Nebraska has Ndamukong Suh, the Associated Press Player of the Year as a defensive tackle. The Cornhuskers have the enduring Blackshirts nickname for their defense.

They have a defense that ranks second nationally, allowing 11.23 points per game. They have a defense that gave up just 202 yards to Texas in the Big 12 championship game.

Earl Mitchell (making tackle) and Ricky Elmore (No. 44) have been big parts of a stout Arizona defensive line/Wildcat Sports Report photo

They have another defensive tackle, Jared Crick, who was All-Big 12 as a sophomore and had five sacks against Baylor this season. They have two more players who were first-team all-conference — cornerback Prince Amukamara and strong safety Larry Asante.

And what will Arizona’s defense counter with in the Holiday Bowl on Wednesday?

Although the bar wasn’t set high, this is UA’s best defensive line in at least a decade.

Defensive end Ricky Elmore finished the regular season with a Pac-10-best 10.5 sacks. Brooks Reed has been a factor since coming back from a mid-season injury. Defensive tackle Earl Mitchell is a possible mid-round NFL draft pick. Horton has been solid.

Arizona’s 34 sacks are the most since the 2001 season.

The Wildcats have been a self-described bunch of no-names all season — no first-team All-Pac-10 players on this unit — but that chip on their shoulder has served them well.

No need to brush it off now.

“Ndamukong Suh, he’s a crazy player,” said Arizona senior defensive tackle Donald Horton.

“He definitely plays hard and does his thing. But I feel that we have done, as a unit, just as much. At times, we can really dominate. There were times in the middle of the season when we got lackadaisical and fell off a bit, but I think we hit our stride the last couple of games and really tried to turn on the heat.”

Arizona will be trying to turn on the heat against a lukewarm Nebraska offense that grew increasingly conservative during the season, content to let its defense do the heavy lifting (and trying to avoid another eight-turnover disaster like the one in a 9-7 home loss to Iowa State).

After that, the Cornhuskers didn’t attempt more than 21 passes in any of their other six games. They scrapped the spread offense for a run-oriented attack, led by running back Roy Helu Jr. (1,139 rushing yards, 10 touchdowns).

Nebraska topped 300 total yards only twice in nine Big 12 games.

The team’s biggest playmaker is receiver Niles Paul, who has 36 receptions for 673 yards and is dangerous in the return game. Nebraska is expected use junior Zac Lee and true freshman Cody Green at quarterback.

“They’re not a complicated team offensively,” Horton said. “They don’t have a lot of shifts, and there aren’t a lot of adjustments we have to make. We just play our defense and be comfortable in it.”

The Wildcats don’t want to get too comfortable. Nebraska figures to be persistent with the run, pounding away, hoping to spring something big on the ground or play-action to Paul.

“They are very physical up front,” said UA defensive end Brooks Reed.

“They do a lot of traditional stuff. But if you can’t stop it, you can’t stop it. And they’re going to keep doing it until you can.”

It will be up to the no-names to stop it, to make a name in a game in which Suh is the undisputed star. He is the probable No. 1 pick in the 2010 NFL Draft … and when is the last time Arizona faced a defender this good?

Penn State linebacker LaVar Arrington in 1999? Washington defensive tackle Steve Emtman in the early 1990s?

Horton said his father has had words of advice when it comes to Suh.

“He said, ‘All the attention is going to be on him, but you’re going to be at the stage, too. Make a name for yourselves, too, as a defensive front,’” Horton said.

“In my heart, I’ve been using that as a challenge.”

Related links from TucsonCitizen.com’s Sports Network:
AG’s Wildcat Report: UA’s Horton hoping a dream comes true in Holiday Bowl

Wild About AZ Cats: UA’s offense more of a challenge for Pelini this time around

AG’s Wildcat Report: Wildcats ready to shed the blue helmets for Holiday Bowl

AG’s Wildcat Report: Holiday Bowl flashback: What the Nebraska ‘N’ really stood for

Wildcat Sports Report: Cats close to completing recruiting class

UASports.net: Breaking down the Holiday Bowl inside and out

Donald Horton

Arizona Wildcats defensive tackle Donald Horton has a dream. Mostly, he’s been having a dream as he prepares for his last game — UA’s appearance in the Holiday Bowl against Nebraska.

“It’s this weird dream,” he said.

“It’s kind of like a quarterback rollout play. I break through the line. I’m running and right as he throws it, I jump and I knock the ball out and the ball lands in (defensive back) Corey Hall’s hands. He runs it back and we win off that play.

“Weird, right? I have been having that dream all the time. If that happens, I don’t know what I would do. I would go crazy.”

If anyone deserves to go crazy — in a good way — it’s Horton.

The fifth-year senior is a survivor of the early Mike Stoops years, when the Wildcats were trying to crawl out of the Mackovickian muck, when progress was measured not so much in wins and losses, but by an decreasing margin of defeat.

Stoops, especially recently as the Wildcats are having their best season since 1998, has praised those enduring fifth-year seniors, who were part of his first full recruiting class in 2005. They were buying on faith.

Horton made his recruiting visit during the 2004 home game against 20th-ranked Wisconsin … a night that provided ample reason to not want to come to Arizona.

Thunderstorms and lightning, the product of Hurricane Javier, delayed the game 88 minutes. The teams eventually slugged it out in miserable conditions, with the Badgers winning 9-7 when Arizona’s Nick Folk missed a 47-yard field goal with 43 seconds left.

“Even from my recruiting trip, I just had the feeling Arizona was really going to do something,” Horton said.

“Wisconsin was a powerhouse at the time. And I was like, man, we are keeping up with them and pushing them, and we didn’t have very much at the time. I was like, man, these boys are going to be good.

“For me, it wasn’t that hard to believe in them.”

So, Horton had a vision, he is having a dream … and after the Holiday Bowl, he will begin the dream.

And it doesn’t have anything to do with playing football.

For sure, Horton has been a valuable member of the Wildcats. Able to play inside or outside on the defensive line, he has 42 games of experience, including 19 starts. As a full-time starter this season, he has three sacks.

But he’s not exactly pro stock.

As the door to his football career closes, another one opens. Already a graduate student, Horton will begin an internship next semester, working in Arizona’s strength program.

“What I have in mind, what I really want to do, is strength coaching,” Horton said.

That can wait for one more game.

Maybe on Wednesday night, the Nebraska quarterback will roll out. Horton will break through the line. The quarterback throws. Horton jumps. Deflects the ball. Corey Hall grabs it and runs for a touchdown.

Well … it could happen.

The rumor going around is that Arizona is going to wear white helmets, not blue, for its Holiday Bowl matchup against Nebraska on Dec. 30.

True?

UA senior defensive lineman Donald Horton was talking with reporters after Monday’s practice, when KVOA-TV’s Ryan Recker slid in a question about what Horton knew about possible uniform changes.

“What are you trying to do, man?” Horton said with a laugh, reacting very much like someone who did not want to let the cat out of the bag. Horton then somewhat answered by saying he knew “nothing about the uniforms.”

OK, the helmets. What have you heard?

“All kinds of stuff. Red helmets, white helmets, all kinds of stuff,” Horton said.

He laughed again.

“What are you trying to do, man?”

The rumor does has some legs. Wendell Neal, the associate athletic director for equipment operations, joked with a trio of reporters late in the practice that he was up all night painting helmets. (The UA’s helmets, even the blue ones and the would-be white ones, are painted.)

Despite everyone being sworn to secrecy, you can bet Arizona is going to break out the white helmets.

Arizona has experimented with its uniform combinations in recent seasons, including red pants and all-red uniforms last season. The Wildcats have worn blue helmets since Mike Stoops arrived for the 2004 season. Before that, Arizona wore some version of a white helmet dating to 1981.

The Wildcats have worn red helmets before, the last time being in 1980.

The Wildcats are the visiting team for the Holiday Bowl, so they will be wearing white jerseys, with blue numbers and red trim. And apparently red socks. You can see pictures at Neal’s equipment blog.

Arizona could wear red pants, blue pants or white pants. White on white on white?

We’ll see.

Ready to go
The Wildcats will have a walk-through kind of practice Tuesday and then leave for San Diego on Wednesday. The team is scheduled to attend the Poinsettia Bowl, between Cal and Utah, on Wednesday night.

“We’re excited to leave, and I thought we had a great five days (of practice) here.” Stoops said.

“I think our players really worked really hard and we’re in great shape physically and mentally. We’ll give them a couple of days to rest up. We’ve gone after it pretty good here at the end of finals.”

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

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.