Into the Future: Arizona Wildcat Schedule

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....

Oregon: Post Marcus Mariota

The last few years have brought unprecedented exposure for the Oregon Duck program. There have been a ton wins, a Heisman winner, big bowl games, a playoff berth, and shots at national championships in 2011 and 2015. The one underlying factor in all of this is that Marcus Mariota has been a big cog in all of this success. He is taking his talent to the NFL and Oregon fans will forever be grateful for the spectacular times he gave them, but he is now gone. What does the future hold for the Ducks in the post-Mariota era? Good question...


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What's Wrong with Wazzu?

When people get lost they usually say, "I'm in the middle of nowhere." They might even get scared that they may not be heard from again. That's what some people think of Pullman, Washington, home of the Washington State Cougars football program. The closest major city is 90 miles away in Spokane. The last decade or so that's what playing football in the rolling hills of Pullman has been like for coaches and players.




Now, I'm not the guy that is going to dump a bunch of negativity on Washington State for playing in a small town. As an alumni of Oregon State, I know what the struggles are for a school in a small town. However, at Washington State they have turned into a doormat in the Pac-12 North division. Wins have been few and far between and it's been tough to maintain any continuity with players or coaches who leave for programs that win. When the wins are not plentiful, it's tough to get talent to come to your school.




When they hired Mike Leach, the offensive guru, who coached Texas Tech to some success with his high octane, quick strike offense that finally created some noise for the program that they had not had since the days of Ryan Leaf. Yep, Ryan Leaf. In Leach's third year, he has amassed a record of 12-25 overall, but is 7-20 in the parity rich Pac-12 Conference. It's a program that had not recruited well before Leach's arrival and not really recruited any better since he has got to Pullman. Due to this recruiting issue it's made the reclamation project that much tougher.




This past year for them was very tough. They ended up 3-9 in a division dominated by the Ducks. Ironically, the game against the Ducks went down to the end with the Ducks pulling out close win over the Cougars in Pullman. However, in the end, when one looks at their season, you see offensive bursts, defensive busts, a youthful team getting exposed, and what some fans call a crazy officiating call at the worst moment. Fans are frustrated that the Cougs did not learn how to close a game and get the win. In other words, they don't know how to win yet. They are young and they dealt with a major blow to possible wins when Connor Halliday went down with a season ending injury to his leg and ankle. Leach now has a young, inexperienced quarterback in Luke Falk and that will either show promise which he did at the end of the year or he will be over matched at the Pac-12 level. I saw him play live and he threw for 601 yards, but he did have to throw 74 times to get those 601 yards, but in each of his starts he threw for at least 340 yards in each of his starts after taking over from Halliday.


Leach is making 2.75 million which pretty good money anywhere, but in Pullman that money can go a long, long way. Provides a pretty comfy lifestyle in the Palouse. However, when you make that kind of scratch, people expect results or "other" things will happen to you as a coach, like getting fired. Leach needs to make some in roads in the win column and into getting more talented kids to Washington State or his stint is over there. This is something that could affect his legacy as a coach and any future jobs that may come his way. Only the future will tell us what eventually happens.




Washington State Athletic Director Bill Moos thought he was hitting a home run. Well, as one alumni has put it... "it has been more like a sharp single into the gap that might be a leg double." That, in a nutshell, is the conundrum that is facing the Washington State program because their rivals in Seattle, the Washington Huskies has a coach that is in essence trying to put a fence around the state of Washington in recruiting.




I have been to both campuses and if I am Washington high school football recruit, it really is a no brainer where I would go. Seattle has what most kids look at now, great facilities, a great coach, a big city with lots to do, and just a better "vibe" to it. On top of that, it has been winning a bit more than the Cougars. In the end, kids do look at how successful the program has been and what their future success looks like. That's where the Cougs fall short. They don't have that success and that is really to bad because Washington State fans are great fans.




When Mike Leach was hired he was viewed as a miracle drug by many Cougar fans. With what the fans have seen so far and with some sobering realities that they have to admit to, the ills of the program may be to much for Leach to overcome. I hope I am wrong...

Brett Hundley: Good Pro?

People in Chandler, Arizona know him. People in Pasadena, California know him. Pac-12 defensive coordinators know him. This somebody is Brett Hundley. Arizona native, former UCLA quarterback, and future NFL draft pick. Which round does he get picked? Not sure. Who picks him? Don't know. All I know is that whichever team picks him is going to get a mightily talented quarterback that can be the face of the franchise at some point.


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Can Colorado Break Out?

Nobody likes the "bottom feeder" feeling in aspect of society. Sports is no different. Every league, conference, and division has them. While growing up in the Northwest, in particular, Oregon, we had two teams that were consistently considered "sure" wins. Oregon and Oregon State were not what they are today. Young Duck fans may not believe that, but that is simply the way it was. It was even worse in Corvallis for Beaver fans. In Boulder, Colorado fans are wondering when they will get off the mat and challenge other teams in the Pac-12 South Division and not be the doormat of the whole Pac-12.


Since the Colorado Buffaloes joined the Pac-12 from the Big 12 they have been struggling to forge a winning record. In all honesty, the program has been in decline for over 10 years and when you are on the decline in a Power 5 Conference it doesn't add up to much success. When teams have gone into Boulder, they are hoping for a win over a struggling team, but they are wanting to get out of town with a clean bill of health. Colorado has given some teams a ballgame from time to time, but I would suspect that most of the fans that show up to support the team go with a frame of mind that tells them that a win probably isn't in the future.


It's a tough road to become a winner in the Pac-12 because there are so many talented teams in both the North and South divisions. Another problem for the Buffs is that they are in probably the toughest division in all of college football. The Pac-12 South is very deep in talent. In fact, every team in the South division went to a bowl and will be returning a lot of the talent that brought them to their bowl games. All those teams have their quarterbacks and many skill players coming back as well and that'll make the road to victory much more difficult.


Now, in defense of Colorado they have had a revolving door of coaches and lack of good recruits. Anybody who looks at this situation in Boulder with any common sense knows that when you have coaches coming and going and no substantial talent to compete it is a recipe for losing. The record for Colorado this was 2-10 overall, and 0-9 in the Pac-12, good enough for last place in the south division. Obviously being a little sarcastic about that last comment about being "good enough", but even Buffalo fans has to look at their dire situation and see the slight humor in it.


What do they have to look forward to? Well, they do have their quarterback, sophomore Sefo Liufau who threw for 3,200 yards, 28 touchdowns and 15 interceptions. That is someone who has some experience behind him and can make things happen on the field. Anytime you have 3,200 yards passing it is clear that he can do some things with his arm. Liufau will certainly be the man in spring ball, but there are glut of guys trying to get the back up position and that'll be place that fans will want to look to. The problem with these guys trying to get the back up position is that they have hardly any experience, so if for some unforeseen reason Liufau goes down for any length of time, Colorado will be a bigger world of hurt.


One good thing for Colorado quarterback is that his leading receiver will be returning. Nelson Spruce who caught 106 passes for 1,198 yards. He also averaged over 11 yards a catch. Behind Spruce are four other receivers that played in at least 9 games and have at least 350 yards in receiving. The second leading receiver on the Buffs was Shay Fields who caught 50 balls for 486 yards. The Buffs will be looking for bigger and better things out of Fields. Fields was a freshman this past year, so he has a lot of room for growth. Having to guys on the outside that can stretch a defense will be a weapon that Head Coach Mike MacIntyre will look to use often. His offense ranked 38th overall and that is something to build on going into spring ball.


The Buffs will have to work on their defense. Keeping teams out of the end zone is obviously something teams need to do, Colorado is no different. Colorado was ranked 98th against the run and 96th against the pass. Overall they ranked 110th in total defense. That has to get better. Out of the 12 games they played, 11 teams scored at least 30 points. You can't win at any level giving up at 30 points a game. Bottom line is until they start playing some defense in Boulder, wins will few AND far between.


At the end of the day, Colorado, as stated earlier, is in a very tough predicament. A tough conference, an even tougher division, and not enough talent to compete at a high level right now. It doesn't mean that things can not turn around for the Buffaloes, but it is an uphill climb and the mountain top is very far away.

Recruiting Wars

What do college football fans get all excited about this time of year once the National Championship game is over? Recruiting. Recruiting. Recruiting. Fans start taking notice of who has a verbal commit or has signed with their school. College football fans also put a lot of stock into these recruits and how it will make their program better in the coming years.


Recruiting gets fans, coaches, and even sports writers excited when they see or don't see who is coming to their perspective campuses. Texas football legend Darrell Royal once said "It's not about the X's and O's but the Jimmys and Joes." What Royal allegedly said here is right on point with recruiting. People matter and the type of people who a coach recruits matters to viability of his program.


Recruiting matters. It's matters a whole lot.


Most college football coaches will tell you that recruiting does matter and that great players make their coach look even greater. To me, it's pretty simple math. If a team has more talented football players, then they have a greater chance at winning more games. Nick Saban has won his titles with some pretty talented athletes. Some people say coaching plays an equal role in winning, but I disagree with that. You could be the greatest coach on the planet like a Nick Saban, but if he didn't have those gigantic offensive and defensive lines, great running backs, and quarterbacks would he have all those national titles? I think not. Michigan has had some great teams in the history of that school, but have not been winning like usual the last few years. Is it the coaching or the talent of those kids? I still say it's the players.


People like saying that Phil Jackson is a great coach. He is, however, he still had the best talent on the planet to win his 11 NBA titles. When you have Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O'Neal it helps an awful bit.


Back to college football. Kids getting recruited these days have lots of options and are very much up on all the different ways they can get to know a school. Social media has changed everything for coaches. Coaches have to continually sell their program. That is why facilities, weight rooms, uniforms (Oregon), and who outfits the school have become such an increasingly huge part of the whole recruitment process. If a player goes up toe Eugene, Oregon and checks out what the Ducks have to offer and then goes to San Diego State, it's really a no brainer for that athlete. They go play for the Oregon Ducks. Schools are spending big, big money on how their facilities look and it is paying off handsomely for the big programs. Every Pac-12 university has undergone a face lift to improve their status with recruits. Public relations and advertising have put their footprint on college football.


Once schools get their facilities in check they want to get into the top 10 of recruiting classes. Schools that have played for the National Championship in the past seven years, averaged top 8 classes. That tells me that the better players have been on the better teams and are winning of winning titles for the school and their coaches.


Don't get me wrong, it's not like I am saying that coaches can simply role out the ball and the players just play great. The coaches do coach, but when the talent is that much better than everybody else it makes it easier for the coaches to do their job. Coaches can't coach speed, so when they get the faster players it's like playing men against boys.


In the end, recruiting is the big tool that coaches have that will spell doom or spell wins for them. The bottom line of college sports is winning, that is what coaches are judged on and fired on, so it is up to them and their coaching staffs to recruit the best players that fit their system. Fans and alumni hope that their coach is a master at getting the players that will bring glory to the team. Here's to wishing...

Mannions Replacement at Oregon State

It's going to be a whole new era in Corvallis in 2015. New  head coach, new coaching staff, and new quarterback. Beaver fans did get a little spoiled in terms of having a veteran quarterback taking the snaps for the team over the course of the last few years. Did it translate into wins? Yes and no, but having a quarterback who knew the system was advantage that a lot of teams would have died to have.


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