There was a mix-up in the Arizona secondary. Cornerback Robert Golden gave a half-hearted chuck to Oklahoma State receiver Justin Blackmon and let him run by.

Problem was, there was no safety to help.

Oklahoma State quarterback Brandon Weeden easily connected with Blackmon down field … and then the real fun began.

Blackmon, nearing the goal line all alone, ran along the goal line, crossing the hashmarks from right to left before dipping into the end zone as defensive back Adam Hall closed in.

It was a 71-yard touchdown.

It wouldn’t be — at least it shouldn’t be — this season.

The major rule change in college football is that any taunting penalty that occurs before a touchdown will be a 15-yard infraction at the spot of the foul. In other words, no touchdown.

Under the old rule, the penalty was applied on the conversion attempt or on the ensuing kickoff.

Officials whiffed in Blackmon’s case by not assessing a penalty to his cross-field run (clearly, he was drawing attention to himself and not merely celebrating with his teammates).

In fact, officials whiffed so badly on the play that Rogers Redding, the national coordinator for college football officiating, was quoted in the Daily Oklahoman this summer as saying that Blackmon also deserved an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty because he then performed for the crowd after scoring.

You know what two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties would have meant? Automatic ejection from the game.

Wildcats coach Mike Stoops said he knows one penalty should have called, for sure.

“That’s excessive. That’s taunting the other team,” Stoops said of Blackmon’s sideways jaunt. “I thought he taunted us. I didn’t quite understand that. But there are a lot of things I don’t understand.”

Understand that this rule figures to be a hot-button topic at some point in the season. The spirit of the rule is great; the enforcement of it will be haphazard at best.

What looks like taunting to one official won’t appear to be excessive to another.

“It’s like indisputable evidence,” Stoops said, referring to the standards of overturning a call on replay review. “What the hell is indisputable evidence? That can be whatever you want it to be.”

And if this new rule ends up costing a team a game … well, at least it will be good for the tumult and the shouting on sports talk radio.

“It’s a ridiculous rule in my estimation,” Stoops said.

“It’s too excessive for the situations we’re in, and kids at times do get caught up in the emotion of the game.

“There is a difference between taunting and celebrating. Taunting is one thing — you stick the ball in somebody’s face, then I have no remorse for somebody. But somebody who celebrates or accidentally spikes the ball, I don’t know if that’s necessarily showing the other team up.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the 17th installment of our 24 Hours of Arizona Football Blogging — one post at the top of every hour. Keep checking back at TucsonCitizen.com through Friday at 11 a.m. or follow the entire series with the “24 hours of blogging” tag.

Oklahoma State's Justin Blackmon runs past Arizona cornerback Robert Golden in the Alamo Bowl.
Photo by Matt Strasen-US PRESSWIRE

It’s been mostly good news.

There wasn’t much doubt that Arizona Wildcats junior quarterback Nick Foles was coming back … and he is. The case of junior receiver Juron Criner was, as he put it at one point last month, 50-50. But he has told coach Mike Stoops that he will be back in 2011.

Now, the bad news.

The Wildcats’ schedule for the first half of the 2011 season is loaded with five teams that defeated Arizona last season. The Cats have to play Oklahoma State, Stanford and Oregon in September; those teams were a combined 35-4 in 2010 and each finished in the top 10 of the final coaches poll.

Now, the worse news.

The stars of those teams are all coming back.

Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck, projected as the No. 1 pick in the 2011 NFL Draft, is coming back to school, even though his coach, Jim Harbaugh, isn’t.

Oregon’s running back LaMichael James will be rocking the neon socks again next season after leading the nation in rushing at 144.25 yards per game.

And, just today, Oklahoma State receiver Justin Blackmon — the winner of the Biletnikoff Award as the nation’s top receiver, announced he was coming back to do more strutting on the college stage. Oh yeah, so, too did Oklahoma State quarterback Brandon Weeden.

Just Arizona’s luck.

The upshot of all the early-entry decisions is that Arizona could very well face three top 10 teams before the end of September after opening up against NAU. They will see the nation’s top quarterback, running back and receiver (and Weeden is really good, too).

Put the current five-game losing streak up against those players and that schedule … and, well, it might not be a pretty picture.

But we’ll close with a little good news.

The Pac-12 South won’t be as tough as it could have been. Six players from the division are leaving early:

–UCLA linebacker Akeem Ayers
–Utah cornerback Brandon Burton
–USC defensive tackle Jurrell Casey
–ASU defensive tackle Lawrence Guy
–UCLA safety Rahim Moore
–USC offensive tackle Tyron Smith

Here is Arizona’s 2011 schedule:

Sept. 3 — NAU
Sept. 10 — at Oklahoma State
Sept. 17 — Stanford
Sept. 24 — Oregon
Oct. 1 — at USC
Oct. 8 — at Oregon State
Oct. 20 — UCLA (Thursday night game)
Oct. 29 — at Washington
Nov. 5 — Utah (Homecoming)
Nov. 12 — at Colorado
Nov. 19 — at Arizona State
Nov. 26 — Louisiana-Lafayette

Juron Criner is running away with some postseason honors.
Photo by Rick Osentoski/US PRESSWIRE

Arizona Wildcats junior receiver Juron Criner has been chosen a second-team All-American by CBSSports.com.

And yet he’ll be the second-best receiver in the Alamo Bowl on Dec. 29.

Oklahoma State’s Justin Blackmon won the Biletnikoff Award as the nation’s top receiver on Thursday night. Blackmon has 102 receptions for 1,665 yards and 18 touchdowns.

Criner was one of the four unanimous selections to the All-Pac-10 team, announced earlier this week, after a season in which he made 73 receptions for 1,186 yards and 10 touchdowns.

I asked Criner, a junior, after last week’s loss to Arizona State if he would use need to use the time before the bowl game to consider his future, perhaps petition an NFL advisory committee for his likely draft status.

“To tell you the truth, as of right now, I haven’t really put much thought into it,” he said. “I’m looking to just get through the season … and then I’ll just worry about that then.”

This is not a strong year for senior receivers, but a wave of underclassmen could flood the draft at receiver — Georgia’s A.J. Green, Alabama’s Julio Jones, Notre Dame’s Michael Floyd, Oklahoma’s Ryan Broyles and Pitt’s Jon Baldwin, among several others. Blackmon, a redshirt sophomore, also is eligible for the draft.

In other words, Criner figures to have a lot of first-round-caliber competition.

Rob Rang, a senior analyst for NFLDraftScout.com, said he hadn’t focused much attention yet on Criner, but he did break down the game against Arizona State.

“You obviously like that combination of size and speed. Good body control and hands,” Rang said. “I would be curious to see what he is in terms of 40-yard speed. It looks like he has build-up speed, but I would want to see how explosive he is.”

UPDATE: It’s official.

Arizona will play Oklahoma State in the Alamo Bowl.

Says Arizona athletic director Greg Byrne: “We know that with our strong Arizona connections to Texas, as well as a program like OSU on the other side, that there will be a lot of support from the University of Arizona family.”

The Alamo Bowl will be held Dec. 29 in San Antonio, beginning at 7 p.m. Tucson time.

The matchup is a bit awkward. The teams will meet in the second game of next season in Stillwater, meaning they will play each other twice in a three-game span.

Coach Mike Gundy’s Cowboys are 10-2 and finished 14th in the BCS standings.

The programs haven’t met since 1942, with the series tied at 3.

Quick thoughts on the matchup: Arizona’s secondary better come to play.

Oklahoma State’s Justin Blackmon is the nation’s leading receiver (102 catches for 1,665 yards and 18 touchdowns). Just today, I voted for him to win the Biletnikoff Award as the nation’s top wideout. He has had 11 consecutive 100-yard receiving games.

With Blackmon, All-Big 12 running back Kendall Hunter and 27-year-old former minor-league pitcher Brandon Weeden (4,037 passing yards, a school-record 32 touchdowns), this will be another supreme test for the Arizona defense, which didn’t hold up well against the high-powered offenses such of Oregon and Stanford.

The Cowboys have set several school records for offense, including points (539) and total offense (6,451 yards).

Here’s a stat for you: Oklahoma State, which installed a new spread offense before the season, leads the nation in total offense, averaging 537.58 yards per game. Over the course of 12 games, the Cowboys had one more yard than Oregon (6,451 to 6,450).

Oklahoma State is third nationally with 44.92 points per game.