Now that we have entered the "meat" of the Pac-12 schedule, there are many questions out there in terms of which teams are legit contenders and which ones are pretenders. One of those teams to me is the Arizona Wildcats.
At the beginning of the season many people thought that Arizona was going to be ok, not great, just average. They were going to be playing a very young quarterback, a inexperienced running back, and the defense was going to be suspect. Well, sometimes things work out a little differently than first thought. They get the wins over their weak non-conference opponents like they are supposed to and then comes the California game. A game in which I said California would win, but it would be close because it was a home game for the Cats and that the Golden Bears were an unproven commodity. The game was close. However, it took a monster effort by the Cats to come back and a Hail Mary pass at the final gun to win the game for the Wildcats. That is momentum that is hard to quantify with a young team.
Many times you don't know how a team, especially a young team responds to that kind of drama. They responded very well to the win. It gave them a surge of confidence that they can score when they want, they just have to put it together for an entire 60 minute game. For the next couple of days they enjoyed the crazy Cal victory. Next up was Oregon.
Oregon presented a whole basket full of issues for the Cats. This game was up in Eugene, not at their friendly confines of Arizona Stadium. Oregon was wanting payback for the thrashing they took last year at the hands of the Wildcats. No payback was issued. The Wildcats made plays when they had to and their defense took control at the end when they needed to and brought the little quackers to their knees for the second year in a row. They left Autzen Stadium with a win and left Duck fans scratching their collective heads again. Here come the Trojans...
The Trojans came to the desert with a lot of talent. Young, inexperienced talent, but plenty of it. They had beaten Stanford up in Palo Alto at the beginning of the year. They looked impressive on paper and on the field. They were my darkhorse team from the Pac-12 South division. This looked like a "trap" game to me for the Wildcats and that is what it turned out to be. The offense didn't move like it did against the Ducks, they were letting the Trojans move up and down the field. USC could throw it and run it whenever they really wanted to, but the game was close. However, the playmaking ability was not their when it had to be. The Cats miss a game winning field goal at the end to lose.
I'm not sure which team is going to show up in Palouse this weekend. Washington State is a dangerous team at home. Their quarterback throws for a ton of yards which means he has great confidence in his skill players. He threw for over 700 yards against California and lost. Now, I am not saying he will be putting up those kind of numbers against the Wildcats, but with a young team like the Wildcats have it raises questions about the Cat defense being able to defend the pass of the Cougars.
I am not totally sold on the Wildcats being that team that challenges for the South division title just yet. They are a little green behind the ears for me. The youth and inexperience have got them this far, but in the last six games of the season I could easily see them going 2-4, maybe 3-3 at best. Now, that still gets them at best to an 8 win season, but after starting out so blistering hot, the cooling of the Wildcats may just be around the corner. I'll have to put them in the pretender category for now. The South division for the next few years will be a dog fight and with so much talent in the south division who knows who will come out of it. I would like to see the resurgence of "Desert Swarm" in Tucson because it adds a lot to the Pac-12 and college football in general. Once these players at Arizona get a little more experience, watch out Pac-12 Conference.
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