Kyle Quinn leaves Monday morning for a week of practice and interviews at the NFLPA Collegiate Bowl. Photo by Matt Kartozian-USA Today Sports

About a week after the Arizona Wildcats’ win in the New Mexico Bowl, senior center Kyle Quinn got a call from a number he didn’t recognize. He answered anyway.

Hello?

“This is Coach Tomey.”

“I was like, ‘Oh my gosh,” Quinn said about hearing from Dick Tomey, the winningest coach in Arizona history.

“I got nervous. I actually got goosebumps. Just hearing from him with the amount of respect I have for him and the passion he has for this school and this city, it’s really amazing.”

There was a practical purpose for the call. Tomey, serving as a head coach and procurer of talent for the Casino Del Sol College All-Star Game, was inviting Quinn to participate in the game, which took place Friday at Kino Stadium.

Quinn and two other ex-Wildcats — fullback/defensive end Taimi Tutogi and defensive lineman Dominique Austin — helped the West squad to a 40-7 victory.

“I was really proud of all those guys,” Tomey said after the game. “Taimi was terrific. Kyle is a great leader.”

Tutogi and Quinn, having absorbed lessons from Tomey and the Casino Del Sol coaching staff, are moving on this week to the NFLPA Collegiate Bowl, which will be played Saturday at the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif.

Quinn figured a week of practice at the Casino Del Sol game will give him an edge.

“The good thing was that I got the rust off, because we all felt the rust. A lot of guys had been off for a few weeks,” Quinn said.

“Going into next week, I feel like I have the advantage over most of the guys because a lot of them haven’t played yet. I’ll take that and use it to my advantage. I have learned you have to strap that helmet up really tight because these guys can hit.”

Quinn split time at center on Friday night with Utah’s Tevita Stevens. Austin had two tackles, including one for loss. Tutogi carried five times for 28 yards.

“It was nice,” Tutogi said of his workload, “seeing that I only got the ball once at the U of A this year. I tried to take the ball and have a little bit of a chip on my shoulder and did what I could with it. I think it worked out well.”

Quinn and Tutogi will get more good coaching this week. The head coaches for the NFLPA game are Herm Edwards and Dick Vermeil. Former NFL players fill many assistant coaching spots. Former Arizona defensive coordinator Larry Mac Duff is assisting, as well.

“I have to memorize a whole new playbook,” Quinn said. “So I have to burn this playbook in the back of my mind and get ready. But that’s the life of an NFL player. You have to be a student every week. It’s a lot of fun.”

Two more former Wildcats will be in action this week. Quarterback Matt Scott (the top prospect among ex-Arizona players) and receiver Dan Buckner will play in the East-West Shrine Game from St. Petersburg, Fla., on Saturday.

The NFL Network will carry the East-West Shrine Game, starting at 2 p.m. Tucson time. ESPN2 will show the NFLPA game beginning at 4 p.m.

Taimi Tutogi practices Monday for the Casino Del Sol College All-Star Game. Photo by V. Valdez Photography

Taimi Tutogi was described many ways in his four years with the Arizona Wildcats — fullback, H-back, tight end, tailback, defensive end.

Mostly, he was a blocker.

Tutogi, at 6-1, 260, has the kind of powerfully-built body found among lead blockers in the NFL. What the scouts want to find out about Tutogi in the next couple of weeks is what he else he can do in the offense.

“I think they know I can block,” he said after practice for the Casino Del Sol College All-Star Game, to be held Friday night at Kino Stadium, starting at 7 p.m.

“A lot of scouts have talked about me coming out of the backfield, being versatile.”

Tutogi carried the ball only once, for a loss of 1 yard, as a senior in coach Rich Rodriguez’s read-option attack. Tutogi caught 10 passes this season and 11 as a junior in the final year of the Mike Stoops era.

“I tried to play within the system, whatever Coach Rod, Coach Stoops wanted me to do,” Tutogi said.

“I felt like I could have done more, but we had guys like Ka’Deem (Carey). I just did what they told me. Hopefully, with what they had me do, I produced enough to where these scouts think I can play at the next level.”

Tutogi is rated the ninth-best fullback for the 2013 draft, according to NFLDraftScout.com, which rates him as a seventh-round/free agent prospect.

He will also have more practices next week to show what he can do. He accepted an invite to the NFLPA Collegiate Bowl, which will be held Jan. 19 in Los Angeles.

Tutogi is hoping he will get a chance to get at least a few plays on defense at the Casino Del Sol game after appearing as a third-down pass-rusher for Arizona this season. He had five tackles, including 1.5 for loss and one sack.

He said he “kicked back and relaxed” for a bit after Arizona’s win in the New Mexico Bowl on Dec. 15, but it’s now all business.

“It hits you that college is done. I won’t ever play in Arizona Stadium again,” he said.

“Now, you’re hitting the big world and you’re facing reality. But it’s good that this game is in Tucson. I feel like I’m back home.”

Kyle Quinn missed three games because of injury this season but was Arizona’s starting center for the past two years. Photo by Matt Kartozian-US PRESSWIRE

Three Arizona Wildcats have accepted invitations to play in the Casino Del Sol College All-Star Game in Tucson next month.

Center Kyle Quinn, defensive lineman Dominique Austin and fullback/defensive end Taimi Tutogi will get a chance to interview and workout for scouts, and then play in front of UA fans one more time on Dec. 11.

The game will be played Jan. 11 at 7 p.m.

It will be interesting to how scouts evaluate Tutogi, who played both ways as a senior. He certainly has the body to be a situational NFL player on offense while being able to play on special teams. Austin missed the final seven games of the regular season because of a foot injury but came back to play in the New Mexico Bowl victory.

A list of 64 committed players released by bowl officials includes 13 from the Pac-12. Arizona State will send punter Josh Hubner, a Lindy’s third-team All-American.

One of the more intriguing players could be Washington State quarterback Jeff Tuel, who decided to enter the draft and not try to seek a medical hardship season from earlier in his career.

Tuel spent part of his childhood in Tucson, attending Salpointe Catholic High School for a year before his family moved to Fresno, Calif.

More player announcements are expected in the next week or so. The game featured about 90 prospects last season.

Here is a list of the 64 players who accepted invitations:

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.”

Compare that to the situation at Washington State, where first-year coach Mike Leach said last month some of his seniors have an “empty-corpse quality.”

At Arizona, the senior class has helped pulled the Wildcats up from a 4-8 record last season to a 7-4 mark this year heading into Friday night’s regular-season finale against Arizona State.

It’s not that this senior class is supremely deep or talented — there are only five seniors who have started a majority of the games, none on defense. Several seniors are merely deep reserves, but they haven’t poisoned the well while filling small roles.

“I thought it was a good group of guys, but I didn’t know if they could play or not and what their contributions would be on the field,” Rodriguez said of his first impression of the seniors.

“But I loved their attitude. I thought they had a willingness to listen and learn and to lead in the right way. Particularly if you’re a senior and you’re not playing a whole lot, you could go a couple of different ways.

“You could buy into the team concept and help us out that way, or you could kind of go the other way and be a detriment. I think our guys chose to go the right way.”

This was hardly a seamless transition. Rodriguez asked the Wildcats to learn a new scheme on offense, a new scheme on defense, to practice differently — fast-paced all the time — to condition differently and harder than ever in the offseason. What’s more, the coaching staff has a different collective personality than that of the previous staff, another factor that could lead to unease and unhappiness.

“The guys that are here are happy that they stayed. I know it’s the best decision I’ve made,” Tutogi said.

“I’m just happy that Coach RichRod is doing what he is doing. It’s been a 360 (degree) difference from last year. Guys have stepped up. Now I wish I would have redshirted my freshman year. That’s just a product of how Coach RichRod coaches and his philosophy. I like that it’s a family.

“I’m sad, but I’m happy for the younger guys, because that’s what they are going to get for the rest of their career.”

The whole feel-good vibe has been a stark contrast to Rodriguez’s first year at Michigan.

These are some of the things that have been different at Arizona: UA didn’t have a public, anguished coaching search; Rodriguez nailed his introductory press conference; he’s had the full support of the administration; he hasn’t been publicly bad-mouthed by former players; his good ol’ boy personality has played well to the masses; he inherited an experienced senior quarterback … and any grumbling has stayed behind the scenes.

The proof of the buying-in is in the win-loss record and an on-field effort that can’t be called disappointing. Much credit goes to the seniors.

“He asked a lot of us as a group,” Tutogi said.

“It’s been easy when you’ve got a group of guys like the ones you’ve got. We didn’t know what guys were going to think when Coach Rod came in because you have a lot of different opinions with a lot of different coaches. But it started with us.”

Arizona rotates captains on a weekly basis but on Wednesday named captains through the bowl game — Scott, Quinn, Biskin and junior linebacker Jake Fischer, a fourth-year player who is the leader of a defense that does not start a senior.

“A few of the guys have been not just good leaders but great leaders. I think that has really helped us in a year of transition,” Rodriguez said.

“We’ve been fortunate to make steps as a program while the seniors have been all in.”

* * *

Arizona’s 2012 senior class

*Note: WR Terrence Miller not listed because it is expected that he will get a medical hardship for this season, able to return as a fifth-year senior in 2013.

Kyle Quinn is likely to play this week at UCLA after missing three full games. Photo by Matt Kartozian-US PRESSWIRE

Arizona Wildcats starting center Kyle Quinn, who has missed the past three-and-half games because of an ankle injury, has been upgraded to probable, according to the team’s injury report, issued Thursday afternoon.

Senior Addison Bachman has replaced Quinn in the lineup. With starting guard Trace Biskin having returned from injury last week, the rotation up front this week could feature eight players.

There are two Cats listed as questionable: Defensive lineman Kirifi Taula (shoulder) and a new name to the list — fullback/defensive end Taimi Tutogi (neck).

Tutogi isn’t racking up a lot of stats on either side of the ball, but his blocking is valuable on offense and he’s been able to help all season as a third-down pass rusher.

Two players are considered out: Dominique Austin (foot) and Terrence Miller (ankle). Austin said last week that Austin is out for the season; Miller has missed the past two games and four overall this season.

Taimi Tutogi will be playing against his brother in college for the second time. Rick Scuteri-US PRESSWIRE

There will be two Tutogi brothers on the turf at Arizona Stadium on Saturday night, eager to compete against each other, eager to beat each other.

Oh, if only they were on the same team.

Senior Taimi Tutogi will continue his dual role as a fullback/third-down defensive end for Arizona. When he’s on offense, he’ll be watching for No. 50 for Washington, junior linebacker Thomas Tutogi, who leads the Huskies in tackles.

Sounds like someone the Arizona defense could use right now.

But the former UA coaching staff only nibbled at Thomas after his one season at Southwestern College in the Tutogis’ hometown of Chula Vista, Calif.

“I was actually really disappointed because my brother had offers from USC and Washington, and those are two pretty good schools,” Taimi said.

“If teams like that are recruiting my brother, I figured it would be a steal here. He actually wanted to wait until we offered him, and for some reason, we never got around to it. I was upset at the time. But on Signing Day, I told him he had to make a decision.

“I said, ‘Don’t worry about coming here. Hopefully, we’ll meet again one day on the same field, on the same team. But right now it’s about you and you have to make the best decision for you. And whatever decision you make, they’re both Pac-12 schools, so we’ll see each other soon or later.’”

They saw each other last season, when Washington beat Arizona 42-31 in Seattle. They collided a few times on special teams.

“We had fun contact all night,” Taimi said.

“I was on punt last year and he was on punt return, so I would walk up to the line because I make the calls and I would just talk a little bit of mess. No matter what guy he had, he made it a point to come try to get me.

“A couple of times on kickoff returns, he swore he blasted me. We saw on film that it was like a double team. I let him have that one.”

On Saturday, with Thomas seeing much more time at linebacker, the chances of a two-Tutogi crash are greater than last season.

Taimi’s role on offense has been diminished this season because of the extra workload on defense, but he is coming off a game in which he three catches for 25 yards vs. Stanford. With just one carry, he’s still a valuable blocker, seeking out linebackers, such as his brother.

Thomas has 38 tackles, although he’s technically a starter.

“He plays a lot,” said Arizona coach Rich Rodriguez.

“He’s almost always in there in the fourth quarter. He’s like their closer.”

Last year, the Tutogi family made special T-shirts, bearing the slogan “Family Always” to wear in the stands. The “A” in “Always” was the Arizona logo. The “W” was the Washington’s logo. Taimi said his family has come up with a new T-shirt design for this season.

“Everybody that is affiliated with my family is going to have a shirt on,” he said.

“I’m sure you won’t be able to miss them. The majority of them is going to be on the Washington side, just because I’m on the home team, but I have some family coming sitting on the Arizona side. They’ll all be supporting both of us.”

Taimi, who is 13 months older, was the bigger prospect in high school. Thomas didn’t have the same scholarship opportunities after high school; hence, the detour to junior college, where he quickly blossomed.

“When I didn’t get picked up out of high school, my brother was always there for me,” Thomas was quoted as saying in the Seattle Times this week. “He said, ‘Just keep grinding. Got to keep grinding.’ And sure enough, I went to a JC and did what I had to do.”

And now “little brother” is doing fine on his own, so Taimi said he is no longer disappointed that the former UA coaches didn’t offer him a scholarship.

“I’m proud of what he’s doing now. I’m actually glad he didn’t come here because my whole life he’s kind of been under my shadow,” Taimi said.

“I want him to go somewhere else and make a name for himself on a stage like this and just represent the Tutogi last name.”

And what will be his final message to Thomas before they meet as rivals Saturday?

“To be honest, probably, ‘I love you,’” Taimi said.

“‘Play hard. Don’t look at me as your brother when we’re out there, I’m still a Wildcat. Don’t take any of this personal. At the end of the day I’m going to still love you.’

“That’s pretty much it.”

Breaking tackles or making tackles, Taimi Tutogi will see a lot of playing time for Arizona this season. Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea-US PRESSWIRE

The Arizona Wildcats’ Taimi Tutogi pounced on an opponent’s fumble one play and had an illegal block penalty that negated a touchdown on the next play.

Such an unusual sequence is life for Arizona’s two-way player.

The experiment has taken hold.

Tutogi is still UA’s man when it comes to needing a big running back/lead blocker, and first-year coach Rich Rodriguez has found that Tutogi can do more. The senior is the team’s best option for a third-down, pass-rushing defensive end.

Tutogi, a 6-1, 260-pound senior, played about 20 plays on defense last week against Toledo.

“Knowing my job is just coming off the edge and trying to kill the quarterback, that’s always fun,” Tutogi said.

“The highlight for me was just getting off the ball, rushing the edge and getting the quarterback uncomfortable on that last fourth down in overtime. I knew I had to put some pressure on him. Just had to make it happen and make him get the ball out.”

Tutogi, having beaten the right tackle to the outside, was bearing down on quarterback Austin Dantin, who threw incomplete into the end zone on fourth-and-20 from the 23. The Wildcats won 24-17.

“He made a nice impact,” Rodriguez said.

“He’s one of our better pass rushers. Twenty to 25 snaps is probably a good number for him defensively. He’s got a good motor and is one of our better pass rushers.”

Tutogi isn’t a complete novice at the position. He played defensive end at Chula Vista (Calif.) High School, and he could easily have ended up at that spot at Arizona, expect for the fact that Arizona at the time was stacked with future pros — Brooks Reed, Ricky Elmore and D’Aundre Reed.

Former head coach Mike Stoops put Tutogi on offense, where he could get on the field right away as a true freshman.

Three years later, Tutogi’s immediate impact on defense can’t be seen in the stats — his contribution against Toledo was the fumble recovery — but he was active and delivered pressure on occasion. “High-motor” is the common way to describe Tutogi.

He went full speed while mixing in 40-some plays on offense. He only carried the ball once, for a loss of 1, and otherwise helped clear space for Ka’Deem Carey or Daniel Jenkins.

“The offense we run is demanding, and I was pretty tired, but that’s why we practice hard during the week and go so hard over the summer,” Tutogi said.

“It wasn’t as hard as practice, surprisingly. The coaches told me all week that the games would be a lot easier than practice, and surprisingly it was. I wasn’t too tired. I still went both ways and I did it 100 percent and comfortably.”

On a more perfect team, Rodriguez wouldn’t have to play Tutogi both ways. But UA is still searching for that pass-rushing end after the trio of Reed, Elmore and Reed left following the 2010 season.

Rodriguez gave Tutogi a look in one-on-one pass-rushing drills in the spring and gave him an extended audition at end in fall camp. He’s still on offense for the majority of practice, but will receive some individual instruction from defensive line coach Bill Kirelawich on the side.

At the end of the week, Tutogi has to take the tests on the game plan for offense and defense.

“It’s a fair amount,” he said of his football homework, “but it’s nothing I can’t handle.”

So, Tutogi will continue to tinker on defense, becoming a rare, legit two-way payer. The most notable one recently was Stanford’s Owen Marecic, who started at fullback and linebacker in 2010.

His future figures to be on offense, though.

“There’s no question, he’s a guy the NFL will look at,” Rodriguez said.

“He has to have a good year, and they want to see it on tape, but he’s got the size, the strength, he’s got the ball skills, he has good feet. He’s a guy that they have been on campus looking at. And they should.

“I hope he has a great year, and he’s off to a good start.”

Perhaps Taimi Tutogi would enjoy a sack as much as a touchdown. Photo by Chris Morrison-US PRESSWIRE

The Arizona Wildcats’ most pressing need is finding a pass rush.

UA had only 10 sacks last season, its average of 0.83 per game tied for the second-worst mark in the nation.

This is kind of a big deal. Of the 22 teams that were worst nationally in producing sacks last year, here is how many had a winning record: None.

So you can’t blame first-year coach Rich Rodriguez for trying anything and everything in fall camp, and that includes kicking the tires on a couple of offensive players to see if they have the needed burst off the edge to begin to harass opposing quarterbacks.

True freshman tight end Keoni Bush-Loo got some work before Monday’s practice with the defensive ends, as did senior fullback Taimi Tutogi.

“I really like him,” Rodriguez said of Bush-Loo, who played defensive end and tight end at Kamehameha Schools in Honolulu.

“I think we’re in a little battle between keeping him on offense at tight end or putting him at defensive end. He’s a guy who has some natural ability and he’s really, really aggressive. He’s a young man who may get an opportunity to play as a freshman.”

Bush-Loo (6-4, 229) was rated the 13th-best prospect from Hawaii by 247Sports.com.

Tutogi is an intriguing option. He is expected to get a decent workload on offense as a fullback — blocking, running, catching passes — so it’s not as if the coaches don’t like him there.

“He’s got a great skill set and he can do a lot of different things,” Rodriguez said of Tutogi at Pac-12 Media Day last month. “I can see Taimi making a name for himself.”

Maybe as a defensive end and as a two-way player?

Arizona briefly experimented with Tutogi at defensive end in the spring but Rodriguez said Monday night that it’s now “just about every day.”

“Taimi is a powerful guy,” Rodriguez said. “He has a lot of ability.”

File this away under “wait-and-see.” Rodriguez needs to see some practices in full pads and scrimmages before pegging guys into more definite roles.

None of the returning Arizona players had more than one sack last season. The Wildcats figure to create more pressure through their new 3-3-5 scheme that promises to be more aggressive and feature more blitzes … but nothing is better than just having a guy who can beat the offensive tackle and throw the quarterback for a loss.

There are some mix-and-match possibilities on the defensive line, so this is in the lightest pencil: The initial depth chart listed sophomore Dan Pettinato, sophomore Reggie Gilbert and senior Jowyn Ward at one end, with junior Justin Washington and sophomore Kirifi Taula contending at the other.

As for newcomers at defensive end, there are Parade All-American Kyle Kelley and Dwight Melvin.

“We’re looking for three of four other pass-rushers in addition to what we already have,” Rodriguez said of trying Bush-Loo and Tutogi. “Guys who can do it on third down or be kind of a specialist.”

Freshman departs

Arizona has lost a member of Rodriguez’s first recruiting class as three-star defensive back Leo Thomas left the team during the first practice.

“Leo took the bus back to San Antonio, I guess,” Rodriguez said. “I think he was maybe a little homesick. He might not have been here a full 24 hours. I don’t know if he even got the chance to see his first monsoon.”

Thomas originally committed to the former Arizona coach staff last summer, de-committed when Stoops was fired at midseason, then re-committed to UA in January.

‘Hard edge’

You can find former Rodriguez players talking about having a “hard edge” all the way back to his first season at West Virginia in 2001.

That is still one of his mottos, and he has it painted on the ground leading to the steps down onto the playing surface of the team’s new practice home — Kindall Field at Sancet Stadium.

“Coach Rod preaches hard edge,” said safeties coach Tony Gibson, in his 12th season as an assistant to Rodriguez.

“We want guys to go out and compete and play every snap like it’s their last one. You only get so many opportunities. You have to have a hard edge to play, and that’s how we’re building this thing.

“Come Sept. 1, every guy coming out of the tunnel better have a hard edge. It doesn’t guarantee you victory, but it gives you a chance.”

As he did in the spring, Arizona also a painted a thick blue arch at the entrance to the practice field. Rodriguez says it’s a reminder to the players that when they cross that line, it’s “all football.”

Taimi Tutogi is one of the players who says he’s in the best shape of his life. Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea-US PRESSWIRE

The Arizona Wildcats say they endured the pain; coach Rich Rodriguez is ready to measure the gain.

This, above all, is the story of Arizona’s camp: The players’ conditioning. Rodriguez wants to play fast on offense, to be fast on defense. Tempo. It’s all about tempo. No huddle. Run to the line of scrimmage. Fly around on defense.

Rodriguez said in spring practice, when he bemoaned the overall conditioning of his inherited team, that the players needed to be in the best shape of their lives by fall camp.

Well, it’s here.

As the Wildcats reported to camp Wednesday — with the first practice scheduled for Thursday night — four players were made available to the media for interviews.

“I’m in the best shape I’ve ever been,” said running back Taimi Tutogi, echoing the other three.

OK, so what else are they are going to say? But there is reason to believe the players because offseason workouts were different. They had to be. Rodriguez is running different schemes than former coach Mike Stoops did, so training is going to be different, too.

Run, run, run.

“There have been a few people who are running as hard as they can, and they are throwing up as they run,” linebacker Jake Fischer told me last week at Pac-12 Media Day. “It was getting pretty bad.

“You can tell everyone is in better shape. Everyone has been working really hard, and that’s all you can ask right now.”

Rodriguez will be the judge of that.

“The first practice will tell me a lot,” he said.

“Guys that struggle through mightily, it probably tells us they didn’t do a whole lot this summer. We will have a conditioning test at the end of the first practice. Those guys who worked out and are in shape, they shouldn’t have any problem passing it.

“Those who didn’t will have a big problem.”

The running, the players said, was the most challenging aspect of the offseason workouts, with grueling sessions on Monday and Friday.

Said center Kyle Quinn: “Just the volume of running you have to do to be successful in this offense, nobody can prepare you for it until you actually do it.”

Said cornerback Shaquille Richardson: We have progressed so much. Just getting comfortable being tired, and pushing through our tiredness so that it pushes our maximum limit even higher.”

Said safety Mark Watley: “I should be in the Olympics right now with how much we’re running.”

Rodriguez hasn’t complained about the “buy-in” factor with the Wildcats, their willingness to accept new ways of doing things. Players are aware this isn’t his first rodeo. The stuff he is doing now is the same stuff that got West Virginia within one game of playing for the national championship.

“The coaches are bringing that championship attitude,” Fischer said.

“They have won their conference. They have won BCS games. They have shown us how to work like champions. I believe that is going to lead to positive results on the field.”

Rodriguez still likes to tell the story of his first practice of spring, when he offered popsicles in a shaded area of the practice field as a reward halfway through the two-hour drills. Guys were too gassed to make it off the field for the frozen treats.

“(Thursday) shouldn’t be as bad as that,” Quinn said with a laugh. “We know what to expect. We should be able to make it to the coolers and get the popsicles.”

That would be a start. Fact is, Arizona will be modestly talented and thin in most areas this season. If the Cats can’t use superior conditioning to master the tempo of the game, it’s going to be a really long season.

The answer will begin to be revealed Thursday.

“The minimum has been raised, basically,” Richardson said of the new culture of Arizona football.

“It’s not OK to miss times. It’s not OK to quit. It’s not OK to give up. It’s not OK to give in. It’s not OK to not give your all.”

Taimi Tutogi shakes off USC's Nickell Robey during a run earlier this month. Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea-US PRESSWIRE

There will be a group of fans wearing “Family Always” shirts in the stands at Husky Stadium on Saturday night. Those will be the Tutogis, who have rooting interests on both sides of the ball.

Taimi Tutogi is a junior running back for the Arizona Wildcats. Thomas Tutogi is a sophomore linebacker for the Washington Huskies.

On the Tutogi family shirts, the “A” in “Always” will be the Arizona logo. The “W” will be Washington’s logo.

Arizona fans know the wallop Taimi can deliver as a blocker and runner, so you can assume Thomas brings an equal and opposite force on defense. Add in a dollop of sibling rivalry, and a Tutogi-on-Tutogi collision could send shockwaves all the way to the family in the stands.

“I’m going to have to run into him sooner or later,” Thomas told reporters this week. “It’s not going to be pretty.”

Taimi was not made available to the media this week, as interim head coach Tim Kish continues to “put ourselves in a cocoon” following the firing of coach Mike Stoops earlier this month. Only team captains and the coaching staff were available for interviews this week.

(You can see the interview with Thomas Tutogi at Bob Condotta’s excellent Husky blog at SeattleTimes.com.)

The Tutogis, who attended Chula Vista (Calif.) High School, grew up playing on the same football teams since they were about 4 and 5 years old. Taimi is a year older.

“We always got in big fights,” Thomas said.

“In high school we were like the biggest kids on the team. He was always an offensive player and I was always a defensive player, so went heads-up all the time. It turned out pretty good.”

Thomas (6-1, 244 pounds) spent a year in junior college before enrolling at Washington in January. He said attending Arizona was a possibility but the Wildcats’ interest came too late and that UW “was my true choice.”

He has 11 tackles as a backup linebacker and special teams player.

Taimi (6-1, 250) is coming off his most impactful game of the season, carrying seven times for 32 yards and two touchdowns. He had only six rushes in the first six games.

Taimi can thank quarterback Nick Foles for his increased workload in the running game.

Not only did Foles work with the coaches to script the first dozen or so plays — Taimi carried once on the first two drives — but the quarterback wanted to feature the big back more through the game. Coaches agreed.

“One of the things that Nick Foles wanted was for Taimi to get the ball more. Us having plays for Taimi was really Nick,” said running backs coach Garret Chachere.

“It was one of those things as the running backs coach I was glad to see. I have been trying to get more guys to carry the ball because it just takes the toll, the beating, off Keola (Antolin) and Ka’Deem (Carey). I have always been pulling for Taimi to get the ball because he adds something the others don’t.

“They’re quick and they’re tough and they will break tackles, but he’s a big back, a punishing runner.”

Perhaps the most likely Tutogi crash will come on special teams. Taimi is on the kick return team and has a couple of returns this season; Thomas is on kick coverage. It’s reversed for punts. Taimi is on coverage and Thomas is on the return team.

Thomas said he is definitely looking forward to chance to tackle his older brother.

“Just for fun,” he said. “He’s the older brother, so he has done a lot of things. Growing up, we got a lot closer, so now it’s all fun and games for us.”

Thomas was watching the Arizona-UCLA game with his Washington teammates last week when Taimi scored a touchdown.

“I jumped up and was like, ‘Yeah!’ and the whole team looked at me like I was crazy,” Thomas said. “But that’s my big brother. I have love for him.”