Greg Hansen: 'Mr. Football' on a rockin' Reser, Arizona's unused punter — and a prediction

Dear Mr. Football: Is Reser Stadium a feared venue for visiting Pac-12 teams?

A: Toss out Territorial Cups, Civil Wars and Apple Cups, and the most you-ain’t-got-a-prayer-today-buddy Pac-12 site I’ve visited was Oregon State’s Reser Stadium, 1999.

The attendance was only 33,314 that chilly November night in Corvallis, but it was Judgment Day for the Beavers. Arizona was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The Beavers had not qualified for a bowl game since 1964, had not produced a winning season since 1970. Can you imagine the decades of stuffed-up frustration?

All the Beavers needed to do was beat slumping 6-4 Arizona, which opened the season ranked No. 3, and both ignominious streaks would end.

About midnight, as the Beavers won 28-20, a celebration that matched what you might imagine an Arizona-clinches-the-Rose-Bowl hullabaloo ignited. Nobody went home. Stuck in the party-til-dawn parking lots until 2 a.m., my colleagues and I walked to the campus bars on Monroe Avenue and soaked it all in. We finally arrived at our Eugene hotel at 3:30 a.m.

It was a star-is-born night in Corvallis and that star-of-the night was Beaver quarterback Jonathan Smith, who threw for three touchdowns against Arizona.

Jonathan Smith? He’s now Oregon State’s head football coach.

Dear Mr. Football: How long has it been since Khalil Tate was a game-changer?

A: The last time he was "Ka-Thrill" or "Ka-Boom" or any of those wonderful nicknames of 2017 was against Oregon State on Nov. 11 at Arizona Stadium.

Tate rushed for 118 yards in the first half. On the second snap of the third quarter, he bolted 71 yards for a touchdown. He was electric. He was like a gift from the football gods, finally smiling on Arizona after years in the football wilderness.

"See You Tater" seemed to score a touchdown on a long run every few minutes.

Since that magic night against the Beavers, Tate is 1-5 as Arizona’s starter. That would’ve been unfathomable the last time we saw the Beavers.

This year, Tate has gained 40 yards rushing. Total. On that night against OSU a year ago, he gained 42 yards in the first series of the game.

Dear Mr. Football: Is it possible Arizona won’t have to punt again this week?

A: The Wildcats did not punt against Southern Utah last week. That’s just the fifth time in school history, covering more than 1,100 games. This season, West Virginia has punted fewer times — twice — than any team in college football.

In the Dick Tomey years, Arizona placed as much or more value on punting than any team on the map. “A punt can be a good thing,” Tomey said. But those were field-position and kicking days. That’s as outdated as a landline in your living room.

But get this: In Arizona’s best season in the last 20 years, the Pac-12 South championship run of 2014, the Wildcats punted 80 times, the second-highest total dating to the UA’s entry to the Pac-10 in 1978.

Here’s one untouchable Arizona statistic: The school record for punts in a game is 21, set in 1935 against Texas Tech. By the way, Arizona won that day, 7-6.

Dear Mr. Football: Has Pac-12 football ever been more popular?

A: The league announced this week that for the first time in decades, coaches will not be available for their routine 10-minute Tuesday mass media teleconferences. Now they will be available every other Tuesday.

Part of this is because there is relatively small interest in college football in Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Denver, which includes half of the Pac-12 teams. Participation has diminished.

Part of it is because the coaches have become so vanilla, so mundane, that sitting on a two-hour conference call is often a colossal waste of time for a reporter. Today’s coaches offer little insight and are often humorless.

But, geez, how tough can it be? This isn’t someone revealing insider trading data, or giving up Pentagon secrets. It’s college football, which takes itself far too seriously.

The league is at an ebb with media-friendly coaches. Stanford’s David Shaw and ASU’s Herm Edwards are up-front and helpful, but the days of filling a notebook with quotes from UCLA’s Rick Neuheisel, Washington State’s Mike Price, Arizona’s Larry Smith and Oregon State’s Mike Riley appear to be gone.

Dear Mr. Football: Does hiring a football coach who has just been fired ever work?

A: The Pac-12 hasn’t been shy about hiring and paying enormous sums of money to fired coaches Kevin Sumlin, Chip Kelly, and, before them, Rich Rodriguez, Mike Leach, Jim Mora, Tyrone Willingham and on and on.

There is no better example than Oregon State.

In 1999, the Beavers hired Dennis Erickson, who was fired a year earlier by the Seattle Seahawks. In two years, Erickson had the Beavers at 11-1, the greatest year in school history.

After Erickson bolted for the San Francisco 49ers — where he was again fired — the Beavers hired Mike Riley, who had been fired after a dreadful 14-34 stretch as the San Diego Chargers' head coach.

Riley coached OSU to eight bowl games in 11 years.

As has always been the case in college football, there is no manpower shortage in the coaching ranks, yet athletic directors and search firms at the Power 5 level seem reluctant to take a chance on an up-and-comer, like, say, Justin Wilcox at Cal or PJ. Fleck at Minnesota.

New blood can be a wonderful energizer.

Arizona got it wrong twice, hiring fired Texas coach John Mackovic  in 2001 and fired Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez in 2012. Now it’s Sumlin’s turn to make sure this hiring-fired-coaches thing doesn’t become a Tucson curse.

Dear Mr. Football: Is Arizona’s game at OSU a long-needed gimme?

A: The UA’s football schedule never seems to decrease in difficulty. On paper, Oregon State probably has the least skilled group of players in the Pac-12, and perhaps of any Power 5 conference.

Even Kansas has won a couple of games this year.

A year ago, Arizona fielded what seemed to be the worst defense imaginable, allowing 471 yards per game. But the Beavers allowed 473.

This isn’t a make-game for the Wildcats, but it could be a break-game.

Wildcats 41, Beavers 38.