for 106 yards for the Cats.
* * *
Tonight’s attendance: It’s a sell-out … 56,244 at Arizona Stadium.
* * *
Maybe this one will end up NOT being close. Arizona capitalizes on the turnover and scores on Nic Grigsby’s 4-yard run with 10:09 left in the third quarter to take a 37-14 lead.
Grigsby, a senior, has 28 career rushing TDs, which is the second-best mark in school history. He won’t catch the Cactus Comet, Art Luppino, who had 44.
Arizona has scored on six consecutive possessions after losing a fumble on its opening drive.
* * *
The second half starts right as Arizona forces a turnover on the opening drive. Defensive end Ricvy Elmore, who entered the game with a Pac-10-leading six sacks, gets credit for another one when he slaps the ball from the hand of Washington QB Jake Locker, with DT Lolomana Mikaele recovering at the Washington 46.
* * *
Halftime: Cats lead 30-14. Matt Scott is 14 of 16 for 186 yards and a touchdown. His career-high in passing is 202 yards against Central Michigan last season.
* * *
With backup Matt Scott at quarterback, Arizona has its highest-scoring half of the season, as the Cats lead 30-14 with 1:54 to go before the break. The offense has moved at a brisk pace, and the passing game has thrived, with Scott finding Juron Criner six times for 76 yards.
The latest drive was capped by Nic Grigsby’s 4-yard run.
* * *
Uh, yeah… my prediction was for Arizona to score 50 points against the Huskies tonight. It’s getting wilder at Arizona Stadium as Keola Antolin, on the first play from scrimmage after Washington’s touchdown, goes 78 yards on a run up the middle. He had a big hole to run through and then stutter-stepped past safety Justin Glenn, racing into the end zone untouched.
Arizona goes on top by a 24-14 score with 7:37 to go in the second quarter.
Antolin, who has gotten more and more of the backfield time in the past two weeks, appears to be earning even more time over Nic Grigsby. His 78-yard run is Arizona’s longest play of the season.
* * *
It’s looking like a 45-40 game in the making. The Huskies make some big plays of their own and cash in with a 7-yard TD run by Chris Polk to climb within 17-14 with 7:55 to go before halftime.
* * *
So far, Matt Scott is doing all the things Nick Foles can do … plus be a running threat. Scott, making the right read on a option play, kept the ball after faking to Nic Grigsby running left into the middle of the line. Scott scampered right into lots of open space for a 32-yard run (shades of Keith Smith?).
That was the highlight play on an impressive 10-play, 92-yard drive that ended in Keola Antolin’s 1-yard plunge into the end zone. Arizona has scored 17 consecutive points and leads 17-7 with 10:48 to go in the second quarter.
* * *
End of first quarter. Arizona leads 10-7 but is backed up to its 4-yard line. Matt Scott is 8 of 10 for 126 yards and a touchdown.
* * *
Getting more out of its red-zone chances has been an emphasis for the Wildcats, but they have to settle for a 29-yard field from Alex Zeendejas after thinking about going for it on fourth-and-1 from the 12. UA takes the lead, though, at 10-7 with 4:42 to go in the first quarter.
* * *
A wrinkle: RB Nic Grigsby takes a direct snap in the Wildcat formation, with Matt Scott going out to a wide receiver position. Grigsby keeps and makes a few yards.
* * *
Matt Scott is looking good. He helps the Wildcats answer quickly with a 62-yard touchdown drive, capped by a 17-yard pass as Scott rolled left, turned his shoulders and fired a strike to an open Roberts near the goal line. Arizona had completions of 16, 11, 17 and 17 yards on the drive.
Mike Thomas (10) and Willie Tuitama (7) were key to the 2007 comeback against Washington, which helped lead to the 2008 Las Vegas Bowl/Photo by Kirby Lee, US-PRESSWIRE
Coach Mike Stoops’ tenure with the Arizona Wildcats is clearly divided into two areas: Before and after the game at Washington on Oct. 27, 2007.
Stoops, near the near of his fourth season, had a 14-28 record at that point while trying to rebuild the Wildcats from the John Mackovic wreckage. Since rallying in the fourth quarter to beat Washington nearly three years ago, Arizona is 24-12.
From 33.3 percent to 66.7 percent.
“I don’t know if desperate was the right word,” said co-defensive coordinator Tim Kish, reflecting on the game. “We were trying to win any game we could get our hands on, so if that’s desperate, it’s desperate. Yeah, I remember it well, it was definitely a pivotal game for us.”
Arizona trailed by 15 points early in the fourth quarter, and Stoops’ apparently was losing his grip on his first head coaching job.
And then the Cats rallied to begin a three-game winning streak that ended with a 34-24 home victory over No. 2 Oregon. Arizona used that momentum to launch to back-to-back 8-5 records and this year’s 5-1 mark at the halfway point of the season.
But, first, was the comeback against Washington. Here is an excerpt of a story I wrote for the 2008 print edition of the Tucson Citizen, looking back at the most critical game of the Stoops era:
Coach Mike Stoops wants QB Matt Scott to not hesitate to use his legs/Photo by Rick Osentoski-US PRESSWIRE
Arizona Wildcats junior quarterback Matt Scott is the X-factor tonight against Washington. You knew that. There are reasons to be optimistic, reasons to be worried.
Let’s start with the sunny side of the street:
Scott has three games of starting experience; he isn’t wide-eyed.
He has, thanks to the tutelage of new quarterbacks coach Frank Scelfo, greatly improved his throwing mechanics. Scott is more accurate and has more velocity because of a more compact throwing motion. Coaches aren’t afraid to let him wing it.
He also is a runner, a guy who can make something out of nothing, a guy who can give the defense something else to scheme for, to worry about.
Arizona coach Mike Stoops said he has just told Matt to play like Matt, that he doesn’t have to prove he can stand back there and pass like Nick Foles. Scott needs to take the ground gains when he sees them.
OK, as for the pessimism:
Sean Miller won't be screaming over a lack of preseason ranking/Photo by Chris Morrison, US PRESSWIRE
The ESPN/USA Today preseason college basketball poll is out. Arizona is (almost) nowhere to found.
The Wildcats did get two points from the 31 ballots to place near the bottom of the “others receiving votes” category.
This isn’t surprising. The Wildcats, coming off a 16-15 season and failing to advance to any postseason tournament, aren’t showing up in any major-media preseason rankings (at least none that I have seen).
And that’s good. I think Arizona could be a Top 25 team by the end of the season, but the Cats don’t need anything handed to them in the preseason.
Arizona is best served with a prove-it attitude. I’m guessing that is exactly what second-year coach Sean Miller would want. He’s trying to develop a culture of hard work and competition. If a lack of preseason ranking provides an extra little chip on the shoulder, all the better.
At Arizona basketball media day last week, no player that I talked to made sweeping predictions of greatness. That is a reflection of their coach. Miller is still hammering on the process over results.
“With so many players returning from last year’s team, and having the ability to add the three newcomers that we did, our entire focus has been to do things better than we did a year ago,” Miller said.
“And I don’t just mean in terms of the wins and losses, as much as it is just to be better at everything it takes to win.”
Washington is the only Pac-10 team in the preseason coaches’ poll, at No. 17. Duke is No. 1, having received 29 of 31 votes. Arizona State’s Herb Sendek is the Pac-10′s representative on the voters’ list.
Was this game-winning TD pass from Nick Foles to Bug Wright against Iowa the Wildcats' Play of the Year so far?/Photo by Chris Morrison, US PRESSWIRE
The Arizona Wildcats have reached the halfway point of their season at 5-1 overall, ranked 15th in the AP poll.
But it’s an uneasy time. Starting quarterback Nick Foles is out indefinitely with a knee injury, and while Mike Stoops said Foles will return this season, no one knows for sure exactly when that will be.
While the first half of the season was challenging — including Iowa — the second half of the schedule is ever more so, with Stanford, USC, Oregon and Arizona State in the final month.
And there’s this little nugget from history: The last time Arizona was 5-1 was the 2000 season … and then the schedule turned tougher, the Wildcats lost some painfully close games, and they ended up losing their final five games, costing coach Dick Tomey his job.
That’s just a reminder that, as is usually the case at this point of the year, anything could happen. The Wildcats’ season could range anywhere from historical splendor to heart-stabbing disappointment.
Let’s take a look at the first half of the season:
Arizona will be part of the new Pac-12 South in football, starting next season, league commissioner Larry Scott announced today.
The Wildcats will join Arizona State, USC, UCLA and newcomers Utah and Colorado in the South. The Pac-10 North will be Cal, Stanford, Oregon, Oregon State, Washington and Washington State.
No other sport will have divisions.
Scott said the division split breaks down nicely between geography, market size and historical competitive balance. Teams will play each opponent in its division every year, as well as four cross-divisional games.
Some traditional rivalries have been secured, Scott said, with the Northern California schools guaranteed to play the Southern California schools each year. That certainly helped sell Stanford and Cal on the idea of being split from its California brothers.
“There was a deep appreciation in this conference of the historic rivalries,” Scott said. “That was something our board was very keen to preserve.”
Scott said the league is about 30 to 45 days away from putting together the specific football schedule for next season.
The Arizona defensive line is expected to be missing Justin Washington (left) for Saturday's game against Washington/Photo by Chris Morrison, US PRESSWIRE
Arizona Wildcats redshirt freshman defensive tackle Justin Washington is doubtful for this week’s game against the Washington Huskies, coach Mike Stoops said after practice Wednesday.
Stoops on Monday said Washington’s knee injury, suffered last week at Washington State, wasn’t as serious as it initially appeared.
Arizona is expected to use a combination of Sione Tuihalamaka, Dominique Austin and Willie Mobley to replace Washington, who has four sacks this season and has been the interior lineman getting the biggest push into the pocket.
“Those guys are going to have to play by committee right now,” said co-defensive coordinator Tim Kish.
Well, I don’t know how burning these are, but the Seattle Times’ Bob Condotta — who seemingly covers the Washington Huskies football team 24 hours a day in his very excellent blog — asked me five questions to give his readers a general overview on the Wildcats.
So, I answered them.
They are posted on his blog, but I figured I might as well double dip and post them here, too.
