The Curse of the Wildcat

From 1982 to 2007, I lived in Tucson, Arizona. If you're a sports junkie like myself, and you live in Tucson, there is only one game in town, the University of Arizona Wildcats. During most of that period, I got to experience the era of Lute Olson basketball, as the U of A became a national power, garnering four Final Four appearances and one national championship.

As much as I may have enjoyed UA basketball, my true love was football. Since my first season in 1982, right up until I moved to Phoenix in 2007, I went to at least one game, and usually more. I often had season tickets, and watched the Wildcats tear my heart out every season.

The U of A plays in the Pacific 10 conference. The winner of the conference plays in the Rose Bowl, and since the Wildcats entered the conference, they are the only team to never play in the Rose Bowl game. They have been close, tantalizingly close, but they have never made it. There was the Desert Swarm team of the early 90's, the team of Tedy Bruschi, which came close, but blew a big lead in a game against Cal which lost them the conference, and had to console itself with a New Year's Day whipping of Miami in the Fiesta Bowl. Then there was the equally dominant team of Chris McAlister in the late 90's, a team that, but for a fourth quarter meltdown against UCLA, would have gone undefeated and made the Rose Bowl. Instead, that team went to the Holiday Bowl in San Diego and beat Nebraska.

After that, the Wildcats imploded. Long-time coach Dick Tomey was run out of town, his replacement, John Mackovic, was an unmitigated disaster. The school then hired Mike Stoops to helm the football team, on the assumption that he would be a carbon copy of his brother, Bob, the head coack at Oklahoma. It hasn't quite worked out that way.

It's been a hard road for Stoops. He inherited a program in shambles, and has built it back to some semblance of respectability. His recruiting ability has been exceptional. His in-game coaching, however, leaves something to be desired. He's something of a loose cannon, and can often be seen screaming on the sidelines at his players, his coaches, or the refs. If he gets a lead, he then goes into a conservative, play-not-to-lose shell, and that more often than not leads to disaster.

Last year, Stoops led the Wildcats to their first bowl game in ten years, as the Wildcats went to the Las Vegas Bowl, and came out with a victory. This year, they found themselves at 6-3 last night, in second place in the conference, and able to win the conference and go to the Rose Bowl if they won out their last three games, starting with last night's game at home against the conference-leading Oregon Ducks.

The Wildcats would have, should have, could have won last night's game. They played toe to toe with Oregon all night long, they put up 41 total points, and led 31-24 with four minutes left in the game. They stuffed Oregon on fourth down, and took over in excellent field position. All that was left was a couple of first downs and a field goal to ice the game. Yeah, right. Instead, quarterback Nick Foles threw a desperation pass into the end zone, which glanced off his receiver's hands into the arms of a defender for an interception. Oregon marched down the field, converted twice on fourth down, and scored the tying touchdown with six seconds left. Sheesh.

The Ducks scored in the first overtime, as did the Wildcats, but instead of going for the win right then and there with a two-point conversion, Stoops opted to tie the game and go into a second overtime, which is where Oregon won the game. I am heartsick. Looking back, the following things occurred in this game:

---Oregon fumbled twice in the first half, and despite an Arizona defender being right there to pick up the ball, the Ducks recovered.

---Arizona was driving for a first quarter touchdown, when the receiver fumbled the ball at the two, once again an Arizona player was right there, but the ball ended up on the arms of an Oregon defender.

---Early in the third quarter, Arizona missed a chip shot field goal, after they had made a 47 yarder to end the first half.

---Late in the fourth quarter, an Arizona defender dropped a sure interception. Oregon ended up trying for a field goal, the low kick hit the crossbar, bounced up in the air, and fell over the bar for a field goal.

It was sickening. It's bad enough to get beat, but when luck and every bounce goes the other team's way, it is heart-breaking. If any one of those things mentioned above happened differently, the game would have most likely turned out differently.

Instead, the Wildcats lost again. They broke my heart again. Their Rose Bowl hopes were dashed by a bunch of Ducks. From Oregon. Quack, quack.