Bear Down Wildcats

TheCatInTheHat

Yeah, I caught some of that. Followed them a bit when I lived in the area eons ago. Al really did battle with Digger Phelps at Notre dame in those days. He had his starters run over and shake the opposing coach's hand during pre-game introductions. So, Phelps handed each one a packet of mustard and ...

TheCatInTheHat

I don't think anyone suggests lowering the level of competition and playing Mercyhurst at McKale for every non-conference game. The only question is how much you cater to fans for the McKale half of a major home-and-home by subjecting yourself to hostile refs and observing a free throw exhibition by...

TheCatInTheHat

If you’re going to lose 8 poll spots going on the road to play in tough environments like in Madison in the non-con the incentive will be to just stay home and play cupcakes if you play a killer conference schedule like the Big XII. Didn't see the game, but from the post-game comments, it sounded l...

TheCatInTheHat

I think it's important to understand just how much the college sports world has flipped upside down. With NIL and the transfer portal, it's no longer the traditional model of hiring a coach based on what you think he may eventually be able to build up to "someday" and try to sell that promise on cre...

TheCatInTheHat

TCU started out non-conference play with a win at Stanford, then a big win over LIU (yes, Long Island University), and a lopsided loss at crosstown SMU. In the Big XII, a loss to UCF, a win at Kansas (Arrowhead Stadium), a loss to Houston. Since then, they've won 3 of 4, with wins at Utah, Texas Tec...

TheCatInTheHat

Given what's gone on w Brennan now is not the time to bag on Fisch but that QB whisperer never, not one time, could tell who the best QB on his team was and consistently had them on the bench until forced to play them as a last resort. And his recruiting outside of TMac's class was nothing to write...

TheCatInTheHat

There are some excellent thoughts in this thread. One is about Fisch. He was almost unique at an Arizona as an analyst/play-caller/QB whisperer who could make quick in-game adjustments. Maybe Homer Smith is second place and RichRod third, but it's a short list, and that's what you need in this day a...

TheCatInTheHat

Caught my first WBB game on ESPN+ last night. Considering how many of the top scorers had to be replaced, I was a little concerned going into the season, but they looked pretty good. Lauryn Swann made a legit NBA move in the lane to score; she's tough. Cunningham and Beh give a decent presence in th...

TheCatInTheHat

I think there can be some opportunity in looking at "soiled dove" coaches, but with a pretty big caveat. RichRod would fit that description, and he arguably worked out (except for recruiting tailing off, the "what happens here stays here" book and accusations, and actively courting jobs at Va Tech a...

TheCatInTheHat

Maybe the expectations of Brennan coming in and successfully being a caretaker of the Noah/T-Mac passing combo with Akina providing continuity for the defense were excessive, albeit 6-7 wins and a minor bowl seemed within reach to many of the people who analyze sports for a living. Brennan's job was...

TheCatInTheHat

If you didn't care to watch it, Utah had BYU penned deep in their end of the field with a lead and little time remaining Saturday night in SLC. From what I saw of a replay, a Utah DB was called for grabbing the arm of a BYU WR, which bailed them out. They were subsequently able to drive downfield fo...

TheCatInTheHat

Houston is 4-5, 3-3 in the Big XII, and coming off consecutive home wins over Utah and Kansas St. They started their season 0-2, with losses to UNLV and at Oklahoma, then closed-out non-conference play with a win over crosstown Rice. Houston promptly dropped their first two league games, at Cincinna...

TheCatInTheHat

It's tough. In addition to convincing the biggest boosters to dig deep again over the latest screw-up, she has to deal with a boss who was brought in specifically to deal with Robbins' financial sloppiness and excesses, likely by making cuts. And they would likely face headwinds from the ABOR, Gover...

TheCatInTheHat

It's hard to believe this thing could go so far south over the course of 5 games. You start out with a couple of gimmees, shrug off a bad non-conference loss at what some thought might be the best team in the Big XII, get a win at what was (incorrectly) thought to be a good Utah team, and while not ...

TheCatInTheHat

It's sad that after the hopes and expectations to bridge the Alamo Bowl season with a drop-off to maybe a Sun or LA Bowl, now our best dream scenario is to start over from square one, possibly with a hot young coach and staff who dominated at a lower level. Considering what even mid-level P4 and les...

TheCatInTheHat

Yeah, I've had the opportunity to have some brief back-and-forth conversations with Smith, Tomey, Stoops, RichRod, and Fisch. Football coaches are a different breed, and you could always see the wheels turning as they have other stuff going on in their minds. But Tomey was at a different level. He w...

TheCatInTheHat

What is kind of maddening is Brennan's coach-speak blandness. Not to promote the idea excessively, but does he ever yell? Think of the competitive fire displayed by a Smith, Stoops, or RichRod, and think of some of the anger they showed at losing. Some of a coach's personality rubs off on the player...

TheCatInTheHat

So they get to play there this season. After that, it's up in the air.

https://www.latimes.com/california/stor ... on-stadium

TheCatInTheHat

UCF started out okay in non-conference, blowing out two cupcakes at home and losing by 11 at Florida. In the Big XII, they opened up on the road at TCU and won by 1. A 27-point home loss to Coach Prime and Colorado started their slide, followed by a home loss to Cincy by 6, a road loss at Iowa St by...

TheCatInTheHat

So if she gets the 16m, he is gone. I thought Sumlin’s 10m was a big number. He really will go down as the Ben Lindsey of Football. Somewhere Dave Heeke is smiling even though it’s on him It would be hard for me to believe our boosters would come up with $16 for yet another coaching buy-out, but yo...

TheCatInTheHat

Brent Brennan is Mountain West okay. That's about the size of it, and even at the MWC level, it's just "okay" versus "good." The structure of the offensive coaching staff setup was always questionable, with Babers never particularly great at it, as well as being long-removed from the OC role, and w...

TheCatInTheHat

Here's the Mountaineer scouting report. They started out the non-conference with reasonably competitive losses at home against Penn St and on the road at Pitt before beating Albany to go 1-2. They began Big XII play with a home win over Kansas, and a win at Oklahoma St, but then I suspect the injuri...

TheCatInTheHat

It is a shocker, and even with the coaching turnover, the available personnel shouldn't be this bad. It's tough when the line doesn't block, but there's no reason they shouldn't be able to, and also no reason Fifita holds it so long. Again, nothing went well to start the game, which is happening mo...

TheCatInTheHat

Lev didn't pull many punches: "It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Brent Brennan was supposed to take the baton from Jedd Fisch and keep the resurgent UA program humming." "It can’t be sugarcoated: Brennan’s tenure has been a borderline disaster so far." "The roster lost several key pieces and lacke...

TheCatInTheHat

It is a shocker, and even with the coaching turnover, the available personnel shouldn't be this bad. It's tough when the line doesn't block, but there's no reason they shouldn't be able to, and also no reason Fifita holds it so long. The promise was that the offensive terminology (and presumably the...

TheCatInTheHat

Bennett recently gave an interview to ESPN's Jeff Borzello, where he made reference to the recent NCAA changes (specifically NIL issues): I gotta call Jay Wright and see what he says, right? I always have said, when you’re doing this, you’re in this profession, whether you agree how it’s going or no...

TheCatInTheHat

Right. As I've said, I'll take the much-maligned Jedd Fisch's play-calling over punting on third down, and also note Tomey was fired, regardless of any attempted nuance or verbiage about "mutual parting of ways." But when the reality is that the practice field got named after Tomey with a larger-tha...

TheCatInTheHat

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/nlsAAOxy0x1TV94w/s-l640.jpg Well, if that's the case, that's pretty cool. Let's remember that, during that time frame, undersized Tom Tunnicliffe threw the ball quickly out of the shotgun in Steve Axman's offense a lot of the time to tall and athletic Mark Keel on sid...

TheCatInTheHat

All the Coach Prime hype and shiny gold stuff comes to Tucson for Arizona's Homecoming game on Saturday. In non-conference play, Colorado dispatched North Dakota St and Colorado St, but lost at Nebraska. In the Big XII, they beat Baylor in OT, won big at UCF, then lost at home to Kansas St. The bigg...

TheCatInTheHat

This is just turning startlingly and unexpectedly bad. Brennan seems like a good politician with the friendly and sympathetic demeanor and all of the ties and public references to Tomey. But, while he was handed some decent cards, he seems to have a little of that Ben Lindsey "I've got three years t...

TheCatInTheHat

Wasn't aware of the free medical care, and UCLA Medical is excellent. So, in addition to that, their proposal of ceding some acreage and increasing the rent seems pretty decent to me, and the other parties can provide the necessary real estate, etc. I'm not terribly sympathetic to the needs of The B...

TheCatInTheHat

We're the Homecoming game at undefeated BYU this week. They've won over Southern Illinois and road games at SMU, Wyoming, and Baylor, but the one that catches any Arizona fan's eye is their 38-9 whipping of Kansas St in Provo. Without getting into the whole 'how Vegas oddsmakers balance the gambling...

TheCatInTheHat

I put some of this on coaches trying to establish the ground game, maybe at a higher level of football than they're used to. It's always a great idea...if you've got the linemen and backs to pull it off and you can balance it with a decent passing attack. But, in my history of watching Arizona footb...

TheCatInTheHat

Choo said it far better than I could. Biggest difference to me is that last year Noah was able to get the ball out quick and keep defenses on their heels. This year the routes all seem to take 6+ seconds and Noah is either running for his life or throwing to guys who are covered. We aren’t catching...

TheCatInTheHat

https://www.lubbockonline.com/videos/sp ... 458671007/

TheCatInTheHat

Eh... I gave 'em 12 on D, too. Scratch that third LB.

TheCatInTheHat

So we go from smash-mouth to flying circus. The Texas Tech lineup to date may not be all that impressive (Abilene Christian, at Washington St, North Texas, ASU, and Cincinnati), but they're 4-1 and 2-0 in conference. And they tend to use most of the lightbulbs in the scoreboard, as they average 42 P...

TheCatInTheHat

I checked out the SLC newspapers for their post-game coverage. Just glum about losing, that the Utah players "lacked energy" and their play-calling was too predictable. But nothing about our revised increased emphasis in the passing game, and probably the big one: Akina changing the defensive front ...

TheCatInTheHat

https://www.deseret.com/sports/2024/09/ ... l-preview/

https://tucson.com/sports/college/footb ... 9b0a2.html

TheCatInTheHat

Not sure how many on this board are active tailgaters. The one I used to go to broke up, then we went to the one in the indoor practice facility (meh), then we moved out of state. If you don't get a better offer or suggestion, I'd just park wherever you can (maybe north of Speedway on Cherry) and wa...

TheCatInTheHat

Yeah, they're betting their stadium renovation will be a game-changer for them. So, home games Saturdays in Arrowhead Stadium the rest of the season.

TheCatInTheHat

My guess is that he got tired of being stonewalled and decided to get the attention of all parties. He mentioned compromise and horse trading, so I'm sure that's the desired approach, and I'd bet there'll be some movement in that direction in the very near future. Meanwhile, USC just played an entir...

TheCatInTheHat

https://www.westsidecurrent.com/news/fr ... 073fc.html

TheCatInTheHat

No doubt, but Popeye likes to strut around as the ex-linebacker flexing in a too-tight T-shirt (you're 64, dude...the truly attractive girls don't care anymore), and he's a defense guy all the way. So, no question he takes 42 points scored on designated successor Morgan Scalley's (and his) defense p...

TheCatInTheHat

Ironically, even though it's pretty obscure, CBS Sports is probably at least as available as the Pac-12 network was. But, it's a little frustrating to wade through what seem like pretty last-minute media negotiations for basketball media coverage when we're already one-fourth of the way through foot...

TheCatInTheHat

Well, for those coming in for the game, it may not be considered such bad news. Extended forecast has a mid-afternoon high near 100, so that'll let it cool down maybe into the 80s by game time.

TheCatInTheHat

So Utah made this week's Top Ten. The ranked Big XII teams (including all with votes):

10. Utah
20. Oklahoma St
22. BYU
23. Kansas St
37. UCF
38. Arizona

TheCatInTheHat

Against the better teams they've played (Baylor, Utah St, Oklahoma St), Utah hasn't put up huge numbers, winning by margins of 11, 17, and 3. We'll see how we do after all the gloom and doom and a bye week. Meanwhile, Utah should be in, or close to, the Top Ten, and probably revenge minded after las...

TheCatInTheHat

Meanwhile, as far as a Big XII schedule goes, we're like the people at Rick's Cafe Americain...we wait...and wait. I assume the big networks hit the Big Ten, then maybe the ACC for Duke and Carolina, then possibly the SEC over football loyalties, and finally the Big XII, despite the rankings of our ...

TheCatInTheHat

The thing is, when a new coaching regime comes in here, the coordinators seem to have about the same expectation of 3-years of job safety as the head coach. That's absolutely not true at the biggest football schools, but it seems to be the case at Arizona, based on history. I don't particularly like...

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