Greg Hansen: After fall from grace, Arizona Wildcats must get up, do something

Editor's note: This story is part of the Star's Aug. 27 college football preview section.

Early in Arizona’s 2016 football training camp, walk-on punter Jake Glatting used 12 words to put the UA’s football program into a far better perspective than a writer could’ve done in 800 words.

“Underestimated. Under-appreciated. Overlooked. Disrespected. Time for a change. Time to prove otherwise.”

Arizona went 3-9.

Glatting, a junior from Phoenix’s Thunderbird High School, has become an embodiment of Arizona’s football struggle. He entered school as a non-scholarship player in 2014 and watched in amazement as the Wildcats won the Pac-12 South championship. A year later, he left the team altogether.

Glatting returned in ’16, earned his way back onto the roster, and by season’s end was (and remains) the UA’s regular punter.

This is the natural order of things at Arizona and at most college football precincts not named Ohio State and Alabama. It is a struggle. It takes time. There are far more Jake Glattings than Sam Darnolds in college football. There are far more Arizonas than Floridas.

Not unexpectedly, Glatting’s tweet from August 2016 still applies at Arizona. The Wildcats are indeed disrespected and all of those other things. The clock is ticking, and it is time to prove otherwise.

In retrospect, Arizona’s sudden fall from grace could’ve been expected. It is the nature of college football.

After its historic 12-1 season of 1998, Arizona went on a 28-52 downer and fired two coaches. No one in the league seemed surprised because the give-and-take of college football has corrected itself for 100 years, reminding those at so-called football schools like Arizona State to expect the unexpected.

After ASU played in the 1998 Rose Bowl, the Sun Devils were said to have, at last, arrived. But in the 19 seasons to follow, ASU has finished the season ranked in the AP’s top 25 just four times, and never in the top 10.

The Sun Devils are still working on those great expectations.

Remember those aggravating “Win The Day” proverbs that decorated the walls and filled the football conversations at Oregon? The Ducks went 4-8 last year, fired everybody, tore down all the signs and replaced them with new ones: “Do Something.”

Do something is right. That’s what Arizona needs to do. That’s what wannabes ASU and UCLA need to do. Do something right.

To its credit, Arizona hasn’t introduced a new rallying cry, such as last year’s “Our House.” The fancy words don’t earn a first down or force a fumble.

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The UA will wear new uniforms (who won’t?), but otherwise the Wildcats have stuck to business. Rich Rodriguez hired three new coaches and gained considerable support by hiring Wildcat legend Chuck Cecil to help repair a wobbly defense.

Otherwise, there is no sense of newness at Arizona.

The UA received 62 votes in the Pac-12 preseason media poll, fewest in the league. That’s one more vote than new Arizona athletic director Dave Heeke’s old school, Central Michigan, got when it was picked to finish fifth in the woebegone MAC West.

Wildcats or Chippewas? One bad situation begets another.

Or, as Glatting said, it’s time to prove otherwise.

RichRod likes to say that he brought 50 new players into camp. Sounds impressive, doesn’t it? But that’s misleading. Half of those 50 are non-scholarship players, and that’s no way to move upstream in Pac-12 football.

RichRod has described Arizona’s situation as a “reboot.” That’s better than saying “starting over,” because the Wildcats are not starting over. They’ve got up-to-code Pac-12 running backs, offensive linemen and a secondary of reasonably good prospects.

Junior Brandon Dawkins isn’t among the league’s Fab 5 quarterbacks — that’s an NFL draft director’s go-to list — but he could be No. 6, and that’s not bad.

Football in the Pac-12 rarely takes the predictable route.

Washington was the league’s born-again power, but until last season the Huskies finished in the AP’s Top 25 just once in the last 14 years. Their 0-12 team of 2008 is probably the worst in league history, or close to it. Now, you can’t get a ticket at Husky Stadium, or whatever it’s called.

USC? It is easy to forget that the Trojans have gone 8-5, 7-6 and 8-6 since 2010 and fired two coaches. Does anyone remember that from 1996-2001, the Trojans went a mere 37-35?

Things will change again. Arizona is due to do something right.

Many UA fans see the past better than it was. Others see the present worse than it is.

It is more likely somewhere in between.