This is Arizona coach Mike Stoops’ seventh season with the Wildcats, but the first without younger brother Mark by his side.

Mark Stoops, who had been the defensive coordinator at UA, left after last season to take the same job with first-year Florida State head coach Jimbo Fisher.

Early in fall camp, when Arizona’s practices were open, it was clear that Mike was active and fully engaged in his young defense, which is replacing seven starters. Asked what it has been like without Mark this preseason, Mike laughed and said, “I’m more hoarse than I usually am.”

Mark is putting his vocal chords and energy to use with the Seminoles, while Mike created co-defensive coordinator positions at Arizona. Stoops promoted linebackers Tim Kish and brought in Colorado assistant Greg Brown, who also will coach the secondary.

When I asked Brown earlier this month if he would be inclined to use more man-to-man schemes than Arizona was accustomed to under Mark Stoops, he said:

“This has nothing to do with me. This is Mike Stoops’ defense … Make no mistake, this is Mike Stoops’ defense. Mike has had the highest level of success. We’re not going to be changing much, I’ll tell you that.”

We’ll see about that last part, starting Friday at Toledo.

Arizona coach Mike Stoops suffered his worst loss since a game at LSU early in the 2006 season/TucsonCitizen.com

Coach Mike Stoops struggled to come up with the last time his Arizona Wildcats played so poorly, was so utterly outmanned, was so flat-out embarrassed and embarrassing.

If there is one thing you have been able to count on recently from Arizona, it is the team’s ability to compete.

But starting with a poor kick return, two incomplete passes and an interception, UA was grabbed by the neck by Nebraska and bum-rushed out of Qualcomm Stadium, bowing meekly 33-0 in the Holiday Bowl on Wednesday night.

“Nothing was right all night,” Stoops said.

“I’m disappointed just in the way we played and took this stage tonight. It has been a long time since we played a game like this. I don’t know if we were just content getting here, but we certainly didn’t show up in any way, and for that I apologize to our fans. I have to do a better job of preparing our team.”

The last time Arizona was so dominated was Sept. 9, 2006, in a 45-3 loss at LSU. Back then, the Tigers were clearly superior, they were at home, quarterback Willie Tuitama suffered a concussion … and the result was expected. The Holiday Bowl was supposed to be a toss-up on neutral turf, a defensive struggle featuring just a few big offensive plays here and there.

Instead, Nebraska made all the plays, Arizona none.

“It was our attitude and our effort,” said defensive coordinator Mark Stoops, coaching his last game at Arizona before taking over coordinator duties at Florida State. “All the principles that we stand for, all the principles that we built this program on, were not there tonight.”

Said Mike Stoops: “We didn’t have an edge about us tonight in any phase.”

Why? Neither Stoops brother said he really saw this coming. The preparation, Mark said, was similar to last season’s game against BYU in the Las Vegas Bowl.

Did the coaches not notice the players getting big heads from a closing two-game winning streak over ASU and USC that netted the Wildcats an 8-4 regular-season record and a tie for second in the Pac-10? Effort was part of the equation Wednesday night, but there is no getting around the fact that Nebraska’s defense, led by All-American defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh, was just waaaay too good.

The Cornhuskers pressed Arizona’s receivers like no team has, taking away the screen game and daring UA to go deep. “They just man up and say, ‘Beat us,’” said quarterback Nick Foles.

Arizona couldn’t. Couldn’t even come close. The Wildcats had 37 yards before gaining 72 on a final push that ended at the 8-yard line.

So, Arizona was out-coached, out-schemed, out-prepared, out-efforted.

The Wildcats had gone 31 consecutive games without a loss of more than 10 points, by far the longest such streak in the Pac-10. It’s a bit of a manufactured stat, but it shows that UA, whether it was against USC or second-ranked Oregon or ranked BYU in the Las Vegas Bowl, pretty much stood toe-to-toe with everyone, winning 19 of their past 29 games and not getting blown out in two-and-a-half seasons.

What happened Wednesday night was the exception, not the rule.

“This game is humbling in a lot of different ways,” Stoops said. “When you think you have arrived, that’s when you are going to get whacked. And we certainly got whacked by a much better team. …

“Believe me, I am proud of what we accomplished this season, but you can’t ever forget how you got here. Sometimes that can happen. We’ve earned a lot of respect over the past two years but you have to continually work on that.”

Stoops should be proud of what Arizona accomplished this season. The Wildcats were one game better in the regular season than last year, although the final record – 8-5 – is the same. Those are the two best back-to-back seasons at Arizona since 1997 and 1998.

Remember, the Wildcats were picked to finish eighth by the Pac-10 media (and were generally projected anywhere from fifth to eighth).

The crushing defeat in the Holiday Bowl stings, but it doesn’t change the fact that Arizona exceeded expectations, provided several thrills, delivered ESPN’s College Football GameDay to campus for the first time and kept the program on an upward pitch.

Mark Stoops, standing in a hallway outside the locker room and addressing a few reporters, told the story of how senior defensive tackle Earl Mitchell stood up in a meeting before the Oregon game and told his teammates that no matter what happened the rest of the way, he was going to be proud because “this group changed the complexion of Arizona football.”

“Basically,” Mitchell said last night after being one of the final players to leave the locker room, “I told them I had seen our team rise from pretty much nothing, from our trials at LSU to our triumph at USC.”

But at the very end, the team that had proven it could compete with anybody on its schedule, didn’t.

Mitchell sees a silver lining for what is left behind.

“I think it’s a good thing,” he said. “A lot of our younger guys, they came in and saw a lot of the good things, and they didn’t really understand how it feels to be down.

“Hopefully, they can be to able to play with some pride because they know how it feels to be down.”

Can’t argue with that.

The offseason awaits. Time to get back to working with a purpose.

Mark Stoops

Arizona defensive coordinator Mark Stoops has accepted the same position at Florida State, according to several media outlets, including the Tallahassee Democrat and ESPN.com.

Stoops, however, was at UA’s practice Friday afternoon and did not talk about his job situation when asked about reports of his agreement. Florida State’s Jimbo Fisher, who will take over for coaching legend Bobby Bowden after the Seminoles’ bowl game, is in the process of hiring his coaching staff.

Earlier in the day, Arizona head coach Mike Stoops talked about the possibility of losing his younger brother to another job.

“It’s always tough,” Mike Stoops said. “Any time you have success, people are going to look at your coaches and they are going to have opportunities.

“It becomes a personal decision. Is it a better opportunity? That is where your family has to evaluate the situation. I am certainly going to help him if I feel that is a better career move.”

Mark Stoops, 42, also has been mentioned as a possibility for the head coaching position at hometown Youngstown State in Ohio. Mark has experience in the state of Florida, having served as the defensive backs coach at Miami from 2001-2003 before joining Mike Stoops at Arizona.

“I hope we don’t have to change,” Mike said Friday morning at a press conference, “but if we do, we’ve always been able to replace great coaches with other great coaches.”

The easiest move for Mike Stoops would be to promote linebackers coach Tim Kish to defensive coordinator. He held the position at Illinois (1997-2000), Ohio (2001) and Indiana (2002-03). Kish, who is one of UA’s top recruiters, has been with Stoops at Arizona throughout the past six seasons and is certainly well versed in the defense, which is largely the vision of Mike Stoops anyway.

Arizona’s 2008 football recruiting class was ranked 39th nationally by Rivals.com and Scout.com. Eh. The Wildcats would like to live in a better neighborhood, but you know what coaches always say — you need three or four years to truly evaluate a class.

Phillip Garcia was part of a 2008 junior college recruiting class that is providing five key players for the Wildcats/Tucson Citizen photo

In UA’s case, let’s chop that time frame down to about 18 months.

Arizona is 4-2 at the halfway point of the 2009 season, and, barring an upset, will go to 6-2 overall and 4-1 in the Pac-10, which would make the Wildcats a legit contender for the conference title (and the program’s first Rose Bowl … but you knew that).

The Cats get UCLA on Saturday and then, after a bye, Washington State. Both games are at home. Those two opponents are a combined 0-7 in the Pac-10.

One of the reasons the Wildcats are doing so well is that 2008 recruiting class. The UA signed 23 players in that class, and then added another guy late in spring. You might have heard of him. Quarterback Nick Foles, a transfer from Michigan State.

The Wildcats would be in a bad way (or at least a not-as-good way) if the coaches hadn’t successfully plugged holes with junior college transfers. After all, that’s why you recruit those guys in the first place.

It’s often hit and miss with junior college recruits, but Arizona “hit” with offensive linemen Mike Diaz, Phillip Garcia and Herman Hall, and linebackers Vuna Tuihalamaka and Sterling Lewis. Not only are they starting-level players (a combined 21 starts this season), they successfully bridged the recruiting gap so UA could develop younger recruits who will be ready to take over next season.

The only JC transfer miss was offensive lineman J’Marcus Webb. He was the highest-rated of the bunch but was the only member of the entire class to not qualify. He is now at lower-division West Texas. Anyway, it’s a blessing to hit so well on five of six junior college recruits.

Among the high school kids in that class, Arizona is already getting key production from running backs Keola Antolin and Greg Nwoko. At receiver, David Douglas (25 catches for 267 yards and two touchdowns) and Juron Criner (23 catches for 301 yards and three touchdowns) are key members of the rotation.

Robert Golden is the starting strong safety. Vaughn Dotsy was starting at right guard before suffering a concussion and is back at least as a key member of the playing rotation.

It’s hard to know what to make of the future of quarterback Matt Scott, who was supplanted as the starter after three games by Foles, who shows no intention of giving it back. Foles, because of his late transfer, wasn’t factored into the UA’s class ranking in 2008 … which shows one of the inherent flaws of banking opinions on recruiting rankings.

Other members of the class, such as OL Trace Biskin, LB R.J. Young and DT Jowyn Ward, seem ready to emerge next season.

There’s another trend at work here.

Call it the Rise of the Two-Star Recruits.

(That’s another reason to not get all aflutter over football recruiting rankings.)

USC gets all five- and four-star recruits, and good for them. You’d rather take your chances with those kind of guys than a team filled with two-star prospects. Arizona’s recruits tend to be of the three-star variety, with a few bigger stars mixed in.

But take a look at the players signed by UA coach Mike Stoops who were rated only two stars by either Rivals.com or Scout.com, or both:

2004
DL Yaniv Barnett
OL Joe Longacre
DB Dominic Patrick
CB Antoine Cason

2005
LB Spencer Larsen (coming back from a church mission)

2006
DT Lolomana Mikaele

2007
CB Trevin Wade
WR Bug Wright

2008
RB Greg Nwoko
WR Juron Criner
WR David Douglas
OL Herman Hall

That’s a major-award winner and a first-round draft pick (Cason), a first-team all-conference linebacker and valuable 2008 NFL rookie (Spencer Larsen), a 40-game starter on the offensive line (Longacre) … and several players from 2006 to 2008 who look to be significant contributors for a few more years.

When I was recently doing a story on Wade, I asked defensive coordinator Mark Stoops about finding those kind of gems.

“Certainly, some kids get so much hype and so much recruitment that it’s undeserved,” Stoops said. “And other kids, you find that they’re just good ball players.

“We don’t have the bells and whistles around here to go get a bunch of four- and five-star recruits. It’s just not going to happen. So we have to do a great job of evaluation and do a great job of developing.

“We’re always going to go after them (the four- and five-star recruits) — and not just because they are four- and five-star guys. We’re going to recruit the best players we can get. But there are a lot of good programs out there, and we have our obstacles that we must overcome.”

Getting back to the original point … it seems as if Arizona overcame everything just fine in its modestly ranked but high-performing 2008 recruiting class.

Arizona defensive coordinator Mark Stoops walked into the postgame interview room. He probably didn’t want to be there. He didn’t want to sit at the big table, just find a little corner of the room. Maybe no one would notice him.

“I’m not happy,” he started, surrounded by a semi-circle of seven or eight media members with cameras and reporters.

“Let me rephrase that,” he said. “I’m ecstatic we won. But I’m embarrassed.”

Coaching defensive football is his livelihood, so a 43-38 victory in which his unit gives up a staggering 584 yards and six passing plays of at least 30 yards is going to create all kinds of conflicting emotions … which eventually gave way to a smile.

“I hugged all the offensive coaches and kissed them all,” Stoops said.

“I said, ‘I’ve been waiting my whole life to win a game like that.’ We’ve been part of a lot of good defensive efforts on the losing end. That doesn’t feel any better. That feels worse.

“Yeah, I kissed them all. All the offensive coaches and the players. I said, ‘Thank you, thank you.’ And I mean it.

“I don’t want to make it a habit, and I’m not proud of the effort, but I’m proud of the stops at the end and I’m proud the offense put up a lot of points.”

Yeah, about those stops at the end. That was something. The defense made a couple of plays, and got a little bit of luck at the end.

Head coach Mike Stoops said it Monday. Things in life have a way of evening out.

Arizona should have won at Washington. It didn’t. Stanford should have won Saturday night at Arizona Stadium. It didn’t.

The lesson — if you can extrapolate one from two of the craziest games you have ever seen — is that if you’re a visiting team, you better put the home team away when you have a chance.

Stanford didn’t.

For as well as Stanford moved the ball and schemed to get receivers wide open — like by 15 yards or more — the Cardinal didn’t score on any of its last four possessions, propping the door open for Arizona’s comeback.

Arizona, down 38-29, held Stanford to a 36-yard field goal attempt early in the fourth quarter. Wide left. UA forced a punt on the Cardinal’s next possession (Stanford’s only punt of the game). Stanford, after recovering a fumble deep in Arizona’s territory and up only two points, went for it on fourth-and-2 from the UA 8 with less than six minutes left.

Running back Toby Gerhart limped off the field before the play. Game on the line? Stanford dropped a pass for a first down.

Then came the miracle. Third-and-17 … Nic Grigsby takes a handoff … does some shake and bake … does some more shake and bake …

“Just saw daylight,” Grigsby said. “That’s my specialty — daylight.”

Fifty-seven yards later, Arizona had the lead.

But Mark Stoops’ defense needed one more stop. The Cats didn’t get it on fourth-and-5 when Stanford redshirt freshman quarterback Andrew Luck — I won’t be the first to say he’s going to play in the NFL, but let me get it on the record here anyway — scrambled for 5 yards. First down, by less than the length of the football.

Luck then hit a 36-yard pass to the UA 17, and Arizona fans’ hearts were dropping, hopes were drooping. The Cats eventually worked it to fourth-and-10. After blitzing on third down, Arizona sent only four to the quarterback.

“I knew they were coming at me. They were coming at me the whole game,” said sophomore cornerback Trevin Wade. “I just told myself and was praying, ‘I hope they come my way because I want to make a play for the team.’”

Wade was right. Luck lofted a ball toward Chris Owusu in the left corner of the end zone.

“He went outside, so I went outside … I saw his eyes light up, so I turned around quick and jumped,” Wade said.

Wade made the play. He knocked the ball down. Save for the final 23 seconds, game over.

Mike Stoops said after the game that the team didn’t have a productive week of practice. It wasn’t easy to get over the Washington loss. About 12 players were suffering from the flu, and several key guys barely practiced. Starting offensive lineman Mike Diaz didn’t play because of illness, and starting defensive end Brooks Reed (ankle) missed his third consecutive game.

Grigsby? He said his bruised shoulder is still “killing” him, maybe about 60 percent healthy. But, hey, some Wildcat needed to make a play, so …

“It was something that was supposed to be done and needed to be done,” he said of his game-winning run. “Coaches tell me to make the first guy miss, and I made him miss.”

In the end it was just another Arizona game with 1,137 yards of offense (cough, cough), just another game in which its starting quarterback, Nick Foles, goes 40 of 51 for 415 yards and three touchdowns. That’s the eighth-best yardage total in UA history. And still no foles4heisman.com?

Well, at least he got a hug from the defensive coordinator.

Hey, hugs all around. Arizona is 4-2 and has a schedule set up on a platter — UCLA and Washington State at home — to go to 6-2 overall and 4-1 in the Pac-10. Think about that for a minute. For all week, if you want.

Catch your breath, too. These Cats aren’t boring. Each Pac-10 game has been — and almost certainly will be a heart-stopping — affair. You’re going to win some. You’re going to lose them. Enter Mike Stoops, the philosopher.

“I’d rather play bad and win than play good and lose,” he said with a chuckle. “Believe me.”

We will have in-game updates, analysis and other assorted tidbits for Arizona’s game against Stanford. Feel free to ask questions and express your elation — or outrage — in the comments section. Keep checking back often.

Back from postgame interviews. You saw the ending — the Nic Grigsby TD run. The fourth down stop in the final seconds. I’ll have postgame reaction later … like right here.

* * *

Arizona holds on fourth down. Still alive. I have to go down to the field… be back after the game.

* * *

Stunned silence at Arizona Stadiium. Greg Nwoko mishandles a handoff, fumbles and Stanford recovers at the UA 27. Won’t be too bad if the defense can hold the Cardinal to a field goal.

* * *

Yep, my previous post was a jinx. Stanford has to punt for the first time. UA takes over at its 24.

* * *

From the press box, you could kind of see this coming. Arizona had third-and-1 at the Stanford 43, with the field spread with receivers and Stanford had absolutely nobody behind its line. Sure enough, the offensive line opened a hole for RB Greg Nwoko, and there was no one there to bring him down. He goes untouched into the end zone, and Arizona trails 38-36 with 10:06 to play.

Just something to consider: Stanford has yet to punt.

Maybe that will be a jinx.

* * *

Still a long way to go. Arizona holds Stanford, such as it is, to a 36-yard field goal attempt, which is wide left. The score stays 38-29 early in the fourth quarter. Anybody believing in a comeback?

* * *

Another Stanford possession, another big Stanford pass play. This time, on a nice play-action fake, Andrew Luck hits Chris Owusu for a long pass and a 47-yard gain to the UA 2. The Cardinal has no goal-line issues because it can just give the ball to Toby Gerhart, and he does score on a 2-yard run. So, it’s now 38-29 with 3:23 to go in the third quarter … and those missed points after touchdowns are looming large for the Cats.

Stanford has five pass plays of at least 30 yards.

* * *

Coach Mike Stoops picked a good time to turn into a gambler. Facing fourth-and-goal, staring at another potential goal-line failure (like last week), Nick Foles hit a slanting David Douglas for a 1-yard score. Within two points at 31-29 with 6:27 to go in the third quarter, Stoops “gambled” again, going for two. At this point of the game, I think that’s a reasonable decision … but it didn’t work out as a pass was incomplete.

* * *

Answering my own question as to what the defense has … Stanford begins its second half on offense with a 40-yard catch-and-run by Ryan Whalen. He makes the catch after the best pump fake you’ll ever see. Cornerback Devin Ross bit on the quick out, and then Whalen went up the field to make the catch and be off to the races.

Stanford ends up with a field goal from 33 yards to make it 31-23 with 9:55 to play. So, we’re back where we started at halftime.

* * *

Well, it’s something. Arizona, nicely running a no-huddle offense after halftime, was nearly unstoppable … until it hit the red zone, of course. UA had first-and-goal from the 8, but a pass was batted down, UA was called for a false start penalty, Nick Foles completed a 6-yard pass and then a third-down throw was incomplete.

UA settled for a 24-yard field goal to get within 28-23 with 12:43 to go in the third quarter. Now, what does the defense have …

* * *

Nick Foles at halftime: 19 of 24 for 212 yards, with two touchdowns and no interceptions.

* * *

Replay works! A called Stanford interception off a tipped pass is overturned on a replay review — the ball was ruled to have hit the ground — and Arizona keeps possession at the Cardinal 16 with 29 seconds to go before halftime. How big was it?

Arizona manages to punch the ball into the end on an 11-yard pass from Nick Foles to Terrell Turner to make it 28-20 with 18 seconds to go before halftime. The Cats get the ball to start the second half, so I now have regained some faith in UA’s ability to win this game, although defensive coordinator Mark Stoops has to come up with a new plan to stop Stanford at halftime.

The Cardinal has 313 yards at halftime. Arizona came into the game, allowing an average of 281 per game.

* * *

It’s too early for this, but I have lost all faith in UA’s ability to win this game. Stanford, through great protection for QB Andrew Luck, and receivers running without coverage in the secondary, is destroying Arizona’s defense. An 80-yard drive, fueled by a 45-yard pass to tight end Konrad Reuland (yes, he was wide open), gives Stanford a 28-13 lead late in the first half.

To update: Stanford has completions of 30, 16, 23, 30, 22, 45 and 19 yards. The 19-yarder was the touchdown pass on the last drive to Chris Owusu.

* * *

Starting MLB Vuna Tuihalamaka is injured with 5:44 to play, and he limps off the field. R.J. Young comes in as his replacement.

* * *

Andrew Luck is picking apart the UA defense. So far, Stanford has completions of 30, 16, 23, 30 and 22 yards. The last completion was an 11-yard touchdown pass to Ryan Whalen, who, apparently, UA forgot to cover. He was wide open in the end zone.

The Cardinal is up 21-13 … and that is even with two turnovers, one returned for a TD. Unless UA defensive coordinator Mark Stoops makes some adjustments, this is going to turn into a long game for the Cats. Stanford has 234 yards already, and there is 9:16 to go in the second quarter.

* * *

Impressive drive for Stanford — eight plays, 82 yards. The Cardinal mixes two long pass plays — 23 and 30 yards — with the running of Toby Gerhart to take a 14-13 lead with 48 seconds left in the opening quarter. Gerhart has the key play: a 12-yard run on third-and-8 from the 14. He appeared to be headed out of bounds on the play, but UA couldn’t force him out and he tip-toed down the sideline to the 2.

Here’s a concern: Stanford, known as a blue-collar physical team that can wear down defenses, had possession in the first quarter for 10 minutes, 28 seconds.

This is also the first time UA has trailed at the end of the first quarter this season.

* * *

Mostly good news. Nick Foles does nothing but continue to impress, rolling right and throwing off his back foot deep down the middle to David Douglas. He had plenty of zip on it, and Douglas came down with the pass amid two Stanford defenders, who knocked each other out of the play. Douglas was free to run into the end zone for a 13-7 lead with 4:40 to go in the opening quarter.

Now the bad news. Alex Zendejas, who already lost his kickoff job in this game, had the extra point blocked.

* * *

Less than 10 minutes gone, and there is a third turnover in the game. Stanford has third-and-1 from its 49, but QB Andrew Luck fumbles the snap, and UA LB Sterling Lewis recovers.

* * *

Uh-oh. Another controversial call from the officials. Juron Criner, after catching a short pass from Nick Foles at about the Stanford 25, was fighting for extra yardage, surrounded by at least four Stanford players. Maybe five. It is at this point that the play is often whistled dead by officials, but the play continued and the ball popped loose. Stanford recovered.

Replays showed the ball came free before Criner was down, but why wasn’t the play called dead? Coach Mike Stoops was well out on the field to talk the officials … but this is just another one that goes against the Cats.

* * *

Stanford quickly ties the game after UA’s pick-6. Stanford redshirt freshman Andrew Luck, who is among the most promising of the young quarterbacks in the league, finds a wide-open TE Jim Dray over the middle for a 30-yard touchdown. That makes it 7-7 with 10:26 to go in the first quarter.

* * *

There’s been a change with the kickoff man. Alex Zendejas, who struggled with that role last week at Washington, was poor on his first attempt today, getting the ball to the 15. So, John Bonano handled the second kickoff, and reached the goal line with his kick … although Chris Osuwu returned it past midfield.

* * *

Arizona jumps on top — note the importance of that in the pregame notes below — with a 79-yard interception return by safety Robert Golden. Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck, in perhaps a miscommunication with a receiver, threw the ball right to Golden, who had a pretty clear path to the end zone … except for the part where he had to jump over Luck, attempting to make a low tackle.

Arizona leads 7-0 with 12:31 to play.

* * *

Defensive end Brooks Reed is not in the starting lineup. He has missed the past two games due to an ankle injury. Good news for the line is that Earl Mitchell, who missed the Washington game after being hit in the head by a door a day earlier, was back in the lineup.

PREGAME

Some things to watch in the UA-Stanford game:

1. The red zone: Arizona is one of the best teams in the country between the 20s. The problem is once UA gets close to the goal line, whether its on offense or defense.

The offense has gotten a lot of attention for its lack of production. The Cats have scored 13 touchdowns in 24 attempts in the rond zone, a 54 percent rate. What hasn’t gotten as much attention is that the defense has yet to stop anybody in the red zone, as the opponents have scored on all 13 of their red zone chances, including 11 touchdowns.

2. Get a lead. Even UA coach Mike Stoops said it: The Stanford offense is not equipped to play from behind. The Cardinal wants to pound defenses with the run and turn the game into a physical grind. If the Cardinal is behind by a significant amount, Stanford might have to abandon that plan and put more of the offense on redshirt freshman Andrew Luck.

3. UA’s defensive line needs to come up big. Stoops made an interesting point this week, saying one of the reasons Stanford tailback Tobt Gerhart is so successful is that the Cardinal, through its physical play up front and through its scheme, do a great job of preventing penetration. That allows Gerhart to build a full head of steam … and once he does that, he’s very tough to bring down.

The unofficial motto of the Arizona defense: Make ‘em earn it.

That’s the thing defensive coordinator Mark Stoops likes best through four games.

“I think every team we’ve played, they’ve earned every yard they’ve got,” he said. “I think that’s a sign of a good defense — just not blowing things and giving things. They’re earning their yards.”

Translation: The other team isn’t getting long, cheap plays that can be back-breakers, momentum-changers and game-winners.

Is he right?

He is.

Arizona has allowed only four big plays (three came against Iowa, which helps explain the loss):

–A 43-yard run to Iowa running back Adam Robinson.
–A 34-yard pass to Iowa’s Marvin McNutt.
–A 29-yard pass to Iowa’s Allen Reisner.
–A 25-yard pass to Oregon State’s James Rodgers.

That’s it. One run of 20-plus yards. Three passes of 25-plus yards. We’ll use those lengths as definitions of big plays.

Compare that to Washington. The Huskies have allowed 11 big runs and 14 big passes. Not even Washington’s difficult schedule (LSU, USC, Stanford, Notre Dame) can account for the difference in those two defenses.

Checking all of the Pac-10 in combined big plays, the list looks like this, using per-game averages (I’d like to say I spent hours looking through every box score, but it’s a lot easier to do the research on cfbstats.com):

1. Arizona, 1.0
2. USC, 1.2
3. Oregon State, 1.4
4. Oregon, 1.6
5. UCLA, 1.75
6. Stanford, 1.8
7. Arizona State, 2.0
8. Cal, 3.2
9. Washington, 5.0
10. Washington, 5.4

“Surely, I would like some plays back, I would like some points back,” Stoops said.

But it’s hard to complain too much about UA’s defense. It’s working. Make the other team try to put together long drives. If they can do so without breaking down with a penalty or turnover or dropped pass or whatever … more power to them.

Sometimes, the opponent can do it. But at least Arizona is making those guys on the other side earn it.

Oregon State scored four touchdowns against Arizona, but had to be consistently efficient to get into the end zone. The Beavers’ TD drives:

–14 plays, 83 yards
–11 plays, 71 yards
–9 plays, 65 yards
–12 plays, 62 yards

Iowa’s three touchdown drives averaged 10 plays, 73 yards.

NAU had a touchdown drive of 14 plays and 79 yards. The Lumberjacks also scored late after an interception on a 19-yard drive.

Other than that, the UA offense has been doing its part, too — not putting its defense in bad field position.

Washington offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier had this to say about Arizona to the Seattle Times:

“They run around and play very, very aggressively. They have very good team speed. They play a lot of zone coverage with their eyes on the quarterback — they’ve got six interceptions — so they are very talented in the back end and their up-front guys get after the passer. They get after you, but they cover in the back end so it’s hard because you want to get the ball off but they cover well.”

Arizona’s big-play stinginess stacks up favorably against the nation’s best.

–No. 1 Florida has allowed four long plays in four games … the same as Arizona.
–No. 2 Texas has yielded five big plays in four games.
–No. 3 Alabama has allowed eight long plays in five games.

“I think we’re playing up to expectations,” Stoops said.

“I don’t think we have the kind of defense that all of a sudden is going to wow you and be No. 1 in the country in total yards. That’s not us. Be we need to be good and sound and tough, and I think we’re doing that.”

Sometimes you get a five-star recruit who’s no star. Sometimes you get a two-star recruit who’s all-star.

Trevin Wade

Sometimes, you just get lucky and happen to have an assistant coach whose nephew is a basketball coach at this high school in Texas and he keeps telling his uncle about this under-recruited kid who plays football who is going to be an awfully good player for somebody … why not you?

And so it was, that late in the recruiting process before the February 2007 signing date, Arizona assistant coach Dana Dimel relented and watched a highlight tape of this kid who was the faintest blip on the recruiting radar.

That kid was Trevin Wade.

“Dana just brought me the tape and asked what I thought of him,” said UA defensive coordinator Mark Stoops. “I told him, I like him a lot.”

A lot of schools had that tape. Whether they watched, who knows? Wade put together a highlight mix of his junior season — when he mostly played safety — and sent it to 120 schools, he said. As a senior, he played a lot of offense, because that’s what his team needed.

Dimel — who is now coaching at Kansas State — went out to Stony Point High School in Round Rock, Texas, to watch Wade play basketball for coach Brian Route. Cal had taken a late interest in Wade, too. A few days later, Bears coach Jeff Tedford was sitting the stands watching Wade play hoops.

“It was pretty exciting stuff,” Route said.

Wade visited Cal, but the Bears wanted him to grayshirt, meaning to delay his enrollment until the spring so his eligibility clock would start later.

Wade then visited Arizona on the final recruiting weekend.

“It was a pretty easy call,” Wade said.

It was a pretty good call.

Wade, a sophomore in his first season as a starter, is making a mockery of the recruiting rankings. He already has eight career interceptions — four as a little-used reserve last season and four through four games this season. He returned one interception for a touchdown against Iowa last month.

(more…)