Juron Criner was the only all-conference player for Arizona from its 2008 recruiting class. Photo by Chris Morrison-USA Today Sports

The Arizona Wildcats football recruiting class of 2008 is in the books.

Arizona was coming off a 5-7 season in coach Mike Stoops fourth season and hadn’t had a winning record in nine seasons.

The Cats weren’t operating from a position of strength and finished 39th nationally in the recruiting rankings of Rivals.com and Scout.com, which put Arizona slightly below average among BCS conference teams.

So, how did Arizona do with its 2008 recruiting class?

Somewhere around average sounds about right.

The Cats hit on about half of the class, with “hit” defined as a starting player, but there wasn’t a lot of star power and not nearly enough defense.

Let’s take a look …

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This season wouldn’t have been possible without the play and leadership of Matt Scott. Photo by Mark J. Rebilas-US PRESSWIRE

Soon after Arizona hired Rich Rodriguez, the seniors-to-be filed into his new office, one-by-one, to hear the same message.

Center Kyle Quinn remembers Rodriguez saying something like this:

“This is your team. It’s the seniors’ team. I may not have recruited you guys, and this is your last year, but I want you guys to have the best senior year possible. You’re my guys.”

This is always the worry with a coaching change — the tenuous relationship between the new coach and the old players. The guy with the long-term plan doesn’t always have use for the short-timers. The short-timers tune out the guy with the long-term plan.

“We really bought into his philosophy and his mindset,” Quinn said.

“We were eager to change,” said senior defensive lineman Chris Merrill. “We knew we had to buy in for change to be implemented.”

“It started with us,” added senior fullback/defensive end Taimi Tutogi. “We talked to the guys and said, ‘Look at this guy’s record; he’s done a lot of good things at previous schools.’ The guys followed their leaders.”

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Rich Rodriguez was fired up after a fourth-quarter TD in his Michigan debut, but the Wolverines still lost to Utah. Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images

We know fireworks will accompany the Arizona Wildcats’ entrance onto the field on Saturday night. After that, who knows?

“With the first game there are always so many things you’re unsure of,” first-year Arizona coach Rich Rodriguez said Monday.

He will make his UA debut this weekend against Toledo at Arizona Stadium, hoping for a better result than he had when the curtain went up at West Virginia in 2001 and at Michigan seven years later.

In Rodriguez’s first game as a Division I-A college head coach, his Mountaineers team gained just 316 yards, scored a mere 10 points and lost by more than three touchdowns at Boston College.

In Rodriguez’s first game as the head coach at Michigan in 2008, the Wolverines managed a scant 203 yards and lost, in the Big House, 25-23 to Utah. Headline the next day in the Detroit News: Will Rodriguez be a Michigan Man?

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Interim head coach Tim Kish won't have many defensive backs to yell at during the next game. Photo by Chris Morrision, US-PRESSWIRE

Arizona’s secondary will be stretched even thinner for the game at Washington on Oct. 29, as four defensive backs will be suspended for at least at a half because of their part in Thursday’s brawl against UCLA.

The Pac-12, after reviewing video of the incident Friday, handed down suspensions to 10 players, including six from UCLA.

“The Conference is extremely disappointed in the actions of the student-athletes involved in this incident,” commissioner Larry Scott said in a statement.

“It is unacceptable behavior and violated Conference rules, as well as NCAA fighting rules. I have taken these actions today because it is imperative that we hold our student-athletes and coaches to the highest standards of sportsmanship.”

Sophomore starting cornerback Shaquille Richardson was ejected, as was UCLA receiver Taylor Embree, with four seconds to go in the first half. The Pac-12 went further and extended their suspensions for one game.

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Coming off a disappointing junior season, Trevin Wade was more dedicated this spring. Photo by David Kadlubowski/The Arizona Republic

Here is the ninth 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: I talked with new secondary coach Ryan Walters to get his breakdown of a position group that should be the strength of the defense.

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