Sometimes the success of a program is how a teams schedule is set up. Who do you play and WHEN do you play them? Are you a cold weather team playing in the warm weather or are you a warm weather team playing in the cold? Teams hate coming to the desert in September because it's so hot, likewise, warm weather teams don't like heading North in late October or November. Do I have to mention the Sun Devil/Oregon State game last season? The future schedules are here and I am trying to figure out how some teams will fare. First up: Arizona Wildcats.
Of course, you can have the best schedule known to mankind, but when injuries happen, that tends makes things moot in terms of success of a team. Unless you are Ohio State, but that is the exception, not the rule.
Arizona and their non-conference schedule is not the strongest. They start off with the University of Texas at San Antonio. They did give the Wildcats a pretty strong game last year in San Antonio. UTSA had one of the most experienced teams in the country last year, this year is different for them and at that the end of the day, they are not UCLA or Oregon, so Arizona should win this game going away at home. Next up for the Cats is Nevada. I think this is the game that may be a tough one for the Wildcats. Washington State went to Nevada last year and lost. It's a loud, difficult atmosphere to play in and Nevada isn't a slouch at their level, so Arizona needs to have their helmets on tight. Those players for the Wolfpack would love to knock another big Pac-12 team off and knock one off that has played for the Pac-12 Conference title. These first two games will be tough. The last game should be a game to "pad the stats". They are playing a home game against Northern Arizona University. NAU is coming down to Tucson to get paid. I see this game as a total blowout.
The non-conference schedule for teams needs to be stepped up because the playoff committee for the College Football Playoff is looking at strength of schedule as one of those determining factors. Like I stated earlier the Wildcats do not have a tough non-conference schedule, so they SHOULD get out of the gate 3-0. Nevada may change that, but in the end I think the Cats have more talent to win all three opening games.
League play in the Pac-12 is very difficult. It's a cannibalistic type of league. The Pac-12 eats its own most years and this upcoming season will be no different. Especially in the Pac-12 South division, which in my opinion may just be the toughest division in all of college football. Five out of the six teams in this division went to a bowl game, so whoever comes out of the south will be a very battle tested team.
Arizona starts league play with the UCLA Bruins. The Bruins should still be pretty tough, they will be going through growing pains at the quarterback position because of the departure of the talented Brett Hundley. The Cats won't have quite the growing pains under center as Anu Solomon is coming back, so having the Bruins in Tucson is going to be a benefit for them.
After the home league opener, they travel to The Farm up at Stanford. That'll be a difficult game. The Cardinal will have Kevin Hogan back and will have just as much experience, if not more than the Wildcats. This will be a tough battle for them because Stanford is big and likes to push and smash people on the field. How will the Cats respond to this? That'll be the question I'll have going into this game.
I can see the Cats being 4-1 in their first five games. The next couple of game are very winnable for the program. They have Oregon State at home. It's hard to tell what the Beavers will be like with a new quarterback, new coach, and new offensive/defensive system being implemented. The Beaver game is a home game for the Cats, so with all the change with OSU, the Cats should be 5-1 after that. Next up, is a game with Colorado. Colorado is just struggling. No easy way to put it. This game could be a stat game for the offense. I see Arizona being 6-1 at this point. Then they get Washington State at home. Washington State should have a good recruiting class coming in, but their youth is going to keep them from making big strides in 2015, so after this game I see Cats being 7-1. This is where things get interesting for the Wildcats.
During the last four games of the year, they have three of those games on the road. They have to play Washington, USC, and Arizona State on the road. The last home game will be Utah. It's tough to play in Seattle late in the year. The weather is always a concern for a warm weather team going North in late October, plus it's on Halloween, crazy things can happen on that day. USC is going to be tougher with them having all their scholarships now available to them. They are returning some very good talent and the recruiting is going to go well for them because, let's face it, they are the Trojans. They always recruit well. Utah will be a scrap of a game as well. They won't make things easy because they like to push and smack people around like Stanford does. Then it all culminates with The Territorial Cup at Arizona State. The Devils will have a good team as well and have a fairly experienced quarterback in Mike Bercovici coming back, so that'll be tough game. Rivalry games are always a toss up for me. Anything can happen and usually does. The Devils will be looking for revenge from the 2014 Territorial Cup.
After all is said and done, the Cats should/could end up being 8-4 or 9-3. The last quarter of the season is going to be tough for them and will decide if they play for the Pac-12 Conference Championship. There is plenty of talent down in Tucson and I, for one, will be looking to see how they handle the success of 2014 and how it translates to 2015. Bear Down....
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