Hansen: Too much shared blood for Cats, Dawgs to have bad blood

Dear Mr. Football: Is there any bad blood between Arizona and Washington?

A: There is too much shared blood for it to be bad blood.

Arizona’s new defensive coordinator, Marcel Yates, played at Boise State for Washington defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski, and then coached under Kwiatkowski at Montana State and Boise State.

It’s a long way from Bozeman, Montana, to the Pac-12; Kwiatkowski is working on a two-year, $1.2 million contract, and the UA got permission from the Board of Regents to give Yates a multi-year contract, worth $500,000 per season.

When Yates initially joined Kwiatkowski at Montana State in 2001, he got a part-time job as a cab driver to make ends meet.

Two years before Kwiatkowski joined the Montana State staff, Arizona offensive line coach Jim Michalczik spent seven seasons with the Bobcats.

Dear Mr. Football: Is Montana State a steppingstone to fame and riches?

A: Here’s how the 2001 MSU coaching colleagues of Yates and Kwiatkowski sit today:

Don Bailey: Assistant coach, West Alabama.

Aaron Flowers: High school coach at San Juan Hills in SoCal.

Joe O’Brien: Served 28 months in prison on a drug charge; out of coaching.

Rob Christoff: Works for a firm that shreds documents in Spokane, Washington.

John Rushing: Former defensive quality control coach, Green Bay Packers.

Johnny Nansen: Assistant head coach at USC.

Josh Rohloff: Financial analyst in Billings, Montana.

Dear Mr. Football: What is the Cupcake Campaign?

A: That was Washington’s nonconference schedule of Rutgers, Idaho and Portland State. It was the softest nonconference schedule by a Pac-12 team since 2012, when Oregon played Arkansas State, Tennessee Tech and Fresno State, winning by a cumulative 162-73.

The Huskies outscored those ’Cakes 148-30 but it didn’t fool the Husky Stadium fans. An average of 58,823 attended, or roughly 13,000 shy of capacity each week.

If you omit Utah (stadium capacity a small 45,017) the Pac-12 has sold out just one of its 15 games to date. (That was WSU’s regional engagement with Eastern Washington.) Cal was unable to sell out for last week’s game against Texas, with just 50,448 in Memorial Stadium (capacity 62,400). Oregon did not sell out Autzen Stadium for two puffball opponents.

Part of the problem with selling tickets in September is that school doesn’t begin until late September at Oregon, OSU, Washington, UCLA and Stanford. Can you imagine what Arizona Stadium might look like if the Zona Zoo didn’t begin classes until next Wednesday, as Washington does?

There would be an echo.

Dear Mr. Football: Who is most conflicted about the UA-Washington game?

A: Jeff Woodruff is a 59-year-old head coach of the Andress High School football team in El Paso. He coached Arizona quarterback Brandon Dawkins at Oaks Christian High in Los Angeles in 2012 and 2013, then relocated to El Paso where he coached emerging UA safety Tristan Cooper at Andress.

Woodruff has a lifetime connection to Washington’s most prominent football legacy, coach Don James. He married James’ daughter, Jill, and coached the Huskies during their glory days from 1984-93.

But when James retired and moved to Tucson, so did Woodruff and his family.

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He became the head coach at Cholla High in 1996 and 1997, and then joined Dick Tomey’s Arizona staff in time to be part of the 12-1 team of 1998.

Woodruff was then hired as the head coach at Eastern Michigan.

Dear Mr. Football: Who wins the uniform war between Arizona and Washington?

A: The Huskies began training camp wearing new Vicis helmets that cost $1,500 each, eschewing the industry standard Riddell and Schutt helmets that go for about $350 each.

Vicis, a Seattle start-up firm that raised about $15 million privately in hopes of creating the safest helmet in history and reducing concussion injuries, only offered the helmets to Washington and Oregon.

Unfortunately, without sufficient field-testing, Vicis recalled the helmets in a month ago and is working on making the helmet more comfortable.

As with most Pac-12 teams, Arizona has four sets of Riddell helmets: red, red chrome, white and blue. Those white helmets with the 1941 “A” that the Wildcats wore against Hawaii aren’t collectors items. They were used at practice this week.

Dear Mr. Football: How far can a Little Muscle take Arizona?

A: In the California CIF semifinals last year, J.J. Taylor, who was called “Little Muscle” by his Corona Centennial teammates, rushed 41 times for 261 yards and five TDs in a blowout victory over St. John Bosco.

Taylor, who is 5 feet 6 inches and maybe 165 pounds, wasn’t the best prospect at Centennial, a national power who had players sign with Notre Dame, Air Force and Cal.

Little Muscle was overlooked by Arizona State, which had all but owned the recruiting line to Centennial, getting future NFL players Vontaze Burfict, Will Sutton and Brandon Magee from the school.

The Big Schools don’t often recruit Little Muscle. But there are so many exceptions, so many so-called undersized running backs who became Big Men On Campus once in college, that size should deter no recruiter.

Amphitheater High School’s Jon Volpe, a first-team All-Pac-10 running back (1,148 yards) at Stanford in 1988, played at 5-7, 195. Oregon State’s Jacquizz Rodgers, an All-Pac-10 running back in 2009 and 2010, was 5-6, 200 as a Beaver. The best example of Little Muscle doing big things is Darren Sproles of Kansas State, a two-time NFL Pro Bowl player now with the Philadelphia Eagles who is listed at 5-6, 190 in his 12th NFL season.

Taylor isn’t likely to break Ontiwaun Carter’s Arizona career rushing attempts record (815) but if he remains relatively healthy, he could crack 600, which would put him in company with 5-6, 185 pound jets-on-wheels David Adams of Sunnyside High, who rushed exactly 600 times for 2,571 yards as he became a first-team All-Pac-10 player in 1986.

Dear Mr. Football: How many potential All-Pac-12 players does Washington have?

A: To save time and space, I’ll just list the last names: Browning, Baker, Gaskin, Ross, Victor, Gaines, Vea, Jones and Van Winkle.

That’s not Rip Van Winkle, it’s place-kicker Cameron Van Winkle, but RIP pretty much describes Arizona’s chances.

The Huskies have notable advantages in size, speed, experience and talent.

Coaching? The jury is out on Chris Petersen and his staff, because they no longer out-man 10 foes per year, as they did at Boise State.

But Petersen is trending up and RichRod is potentially facing the worst season of his head coaching career.

A few days ago I asked UA starting defensive end Justin Belknap, a redshirt freshman who is not on scholarship, what he’d have said if someone told him a year ago that he’d be a Pac-12 starter.

“I’d have said they’re crazy, a mad person,” he said.

Can Arizona beat the Huskies? That’s crazy. That’s mad.

Washington 37, Arizona 23