Nick Foles, enjoying last season's win over Cal, hopes to be celebrating again next Thursday. Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images

Now we’ll find out how Arizona football deals with change.

The news of Mike Stoops’ firing on Monday “was a shock to us all,” quarterback Nick Foles said after Wednesday’s practice. Added cornerback Trevin Wade: “It caught us all off guard.”

In the wake of the Stoops’ dismissal, the school has made only those two players available to the media — and the team is now off limits until Monday, as the Wildcats try to close ranks and regroup this week under interim head coach Tim Kish.

Perhaps it won’t be just the same old same old for the Wildcats.

While Foles and Wade praised Stoops for what he did for the program and for them personally, the sudden change at the top, if handled properly, could energize the team for the final six games.

“It possibly could,” Wade said.

“You have to come out and you have to fight. If we all sulk now, we’re just hurting our own futures. We have to pull through and fight.”

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Jaime Salazar makes a 27-yard field goal against Stanford; he has three misses. Photo by Matt Kartozian-US PRESSWIRE

When Arizona misses a field goal these days, it isn’t just a missed opportunity for three points. It’s cause for eye-rolling, head-shaking, first-pounding and feelings of, “Here we go again.”

The UA is 1 of 5 on field goal attempts this season, including a bad snap that sailed past holder Kyle Dugandzic. Jaime Salazar has missed three times, including from 45 yards on the final play of the first half and 36 yards at the start of the second half.

Those kicks would have tied the game at 16.

“Those are points we need,” said quarterback Nick Foles. “It’s like missing a wide-open layup. You’ve got to get those points. We have to figure that out. For us to be successful, we have to be successful in all sides of the ball.”

Salazar has squandered any trust the coaches had in him after he won the job in fall camp, although he was far from brilliant in practices and scrimmages. Coach Mike Stoops indicated after the game that former starter Alex Zendejas would have to be considered again, although that situation likely will play out in practice this week.

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Senior Trevin Wade has 10 career interceptions. Photo by Jason O. Watson-US PRESSWIRE

To use the football vernacular, Arizona Wildcats cornerback Trevin Wade is a ballhawk. At least that used to be his reputation.

He intercepted four passes as a freshman, despite very limited playing time. He followed with five picks as a sophomore starter.

And then?

Well, maybe Wade got a little too happy, a little too caught in the building hype before his junior season. He often struggled last season, losing his starting spot for one game.

“It all gets back to preparation, and in my observation, the lack of it,” said coach Mike Stoops. “The lack of preparation for a season and taking things for granted is something that can happen to even good people.

“That’s a great lesson to learn and, hopefully, he learned his lesson because we have great challenges out there on the perimeter.”

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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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Trevin Wade's best moment of the season came when he picked off this deflected pass and returned it 85 yards for a TD against Iowa. Photo by Chris Morrison, US-PRESSWIRE

Trevin Wade’s banishment to the bench will last only one game.

Arizona Wildcats coach Mike Stoops said Monday morning that the junior cornerback will be back in the starting lineup for Friday’s game at top-ranked Oregon.

True freshman Shaquille Richardson got the start in the last game, against USC, with Wade playing off the bench. The plan is to use those two, plus starting cornerback Robert Golden.

“We’re just trying to rotate all three of them,” Stoops said.

Wade has struggled this season, suffering a thigh injury against Oregon State and giving up too many big plays.

“He’s a got a great attitude,” said co-defensive coordinator and secondary coach Greg Brown.

“I mean, he’s come out, he’s practicing hard, he’s into it, going 100 miles an hour, very helpful with Shaquille and Jonathan McKnight, the younger guys. He’s done a great job. My hat’s off to him. His back was to the wall, and he’s come out swinging.”

It will be interesting to see if Arizona follows the model Cal used in slowing down the high-scoring Ducks two weeks ago — and we’re not talking about allegedly faking injuries.

The Bears challenged Oregon by bringing down personnel, spying on quarterback Darron Thomas, crowding the line of scrimmage and playing man coverage on the outside. If Arizona dares Thomas to throw, Wade, Golden and Richardson are going to have to be up to the task.

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Cornerback Trevin Wade and the Arizona secondary gave up a 45-yard touchdown pass to Chris Owusu on Stanford's first drive. Photo by Jason O. Watson-US PRESSWIRE

As a former All-Big Ten safety and a former defensive coordinator, Arizona Wildcats coach Mike Stoops probably hates giving up big passing plays above all else.

But it keeps on happening.

With four games to go, Arizona has given up 19 passing plays of at least 25 yards, the same number it did all of last season.

In 2008, the Wildcats allowed only 16 passing plays of such length.

“We’re just giving up too many big plays in the secondary,” Stoops said.

And so a change might be coming.

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Juron Criner is off to a fast start with 10 catches against Toledo/Rick Osentoski/US PRESSWIRE

I can imagine it’s a daunting task to rank all the senior wide receivers in high school, but it’s nearly impossible to fathom that Juron Criner was rated the nation’s 167th-best wideout after the 2007 season.

Yep. That was the judgment of Scout.com, which gave him a two-star rating, which is pretty much the basement-level rating for any recruit that signs with a major-college team.

You know who else was once a two-star recruit? Arizona junior cornerback Trevin Wade (by Rivals.com) in the 2007 class.

I was thinking about all this while contributing a story on Criner for FoxSportsArizona.com — Criner making the leap to elite receiver. There are some kids the recruiting services just miss on, for whatever reason.

But I think it’s worth noting that while fans cheer, puff out their chests and mock their rivals when their team signs four- and five-star recruits, a good eye for talent and player development is an acceptable substitute.

This is where Arizona coach Mike Stoops and his staff come in.

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Nick Foles will have to better than he was against Nebraska in the Holiday Bowl to be a Top 25-rated quarterback/Photo by Kirby Lee, US Presswire

I haven’t been blogging much in the past couple of weeks, but there’s a reason for that.

I’ve been deep into production on Lindy’s College Football Annuals, helping set rankings, editing stories, writing stories, rounding up all the right personnel to do other editing and writing, proofing pages and debating the proper use of commas.

As senior editor of the college football magazines, I get to take all the information and opinion from our writers and put together the national rankings. I could have used two weeks just to figure out how to rank the Pac-10.

If only there was a right answer.

Since this is an Arizona-themed blog, I’ll stick to what matters most to Wildcat fans. Here are some UA-related tidbits from the magazine:

–Arizona is ranked sixth in the Pac-10. Too high? Too low? I’d like to call it a five-way tie for fourth. Just like last season, the difference between those middle teams is going to be only a play or two across a nine-game conference season. Hard to pick among them.

We went with USC as the preseason favorite in the Pac-10. I like Oregon’s starting lineup better, top to bottom, but the suspension of quarterback Jeremiah Masoli looms as a huge deal. And the Ducks have to play in Los Angeles this season.

Oregon State is third, followed by Washington, Stanford, Arizona, Cal, UCLA, Arizona State and Washington State.

Cal and UCLA, like Arizona, could be much better than their preseason slot … but you’ve gotta rank them somewhere. Arizona State deserves, logically, to be ninth, but I don’t think they are far away from top-division status either.

–Junior Nick Foles is rated the No. 23 quarterback in the nation. He has the potential to be several spots higher, but he also easily could have been left off the Top 25, given his pedestrian finish to last season.

–Junior Trevin Wade is rated the 11th-best cornerback in the country.

–Senior center Colin Baxter is rated the eighth-best center in the nation … and already I have some buyer’s remorse on that. He should be higher.

–Arizona’s marquee non-conference opponent, Iowa, is ranked third in the Big Ten and 10th in the country. It’s a tough call between the Hawkeyes and Wisconsin for second in the Big Ten behind Ohio State.

On one hand, Wisconsin has our top-rated offensive line. On the other hand, Iowa has our top-rated defensive line.

Here’s a scary thought for UA fans: Iowa’s front four — ends Adrian Clayborn and Broderick Binns, and tackles Karl Klug and Christian Ballard — had 52 tackles for loss last season, including 27 sacks, as well as 16 pass breakups and seven forced fumbles.

Lindy’s produces six college football editions. The SEC edition will be hitting the newsstands before the end of the month.

Taimi Tutogi's hair and feet are flying as he proves to be a multi-dimensional threat in spring/Photo by Brad Allis, WildcatSportsReport.com

Arizona had its Spring Game on Saturday. What did we learn? Well, we learned that a starting backfield of quarterback Nick Foles, fullback Taimi Tutogi and tailback Keola Antolin would lead the nation in hair.

Other than that …

You really don’t want to draw too many conclusions. It’s just a scrimmage.

The defense made some plays — three interceptions, two returned for touchdowns — but Arizona coach Mike Stoops said the offense was at a disadvantage, working off last season’s playbook because the coaches didn’t want to give anyone a look at its new wrinkles.

So, conclusions? Not so many.

Observations? Opinions? Those we can let fly:

New star in town
Sophomore fullback/tailback/H-back/tight end Taimi Tutogi. Call him Gronk-lite.

Tutogi hauled in a deep pass over the middle with one hand, knocked safety Mark Watley to the turf, made another guy miss and kept churning until two defenders brought him down 73 yards away from the line of scrimmage. Former UA tight end Rob Gronkowski would be proud.

Tutogi, at 6-foot-1 and 258 pounds, did what he had to do this spring. He was given an opportunity and he ran with it. Tailbacks Nic Grigsby and Antolin were in and out of practices due to nagging injuries. Third-stringer Greg Nwoko (shoulder surgery) was out all spring. Tutogi and redshirt freshman Daniel Jenkins made extended auditions.

“Taimi is tough,” said co-offensive coordinator Seth Littrell. “Taimi has gotten a lot of confidence this spring that he really needed.”

It’s hard to imagine there will be a lot of carries available for Tutogi from the tailback position this fall — assuming everyone is healthy — but he’ll be on the field a lot because he can do so many things.

“Taimi Tutogi continues to show that he is not only a great fullback, but he gives us another dimension at running back,” Stoops said. “And, believe me, we have no problems playing him at running back, either.”

Juron Criner, superstar
The 6-4 junior receiver had something of a breakout last season — 45 catches for 582 yards and nine touchdowns, including the game-winner against USC that launched the Wildcats to the Holiday Bowl.

For as much improvement as he made between his freshman and sophomore seasons, he might be making the same kind of jump before his junior season.

“The guy is a big-time talent,” said co-offensive coordinator Bill Bedenbaugh. “There are not many guys like him in the country.”

How’s that for a bold statement?

“He really understands the offense now,” Bedenbaugh continued. “He’s confident. To be a great football player, you have to be confident.”

Criner scored twice in the Spring Game, including once when he used his height and leaping ability to reach over cornerback DeWayne Peace for the ball. Later, he scored on a fade pass from Matt Scott to the left corner of the end zone. Arizona is going to go to that all the time if teams choose to play Criner one-on-one.

Said Foles: “I like having him in the red zone.”

What’s going on in the secondary?
Junior Trevin Wade is going to be one of the cornerbacks, a sure-fire preseason all-conference pick. Beyond that, who knows?

Coaches have been mixing and matching personnel. Safeties playing corner. Corners playing safety. Free safeties playing strong safety … you get the idea. At the Spring Game, guys were changing positions from play to play.

“We’re just making sure everybody can change in and out,” said safety Joe Perkins. At least we think he’s a safety.

I just noticed a trend
Tutogi, Criner and Wade were each rated only two out of five stars by one of the major recruiting services. I think Stoops and his staff can identify diamond-in-the-rough talent, and all the fuss in February over recruiting rankings is wasted energy.

It’s scary when Grigsby gets injured
Grigsby carried only once in the Spring Game, but it was nearly spectacular. He flattened safety Robert Golden on a burst up the middle, but then tackled himself by falling to the ground after a 22-yard gain.

Given the nature of the collision, my first thought was that he re-injured the shoulder that cost him most of the Pac-10 season last year. Grigsby walked back to the sideline and tossed his helmet on the turf in frustration.

But he was happy and smiling and signing autographs after the scrimmage. It wasn’t his shoulder. His hamstring was acting up again.

“I was ready to take off, but my hamstring wouldn’t let me,” he said of his 22-yard run. “That was a touchdown.”

He added: “The shoulder is good. I’m out there throwing it.”

Good. The offense needs his playmaking ability in order to reach its full potential.

Stay worried about the linebackers
This will remain the biggest potential problem as the team heads into offseason workouts and fall camp.

Mid-year junior college transfers Derek Earls and Paul Vassallo did some good things in spring, but Stoops said the group as a whole is still doing too much thinking and not enough reacting.

That is something that can be cured with time and experience.

“If we can get our linebacker group solidified over the next three months, then definitely I think we can make some improvement,” Stoops said.

More from TucsonCitizen.com:
Wildcat Sports Report: Big plays in Spring Game

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.”