Winless Arizona is still buying in; UCLA represents the next chance to end the skid.
In two of Arizona’s first four games, the Wildcats surrendered big plays in the first quarter. They fell victim to “early explosives.”
San Diego State hit Arizona with a 55-yard touchdown run and a 73-yard pass play that set up a TD. That all happened within the first six minutes.
Oregon scored on a 63-yard touchdown pass on the third play from scrimmage. The game was barely a minute old.
Asked how to minimize or even prevent those plays, defensive coordinator Don Brown said simply: “Tackle better.” He’s not wrong. All three of those plays featured missed tackles of some sort.
UA coach Jedd Fisch sees a deeper issue — one that goes well beyond the realm of X’s and O’s.
Doing his best Ted Lasso impression — he hasn’t seen the show but has put it on his offseason priority list — Fisch cited “the power of belief.” In his view, the Wildcats need to get to a point where they believe in themselves — their ability to compete with anyone — from start to finish.
“When you walk onto the field, you don’t have to test the waters out — you can just jump right in,” said Fisch, whose team hosts UCLA on Saturday night. “I think sometimes what has happened here, maybe over the course of the last 2-3 years now, it’s always hedging the bet a little bit or testing the waters and then realizing, ‘Hey, we can play with this team. We can compete with this team, and we don’t need to give them a head start.’ ”
Arizona is 0-4 under Fisch and is riding a 16-game losing streak that’s tied for the longest in the nation. Two of this year’s defeats have been by one score or less, something that happened only once in the previous 12 losses. And the Oregon game was a lot closer than the final score suggests; it was 24-19 in the fourth quarter before the Ducks scored the final 17 points.
None of that is worthy of a parade. But if you look closely enough, you can see signs of improvement — signs that the belief is real and isn’t waning.
‘And then some’
How do we know that the Wildcats are still buying what Fisch and his staff are selling?
The scoreboard offers little proof. Their words seem sincere, but when have you ever heard college players question their coaches in a public setting?
Proof can be found in the players’ persistence. The Oregon game easily could have gone off the rails. We’ve seen that horror film in the Pacific Northwest plenty of times before.
After falling behind 7-0, Arizona turned the ball over on its first play. Soon after, it was 10-0. By early in the second quarter, Oregon led 24-7.
The Wildcats never buckled. By the end of the third quarter, they trimmed the deficit to five points.
“The one thing that I’m excited about with our guys is we keep playing,” Brown said. “We’ve had a chance. Would you say that we could be 2-2?”
It’s not unreasonable.
“We’re not,” Brown continued. “So the bottom line is, we gotta play better. But I also think there’s some encouraging things that we’re doing.”
Proof can be found in the players’ work ethic.
“If they didn’t believe,” safeties coach Chuck Cecil said, “they wouldn’t put in the work.”
Defensive line coach Ricky Hunley said players are making the necessary sacrifices behind the scenes. It’s the difference, he said, between being good and being great (although, after 16 straight losses, good might suffice for now).
“We’re blazing our own trail. It’s not an easy trail. But our guys are willing to pay the price,” Hunley said.
“You’re doing what’s required — and then some. I think that our guys are buying into the ‘and then some.’ You’ll see them work after practice. You’ll see them come in and watch film before practice. You’ll see them trying to clean up their personal mistakes that are holding us back.”
The idea of “cleaning up” is one multiple coaches and players have referenced. It has multiple applications.
Winning habits
The little things matter — on and off the field. Habits can be formed before you lace up your cleats or put on your pads.
That’s the lesson Fisch has been trying to convey to his team lately. He showed them a video in which former Baltimore Ravens safety Ed Reed discusses the importance of keeping the locker room clean. The Ravens for years have hired local firefighters to do various odd jobs. Reed was embarrassed that they had to pick up tape and towels that his teammates had left on the floor.
“We ain’t winning if y’all don’t do the little things,” Reed says in the video.
The Ravens had a winning record in eight of Reed’s 11 years with the team and won the Super Bowl after the 2012 season.
Fisch also has shown a clip of a commencement speech by Admiral William H. McRaven, who encourages people in all walks of life to make their bed every morning.
“You will have accomplished the first task of the day,” McRaven says in the speech. “It will give you a small sense of pride, and it will encourage you do another task and another and another.”
Fisch believes that stacking small wins on top of one another eventually will lead to actual victories on the field.
“Being detailed in those small things will create the bigger stuff,” cornerback Isaiah Rutherford said.
In football terms, Fisch wants his team to incrementally improve. The losses to San Diego State and NAU were steps in the wrong direction after an encouraging opener against BYU. The Oregon game represented progress. It affirmed belief.
“It comes down to get better, get better, get better,” Fisch said. “If you get better ... the results will start coming.
“None of us want to be in a situation where we’ve lost four games in a row. We need to find a way to turn that over by just playing better football throughout the whole game ... really, play better on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday in order to be able to be better on Saturday.”
