Alex Zendejas celebrates after beating ASU with a last-second kick in 2009. Photo by Mark J. Rebilas-US PRESSWIRE

Zendejas gets an earful from coach Mike Stoops after missing a PAT late in regulation last season. Photo by Chris Morrison-US PRESSWIRE

Every day.

Not just this week. Not just from the media. Every day. For a year.

That’s how often Arizona Wildcats senior kicker Alex Zendejas has heard about his two blocked extra points against Arizona State. The first came with 27 seconds left in regulation, leaving the game tied. The second came at the end of a second overtime in a 30-29 loss.

“A kick like that that, in a rivalry like this, knowing how intense it is between the two schools, it’s kind of hard to forget something like that,” he said this week.

Not that anyone will let him.

He said someone mentions the missed PATs to him every day.

“You have to take the good with the bad,” Zendejas said.

“Probably the same people who congratulated me two years ago are the ones mad at me a year ago. I guess it’s part of the game.”

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Alex Zendejas will get one more chance to get everything straightened out. Photo by Mark J. Rebilas-US PRESSWIRE

Arizona Wildcats coach Mike Stoops said Monday that senior place-kicker Alex Zendejas is going to get his job back — at least for this week’s game against Oregon.

And Zendejas talked after Monday’s practice, talking about how he is “grateful and blessed” to be given a second chance.

“That’s all you can ask for sometimes — just another chance to get out there,” Zendejas said.

“I’ve continued to work just to get another chance. I’ve continued to prepare like I was going to play. I haven’t taken a day off.”

As far as redemption stories goes, this could be a doozy.

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Alex Zendejas attempts a kick in the spring game. Photo by David Kadlubowski, The Arizona Republic

Senior Alex Zendejas, who had a pair of extra points blocked against Arizona State last season and lost his starting job in fall camp, will get a second chance.

Zendejas will replace the struggling Jaime Salazar, who missed field goals of 45 and 36 yards last week — the first left and the second right — for Saturday’s home game against No. 10 Oregon.

“We’re going to give Alex his job back and see what he does this week,” coach Mike Stoops said in his Monday news conference.

“There wasn’t a huge difference in camp, but Jaime was a bit more consistent in. He hasn’t kicked as well as we would like from a certain range in, and those are very makeable kicks.”

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Dan Buckner caught four passes in his Arizona debut. Photo by Chris Morrison-US PRESSWIRE

In advance of the Arizona Wildcats’ game against NAU, I took a look at three players to watch — basically, three X-factors, three players I had lingering doubts about.

Let’s see how they did in Arizona’s 41-10 victory over the Lumberjacks on Saturday:

Cornerback Shaquille Richardson

Richardson was picked on by NAU cornerback Cary Gossart and repeatedly beaten by guys named Khalil Paden and Ify Umodu.

In no time at all — like Thursday night at Oklahoma State with the college football world watching on ESPN — Richardson is going to have to try to stop Biletnikoff Award-winning receiver Justin Blackmon and quarterback Brandon Weeden, a strong-armed NFL prospect.

“Shaquille can play better. He knows it,” said coach Mike Stoops.

“I wasn’t pleased with the way he played, and neither was he. He is going to have to play better next week against a very prolific offense and receiver and quarterback.”

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Jaime Salazar made 14 of 15 field goal attempts in junior college last season.

Jaime Salazar is clutch. Just ask him.

And if there is one thing the Arizona Wildcats need from their place-kicker these days, it’s confidence and “clutchiness” as Alex Zendejas tries to clear his head from those two blocked extra points against Arizona State.

“Z started the season very well but he missed them in the clutch game,” said Salazar, a junior college transfer who won the starting place-kicking job in camp.

“Coach said I have the clutch game and I have been proving that I do. So, we’ll see there.”

Salazar cited a couple of clutch examples from his days at Trinity Valley Community College in Texas and Garland (Texas) High School. As for what he will do in front of 50,000-plus at Arizona Stadium and in other pressure-cookers around the Pac-12 … well, like he said, we’ll see.

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Alex Zendejas will have to be show more consistency in fall camp. Photo by David Kadlubowski, The Arizona Republic

Here is the 10th part of our Arizona Wildcats football preview in collaboration with our Gannett partner, The Arizona Republic.

We write the words, and they have taken the cool photographs and put it all together in a slick presentation at azcentral.com.

Check back here and at azcentral.com every Friday as we roll out more of our preview every week, all the way into August.

This week: Special teams.

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Alex Zendejas throws his helmet after having an extra point attempt blocked at the end of the second overtime against ASU last season. Photo by Chris Morrison-US PRESSWIRE

Alex Zendejas didn’t run away from trouble. Now, he has to fix it.

His name became something of a curse word for Arizona Wildcats fans late last season. You know the details. Two low extra point attempts — one in the final minute of regulation, one at the end of the second overtime — were blocked by Arizona State.

Those kicks were the flashpoints in a 30-29 home loss.

Zendejas followed up with another uneven kicking performance in the Alamo Bowl, missing two of three field goal tries.

“I hear it from every angle still,” Zendejas said earlier this week, talking about fan reaction.

“But I never considered leaving. I was here. I wanted to finish out here. I mean, it’s been tough … but it’s not who I am. I’m not going to run away from something that’s happened.

“I love this school. I love the program, the coaches, the players. It was never my intention to leave. I love it here.”

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Motivation isn’t hard to come by for the Arizona Wildcats.

“We lost four straight,” said senior running back Nic Grigsby, “and we don’t want to end on a fifth one.”

Doesn’t get much simpler than that for tonight’s Alamo Bowl matchup against Oklahoma State.

The Wildcats have been claiming that their preparation has been much better than last season. Arizona was past its expiration date when it showed up for the 2009 Holiday Bowl against Nebraska, having spent more than a week in San Diego over the Christmas Holiday.

This time around, coach Mike Stoops worked the team hard in Tucson before giving them a few days off before Christmas.

“The focus has been tremendous with our players,” defensive coordinator Tim Kish said at an Alamo Bowl press conference this week. “The energy level has been up, the enthusiasm has been up.”

A better prepared team doesn’t necessarily mean a winning team, but at least the Wildcats might have a fighting chance against the 10-2 Cowboys — unlike last year in a 33-0 bowl loss to Nebraska.

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Where does the hiring of athletic director Greg Byrne rate on your list?
Photo by Mark Evans, TucsonCitizen.com

The “best of the year” lists are always tricky.

For the calendar year that was in Arizona Wildcats athletics, do you pick specific games, specific moments, or do you go with larger themes?

Do you choose only the good things? How do you balance the happenings in football and men’s basketball with the success in other sports?

When our Gannett big brother, the Arizona Republic, asked us to come up with a top 10 list of storylines for UA, we muddled through all that and came up with the following Top 10 list.

You can see the Republic’s Year in Review slideshows for all the state-wide sports topics on azcentral.com.

Before you click on that link, vote in our poll and let us know what you you think is the biggest storyline of the year for the Wildcats.

(What did we miss? I’ll get us started: I think basketball coach Sean Miller signing a Top 5 recruiting class in November is potentially worthy of the list as the clearest signal yet that he can restore the program to its previous heights.)

Anyway, on to the Top 10 storylines …

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This low kick with 27 seconds left at the end of regulation was blocked. Photo by Chris Morrison, US-PRESSWIRE

Sign of the times: Soon after Arizona kicker Alex Zendejas had two extra point attempts blocked against Arizona State on Thursday night, several related Facebook pages emerged.

Zendejas twice kicked low, failing to give the Wildcats the lead with 27 seconds left in regulation and then missing at the end of the second overtime to give the Sun Devils a 30-29 double-overtime victory.

So, you have choices.

Will you like the “I would trade Alex Zendejas for Kyle Brotzman” page? That refers to the Boise State kicker who missed a short field goal at the end of regulation last week, and another in overtime, as the Broncos’ national championship dreams ended in a loss at Nevada.

First post on the site: As the old saying goes “Miss a game winning extra point once… shame on you. Miss it twice and the entire school hates you.”

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