Duane Akina, right, celebrates a win at Nebraska last season with Texas head coach Mack Brown.
Photo by Bruce Thorson-US PRESSWIRE

Duane Akina is the middle of explaining his difficult decision to leave the University of Texas when he starts flashing back to all things Arizona.

Chuck Cecil pouncing on ASU punter Mike Schuh’s dropped snap in 1987 … Darryll Lewis turning Oregon quarterback Bill Musgrave sideways at the goal line in 1990 … the Desert Swarm days … coaching All-American cornerback Chris McAlister …

Akina is a Wildcat again, lured from Texas, where he had spent 10 seasons as an assistant, to return to Arizona, where he had spent the previous 14 seasons under Dick Tomey.

Now, Akina will coach the secondary for Mike Stoops.

“It was extremely hard,” Akina said by phone Monday night after packing up his locker at Texas.

“It was the exactly the same thing emotionally, with all the anxiety, that we went through the first time when I was leaving Tucson to come to Austin. It was like, ‘Oh no, not this again.’ Stomach churning. Couldn’t sleep.”

In the end, Akina said he felt the timing was right. He had felt a pull to head back west. His family was “fired up” to return to Tucson. He talked about his “unfinished business” as a Wildcat.

“We had a great stand when we were there in the 1990s,” Akina said.

“We were close. And that’s still the goal: I want to line up and be part of the first Arizona team in the Rose Bowl. We need to go there and get that.”

With Akina’s experience, success and Wildcat ties — plus, he inherits a terrific group of young defensive backs — there will be no shortage of topics in the coming weeks and months. For now, here are eight things about Akina’s hiring to hold you over:

1. The coaching title

Arizona didn’t release an official statement of Akina’s hiring (almost certain to happen Tuesday), but he is here to coach defensive backs. Tim Kish is expected to remain the sole coordinator.

As for having an additional title, such as “assistant head coach” or “associate head coach,” Akina said that might be a possibility. Two things about that: We’ll have to wait for the official release … and he doesn’t much care.

“Let’s just go win. The fun is in winning,” Akina said. “Nobody cares who gets the credit. No egos.”

Tomey noted in an interview Monday that Akina is “the most unselfish coach I’ve ever been around.”

When Akina was Arizona’s offensive coordinator in 1995, he volunteered to move back to defense if Tomey could bring in renowned Homer Smith to lead the offense. Then, Akina was in line to be defensive coordinator in 1997 but said he’d stay as secondary coach if Tomey could bring back Rich Ellerson as coordinator.

“People aren’t doing that today,” Tomey said. “They are so invested in their own careers, and Duane is a team guy. …

“He doesn’t need a title to have respect. Some people I think do.”

2. Recruiting

Akina is expected to be in town Tuesday and hit the ground running as soon as possible. His ties to Texas and his native Hawaii are right in Arizona’s recruiting wheelhouse. Akina said he has been busy contacting Arizona’s defensive back recruits.

3. Working with Kish

Akina said he is eager to learn from Kish and bounce ideas off him. One of the things that hasn’t been talked about much in Tucson is that Kish served 11 years as an assistant — at Purdue and Army — to former Arizona head coach Jim Young.

“Tim Kish’s reputation precedes him,” Akina said. “In the coaching fraternity, Jim Young and that staff carry so much credibility.”

Related: Ex-Cat on Akina: ‘I would chew nails and spit blood for that guy’

4. Philosophy

Let’s use Akina’s words to sum it up: “We coach ‘em hard and we love ‘em hard, too.”

Tomey told the following story about a practice during his first season at Arizona, where he and Akina inherited All-American senior safety Chuck Cecil in 1987.

“Chuck was kind of like, ‘Here’s this new guy from Hawaii,’ and it wasn’t a confrontation but it was a test of wills on the field one day between Duane and Chuck. The whole team was there.

“They loved each other, but Duane was not going to back down to the All-American. They were going to be out there all day. He just stayed at it. ‘Do it again, do it again, do it again.’

“Duane is stubborn and persistent and technical, and there is nobody more enthusiastic on the field. Nobody.”

Coach ‘em hard and love ‘em hard.

5. Working with them, not against them

Three members of Arizona’s offensive staff — coordinator Seth Littrell, outside receivers coach Dave Nichol and new offensive line coach Robert Anae — coached at Texas Tech under Mike Leach. Over the years, they gave Akina plenty of headaches trying to scheme against the pass-happy spread.

“My blood has been all over that field at Texas Tech,” Akina said.

Akina said he has known Anae, also from Hawaii, for a long time. Anae coached the offensive line at Tech from 2000 to 2004.

“One year, we threw every blitz at him that I can remember,” Akina said. “And our defensive line coach said to me, ‘What a great job your buddy did picking all that up.’”

Chris McAlister made this interception late in the 1998 Holiday Bowl to preserve a 23-20 victory over Nebraska.
Tucson Citizen photo

6. Simply the best

Akina has coached three winners of the Jim Thorpe award — given to the nation’s top defensive back — but remains mystified about how Arizona cornerback Chris McAlister didn’t win it in 1998.

“That was criminal,” Akina said.

Akina coached five first-round defensive backs at Texas, but McAlister is still the gold standard among his pupils.

“Out of the all the defensive backs, Chris Mac is still the measuring sticks for all the pro scouts that come out,” Akina said. “They say, ‘How does he compare to Chris?’”

7. Arizona pride

When Akina hits the recruiting trail for Arizona, he’ll be talking to kids who know all about his success at Texas.

When he started at Texas, recruits knew all about his success at Arizona.

“I used the success at Arizona to really help me at Texas,” he said.

“Many times when I would go to speak at events or was introduced, they always said, ‘He was part of Arizona’s Desert Swarm’ … and, I tell you, I swelled with pride. There was a tremendous, tremendous standard of play here.”

8. Final word

“I coached a lot of things, but I prided myself on being a secondary coach. So the secondary coach was kind of the whipping boy for me because I was so critical. But Duane, he became the best one I had ever been around … There’s nobody better at what he does. Nobody.” — Dick Tomey

Related: The official release from Texas about Akina’s resignation

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

The Arizona Wildcats will be retiring the football jerseys of seven former players at the game against USC on Nov. 13.

Those seven are: linebacker Ricky Hunley, safety Chuck Cecil, placekicker Steve McLaughlin, cornerbacks Antoine Cason, Darryll Lewis and Chris McAlister, and defensive tackle Rob Waldrop.

Before you say, “Where’s Tedy Bruschi?” understand the criteria: According to university policy, jersey honors are reserved for athletes who were national players of the year or inducted into the National Football Foundation College Football Hall of Fame.

Cason and Lewis won the Thorpe Award for defensive backs. McAlister won the Mosi Tatupu Award for special teams play. McLaughlin earned the Groza Award, given to placekickers. Waldrop won the Outland Trophy for the top interior lineman and the Nagurski Award as the defensive player of the year. Hunley and Cecil have been inducted into the Hall of Fame.

(Cecil is part of the class that will be enshrined Saturday. You can watch the event streaming live from 5:15 p.m. to 7 p.m. Tucson time at www.footballfoundation.org, www.xosdigital.com or www.collegefootball.org.)

So, that is why Bruschi — and perhaps other of your favorite ex-Cats — have not been honored with jersey retirements.

Previously, UA has honored the jersey of running back Art Luppino, who has been invited to take part in the Nov. 13 event. Luppino’s jersey and the seven others will be displayed in a new location at Arizona Stadium. UA also honors the jersey of three players whose careers were cut short by tragedy — John “Button” Salmon, Damon Terrell and McCollins Umeh — will remain in their current locations.

It is important to note that the jersey numbers of those honored players will continue to be in use.

In a roster number quirk, receiver/kick returner Travis Cobb wore No. 89 (Hunley’s old number) last season before changing to No. 6 (Cecil’s old number) for this season, putting the senior in the company of the only two Wildcat players in the College Football Hall of Fame.

Arizona defenders bring down Nebraska's Shevin Wiggins in the 1998 Holiday Bowl/Tucson Citizen photo

That “N” on the Nebraska helmet?

“He kept telling us the ‘N’ stood for ‘Not today,’” remembered Brandon Nash, a receiver/special teams player on the 1998 Wildcats who is now a local sportscaster.

“Every time we saw that helmet, he wanted us to think, ‘Not today, not today.’ You look back at that now, and it sounds so corny, but that has stuck with me forever and it was very motivating back then.”

It worked.

Dec. 30, 1998, was not Nebraska’s day.

It was Arizona’s.

The Wildcats won 23-20 in a thrilling Holiday Bowl in San Diego. Arizona scored two touchdowns in the final quarter, including a 1-yard plunge by Kelvin Eafon with 6:08 left.

On Nebraska’s next possession, freshman quarterback Eric Crouch, who would go on to win the 2001 Heisman Trophy, threw deep over the middle on third-and-11 from the UA 46.

Arizona’s All-American cornerback Chris McAlister made a leaping interception, and UA secured the victory by running off all but the final 34 seconds.

That was so fitting. McAlister started the season with a kickoff return for a touchdown at Hawaii, and he basically ended the season with another big play.

“This is the happiest and saddest time of my life,” McAlister said after the game.

“This was a tremendous win for the University of Arizona, and that makes me very happy. But I’ll never get to strap on my helmet as a Wildcat again … and that’s the sad part. I can’t believe it’s over.”

The interception put the final touch on a 12-1 season — the school’s best-ever record — and the Wildcats finished fourth in both major polls.

“That game felt different than any game I played in at Arizona,” said quarterback Keith Smith, who now lives in southern California.

“It kind of felt like what I thought the Super Bowl would feel like. It was like the lights were brighter. It was different.

“It was definitely fun to play in. It was probably the most fun I had in a football game.”

The lights were a little brighter. At the time, it was ESPN’s most-watched bowl game ever. No Holiday Bowl since then has been as highly rated.

“To this day, anywhere I go, walking around here in California, they bring that game up,” Smith said. “They can tell me more about the game than I can.”

UA took a 9-0 lead on three field goals from Mark McDonald, but Nebraska led 13-9 at halftime, with its touchdown coming on a 45-yard pass to Shevin Wiggins.

Arizona would have led, but McAlister had a 78-yard punt return for a touchdown called back because of a questionable block-in-the-back penalty against Derek Hall. Tomey called it an “awful call.”

Hall said after the game that the official later told him that it might have been a clean block.
“And (he) kinda winked at me,” Hall said.

The score stayed 13-9 until the fourth quarter, when Smith hit Brad Brennan on a 15-yard touchdown pass.

“The first thing I think about in that game is Brad Brennan’s catch,” Smith said. “There was a lot of pressure at that point of the game.

“We kind of looked at each other, and he broke off his route into a skinny post. I knew I had to zip it in there, and I threw it as hard as I could.

“He split two defenders and was excited to come out of that thing alive.”

UA’s defense had dared Crouch to throw all game, devoting an extra linebacker to play across Nebraska’s interior offensive line for run support. UA held the option-based attack to a measly 87 rushing yards.

Crouch, who was the Huskers’ leading rusher with 28 yards on 15 carries, completed just 12 of 28 passes.

“Nebraska was always a team you wanted to play, wanted to beat,” Smith said.

“We were confident. We said, ‘We belong on the field with these guys. They should be excited to play us.’”

Arizona’s team was filled with NFL talent — including three who are still in the NFL — cornerback McAlister, receiver Dennis Northcutt and tight end Brandon Manumaleuna. Offensive lineman Edwin Mulitalo had a long pro career.

Several others played in the NFL, including first-round running back Trung Canidate, defensive end Joe Tafoya, linebacker Marcus Bell, linebacker DaShon Polk, tight end Mike Lucky, offensive lineman Yusuf Scott, tight end/H-back Paul Shields and receiver Jeremy McDaniel.

Several others played professionally somewhere — such as quarterbacks Smith and Ortege Jenkins, Eafon and defensive lineman Daniel Greer — or made it to NFL camps.

No doubt, Arizona’s program was rolling. It had 17 returning starters for the 1999 season and was such a hot property that ABC picked the Cats to open at Penn State in the Pigskin Classic.

Alas . . .

The Penn State game was a 41-7 disaster, and the Wildcats faded in 1999 and 2000, missing out on the postseason and leading to Tomey’s departure.

“It would have been nice to build on that momentum and do better things after that,” said center Bruce Wiggins, who was a sophomore starter for the Holiday Bowl team.

“But we’ll always have ’98.”

The hiring of John Mackovic in 2000 sank the program lower. Then came Mike Stoops. His massive rebuilding project took a significant step with last season’s Las Vegas Bowl victory over BYU.

And now another step — an 8-4 regular season and, 11 years later, a rematch with Nebraska in the Holiday Bowl.

The Wildcats can only hope that the “N” on those helmets still stands for “Not today.”

Writer’s note: My first version of this story originally appeared in the Tucson Citizen in August 2008. I tweaked a few things and added a new ending.

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.

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