Arizona coach Rich Rodriguez has said it more than once: The Wildcatsβ talent level isnβt where he wants it to be, especially on the defensive side of the ball.
He blamed himself for it at a news conference last month β βIf Iβm unhappy with where weβre at talent-wise,β he said, βIβve got to look at myself first because Iβve been the head coach here the last four yearsβ β and put a plan in place to significantly enhance recruiting.
A ranking released last week reflects Rodriguez’s assessment of Arizona’s existing talent. Chad Reuter of NFL.com’s College Football 24/7 micro-site ranked the top 100 players in college football for 2016. None are Wildcats.
Of course, lists of this nature are completely subjective, and itβs a Herculean task to rank 100 players when there are more than 10,000 to choose from in FBS. Iβm sure if Reuter were to compile a similar ranking halfway through the season, it would look nothing like this one.
So being left out is not an ironclad indictment of the Arizona program. But itβs not exactly a great sign either. It points to a potential lack of star power and high-end pro prospects.
Not that being a top college player necessarily equates to lofty draft status. (See Scooby Wright.) Or that lacking top-100 talent means the Wildcats are doomed in 2016.
ESPN released its first Football Power Index (FPI) rankings Monday, and the Worldwide Leaderβs computers donβt hate Arizona.
The Wildcats rank 37th in the nation in FPI and sixth in the Pac-12. FPI predicts Arizona will go 7-5, which would be a one-game improvement over last yearβs regular-season record.
(Per ESPN.com, FPI “is a measure of team strength that is meant to be the computer's best predictor of a team's performance going forward. A statistical analysis combined with a look at strength of schedule is combined into a formula that creates 10,000 simulations. The result: A prediction of how many games each college football team will win next season.)
Knowing what we know at this point about the β16 Wildcats, 7-5 seems like a fair and reasonable educated guess. FPI predicts more wins for Arizona than Washington State, which went 9-4 last year.
At least the Cougars have one representative in Reuterβs rankings. Quarterback Luke FalkΒ is No. 87.
