There are no Big Dogs in Big 12 football. Not any longer. No turn-your-TV-on Titans. No fear factor, nobody stout enough to worry that you might get trampled 48-3 and lose whatever confidence built by a weak non-conference schedule.
Did any Wildcat football fan truly fear Kansas State Texas Tech or BYU, which hasn’t truly been BYU since LaVell Edwards retired 20 years ago?
No. The Road to a 9-3 record (or better) seemed do-able. Didn’t it?
This entry is part of longtime Star columnist Greg Hansen's weekly notebook. Looking for more? Find updates and Greg's archive at Tucson.com/Hansen.
The UA’s one-time Big Dog rivals — Arizona State and BYU — had been downsized. The Sun Devils and Cougars were picked by many to finish 15th and 16th in the standings. The Cougars went 0-5 to finish the 2023 season, and ASU is coached by a young ’un who looks like he belongs in the cast of "Happy Days," piloting a team that went 3-9 a year ago, losing three of its final four games 55-3, 59-23 and 49-13.
BYU wide receiver Parker Kingston, bottom, makes the catch for a touchdown while being defended by Arizona defensive back Owen Goss during the Cougars’ 41-19 win over the visiting Wildcats Saturday in Provo, Utah.
So, naturally, given the cursed nature of Arizona’s football history, it’s ASU and BYU sitting on top of the Big 12. Arizona? The Wildcats have gone flat, and it’s not yet Halloween.
Arizona’s remaining goal, like it or not, should be, as always, to do whatever necessary to beat the Sun Devils. It seems like the last chance to exit the quickly-diminished 2024 season with any self-respect.
In retrospect, shouldn’t we have seen this coming? Saturday’s 41-19 loss at BYU, and the previous setbacks to KSU and Texas Tech, lacked the resources that led to Arizona’s come-from-nowhere 10-3 season of 2023.
Losing tackle Jordan Morgan, receiver Jacob Cowing and running back Jonah Coleman mattered more than we wished to admit. And whether you want to admit it or not, Jedd Fisch’s overnight exit to Washington cost the Wildcats an offensive mastermind, a quarterback whisperer who stocked his offensive staff with elite-level coaches.
It got worse Saturday when Arizona played without three of its four leading defensive players: safeties Treydan Stukes, Gunner Maldonado and linebacker Jacob Manu, the Pac-12’s leading tackler of 2023. Together, those three made 252 tackles last season.
Those who replaced them — Emmanuel Karnley, Owen Goss and Kamuela Ka’aihue — had a cumulative 15 tackles last season.
Game over.
You can moan all night about quarterback Noah Fifita’s slippage from his grand ’23 season — how it sadly resembles the last 25 years when once-ballyhooed UA quarterbacks Ortege Jenkins, Khalil Tate and Anu Solomon similarly diminished. But the chance for Arizona to be a Big Dog has come and gone.
Again, we say, with regret, wait til next year.
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