Matt Scott (right) and David Richards celebrates the first of Arizona’s seven touchdowns vs. Washington. Photo by Mark J. Rebilas-US PRESSWIRE

It has happened fast. It was supposed to happen fast, of course, but not this fast.

From the moment Rich Rodriguez was hired last November, we knew the Arizona Wildcats would have a fabulous offense, one on the leading edges of college football.

That’s his track record. Mr. No Huddle. That’s who he is.

Can’t wait to see it all in a few years …

But with senior quarterback Matt Scott leading the way, sophomore Ka’Deem Carey emerging into an All-American-caliber running back and sophomore receiver Austin Hill becoming a touchdown-maker, the Wildcats have cast aside any painful break-in time and gone right into the good stuff.

The latest flurry resulted in a 52-17 victory over Washington on Saturday night at Arizona Stadium, the most points the Cats have ever scored against the Huskies and their largest margin of victory against U-Dub.

Arizona ended a three-game losing streak and improved to 4-3 overall, 1-3 in the Pac-12. Washington lost its third in a row, dropping to 3-4 and 1-3.

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Arizona’s Matt Scott gets ready to fire the winning touchdown pass in overtime vs. Toledo. Photo by Matt Kartozian-US PRESSWIRE

The Arizona football team is better than it should be, not as good as it could be.

The Wildcats — part encouraging, part frustrating, rarely boring — suffered their third consecutive loss last Saturday, leaving them at 3-3 overall at the midway point of the regular season.

Which is basically on par with preseason expectations.

Are you a glass-half-full fan?

Rich Rodriguez took over a 4-8 team that lost four NFL players, including quarterback Nick Foles, upset No. 18 Oklahoma State and, amid an injury crisis, came within a play or two of beating ranked Oregon State and Stanford. With a smile from the football gods, the Cats would be 5-1.

Or are you a glass-half-empty fan?

The Wildcats are disappointing because they haven’t made a play in crunch time in the past two weeks, a leaky defense has little chance of getting better in the second half of the season, and Arizona will run out of gas before getting to bowl eligibility. Wait till next season. Or maybe 2014.

As the Wildcats sit out this weekend before resuming play against Washington on Oct. 20, let’s take stock at the season’s halftime.

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Rich Rodriguez might stand alone after not taking a more aggressive approach in the final minute of regulation. Photo by Jason O. Watson/Getty Images

Let the second guessing begin. The Arizona Wildcats had the ball at their 18-yard line with 41 seconds left in a tie game at Stanford.

UA coach Rich Rodriguez had stomped on the gas pedal all day.

He went for it on fourth-and-10 from the Stanford 40 in the second quarter, leading to an Arizona field goal.

He went for it on fourth-and-1 at the Stanford 15 in the third quarter, leading to a touchdown.

He was ready to go for it a possession later on fourth-and-1 from the Cardinal 44, but right tackle Fabbians Ebbele was penalized for a false start. The Cats punted, unable to extend their 27-21 lead at the time.

But with the game tied and 41 seconds left, Rodriguez made a more conservative choice. Arizona had two timeouts left. The Cats might not have a lot of confidence in kicker John Bonano, but there was time to at least try to get into field goal position.

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Arizona State fans will be giddy, at least for the next couple of weeks.

The Sun Devils are 4-1, have found a quarterback in sophomore Taylor Kelly, are on the fringes of the Top 25 and should, with relative ease, post another victory next Thursday at Colorado.

That will set up a huge Thursday night “Blackout” game on Oct. 18 — at home vs. Oregon — that already has launched a mascot war.

With league wins over Utah and Cal, ASU should be considered ahead of schedule in its first season under Todd Graham. The Sun Devils would be 5-0 if they could have made a play at the goal line at Missouri.

But, as was the case last year, we really won’t find out what kind of team the Devils have until they hit the tougher part of their schedule in the second half of the season. ASU has yet to face a dynamic quarterback. That will change.

Meanwhile, Arizona’s first year under Rich Rodriguez already is in its critical stretch, with the Cats facing their third No. 18 team in the country this week at Stanford. UA split against its previous No. 18 foes — beating Oklahoma State and losing last week to Oregon State.

What to make of the Wildcats?

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Rich Rodriguez will see how his team responds in the light of day. Photo by Matt Kartozian-US PRESSWIRE

The Arizona Wildcats are setting their alarm clocks early to try to reset their body clocks.

After five consecutive night games — no kickoff earlier than 7 p.m. — Arizona will play at 18th-ranked Stanford on Saturday, beginning at noon.

Coach Rich Rodriguez set Tuesday’s practice to begin at 6 a.m, lasting under two hours.

He was not disappointed. Everybody, he said, was 15 minutes early.

“We have to get our guys adjusted to getting up a little bit earlier — getting to bed early and getting up and getting ready to play,” Rodriguez said.

“I don’t know if it’s going to make a huge difference, but I hope it makes a little bit of difference.”

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Rich Rodriguez went 15-22 at Michigan. Photo by Matt Kartozian-US PRESSWIRE

The Michigan Wolverines found themselves with schedule openings this week when Notre Dame opted out of the rivalry after the 2014 season.

That inspired AP national college football writer Ralph Russo to suggest six possibilities to fill Michigan’s schedule, and Javier Morales offered some differing choices at LindysSports.com.

Perhaps first-year Arizona coach Rich Rodriguez, who was booted from Michigan following the 2010 season after three years on the job, would be interested in helping fill the vacancies.

He does say he would he like to play one game against a BCS-conference opponent each year, so why not his old school?

Uh … no.

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Chip Kelly is 37-6 as the head coach at Oregon. Photo by Ron Chenoy-US PRESSWIRE

Blame Rich Rodriguez.

The Oregon Ducks have won three consecutive conference championships, have averaged 489 yards in the past 69 games and haven’t finished worse than 12th nationally in scoring in the past five seasons.

And all dominance has origins to sometime after the 1999 season when a largely unknown offensive coordinator from New Hampshire met with a rising offensive coordinator from Clemson to learn more about this exciting, new, fast-paced offense the Tigers were running.

That is how Chip Kelly began to master the read-option offense that Rodriguez pioneered 20 years ago at Glenville State.

“We have always kind of kept in touch,” Rodriguez told TucsonCitizen.com this summer at Pac-12 Media Day.

“I think we traded a lot of ideas. He got our film and we got his film. We do some similar things, and then we do some things differently. Chip obviously has done a great job with it.

“I think philosophically, Chip is probably the closest to what we believe in offensively and how to go about it than anyone else out there.”

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RELATED: My AP ballot: To rank Arizona or not rank Arizona?

Matt Scott and the Wildcats have reason to jump for joy. Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images

The Arizona Wildcats find themselves relevant, coming in at No. 24 in this week’s AP poll after its 59-38 victory over then-18th-ranked Oklahoma State on Saturday night.

“We’re trying to make ourselves relevant and I told the guys this week that the only way to do that is by beating ranked teams,” said coach Rich Rodriguez.

Although it seems like a football lifetime ago, Arizona was ranked as recently as Nov. 22, 2010.

The Cats were ranked No. 20 that week, sitting at 7-3 after two consecutive losses and a bye week. Arizona fell out of the rankings with a loss to Oregon, part of a season-ending five-game losing streak that began the downfall of coach Mike Stoops, who started the 2011 season with five more losses to teams from the Football Bowl Subdivision.

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Matt Scott leads the band in “Bear Down, Arizona” after the game. Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images

Arizona Wildcats quarterback Matt Scott ascended to the conductor’s platform in the southeast corner of Arizona Stadium, ready to direct the school’s marching band.

In this new postgame winning tradition, he and the rest of the Wildcats belted out “Bear Down, Arizona,” singing along with the band and students and fans. Scott punctuated the lyrics with fist pumps, reveling in the team’s 59-38 victory over 18th-ranked Oklahoma State.

What better way to symbolize that Saturday night was out with the old and in with the new.

The old Arizona lost, meekly, to Oklahoma State in each of the past two years and had dropped six consecutive games, also meekly, to ranked teams.

The new Arizona of coach Rich Rodriguez took the fight to the Cowboys, pounced on numerous OSU mistakes — including four turnovers and a ridiculous 167 yards in penalties — and scored the school’s most points ever against a ranked team, spanning 138 games.

“From the opening kickoff, I could sense our guys wanting to battle,” Rodriguez said.

“We might be a little smaller, maybe not as fast or whatever, but if a kid is a competitor, you always have a shot.”

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Arizona’s Matt Scott gets ready to fire the winning touchdown pass as Toledo’s Danny Farr unsuccessfully tries to drag him down. Photo by Matt Kartozian-US PRESSWIRE

Matt Scott couldn’t find anyone open. It was third-and-goal from the 10 in overtime, the Arizona Wildcats trying to overcome a mountain of mistakes against Toledo.

Scott rolled to his right, signaling to his receivers downfield. Danny Farr, a 295-pound defensive lineman, broke free and chased Scott to the sideline, grabbing the back of his jersey.

The play looked dead. Arizona was going to have to settle for a field goal attempt, which was scary enough since John Bonano had missed from 25 yards minutes earlier on the final play of regulation.

But then …

“At the last second, I saw Terrence out of the corner of my eye,” Scott said. “I just kind of slung the ball to him, and he made a great catch.”

Scott had just enough time left to fire to receiver Terrence Miller at the goal line for a touchdown. The UA defense made the lead hold up by stopping Toledo on downs on the ensuing possession, and the Wildcats made Rich Rodriguez a 24-17 winner in his first game as the Wildcats coach.

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