Four things you can take to the college football bank:
1. Arizona will not win again this season. Book it: 3-9. The only wiggle room is the Territorial Cup game. Strange things happen. A 3-9 finish would be a reverse of the record many, including me, expected this season. What has gone wrong? Everything. When the season began, it was almost as if Kevin Sumlin and his staff had just arrived from somewhere in Texas, unprepared and wondering what on earth they had gotten themselves into. Over the next few weeks, Sumlin must take ownership of this sinking ship and move on from his look of detachment.
2. Khalil Tate should not play until he is fully healthy. He should not have played against Southern Utah or Oregon State, two teams Arizona would beat with Rhett Rodriguez at quarterback. The cost? Arizona could have beaten USC — which looked vulnerable — with a healthy Tate. Instead, it traded that chance for easy victories over two bad teams. I thought Rodriguez played as well in a blowout loss to Utah as Tate played at any time this year.
3. Arizona’s lack of size, depth and skill-position talent — plus its shortcomings on the offensive line and in the secondary — can be traced to ineffective recruiting by Rich Rodriguez and his staffs. I don’t think Arizona has more than two players who could start for Utah, and the Utes are no one’s idea of a national power. When Utah had a fourth-and-goal at Arizona’s 3-yard line late in Friday’s first half, the Utes ran behind starting guard Jordan Agasiva, who cleared a hole big enough for me to walk through for a touchdown. Agasiva was an All-ACCAC guard at Pima College in 2016. RichRod did not recruit him. Didn’t talk to him. Agasiva has started 17 games for the Utes; he would be a rock at Arizona.
4. About 9:30 p.m., Friday, someone in the ESPN production truck instructed sideline reporter Allison Williams to, in football terms, “kill the clock.” She went into the stands and interviewed “Crazy Woman,” a Utah fan who does weird dances. The interview went on and on while the game was in progress. That’s how unattractive Arizona has become to the TV people.
Crazy Woman 1, Arizona 0. It might become the sad theme for a season gone wrong.