Arizona football coach Rich Rodriguez’s day-to-day platform is “Hard Edge.” It’s not a gimmick dreamed up by some guy in the PR department.
You do not mess with RichRod. He is Mr. Hard Edge. His assistants have to be made of unusually strong fiber to successfully deal with his daily demands. He is a perfectionist of the highest order, the first one in the office in the morning, the last one to go home at night.
You don’t cross the boss.
The culture he has created inside the UA football program is such that his players know not to test him. There’s a time to celebrate, and it is not with three minutes remaining in a game tied at 24, Arizona vs. Oregon, at Autzen Stadium.
The last thing you expect at Arizona is for a player to be penalized for showboating, a me-first celebration that fatally turned Thursday’s game against the Ducks.
Defensive lineman Tony Washington sacked Anu Solomon at the 17 yard-line, did a little shimmy, ran to midfield and then took a bow toward Ducks fans.
Hey, look at me. Along with glamour unis and Nike money, that’s part of The Show at Oregon.
But you don’t mess with the refs in a situation like that. Washington put himself before his team.
The 15-yard penalty gave Arizona a first-down at the Oregon 8. Three plays later, Terris Jones-Grigsby scored the winning touchdown.
On Friday, after sleeping on the vast disappointment of a 31-24 loss, Oregon coach Mark Helfrich told reporters: “There’s probably nothing worthwhile in life and definitely in football that’s done individually. Nothing.”
One breakdown in discipline, a celebration by Washington, changed everything.
