Dear Mr. Football: What is Arizona’s best chance to stop MSU coach Mike Leach’s “Air Raid’’ offense?
A: One thing Arizona’s first-year defensive coordinator Johnny Nansen learned coaching in five games against Leach’s Washington State teams was that you don’t stop the “Air Raid.” You hope to out-score it.
Nansen was an assistant coach at Washington (2012-13) and USC (2014-19), and those teams went 3-2 against Leach while yielding an average of 26 points and 340 passing yards per game.
Incredibly, Leach’s WSU quarterbacks — Jeff Tuel, Connor Halliday, Luke Falk and Gardner Minshew — combined to throw nine touchdown passes and complete 64% of their attempts in those five games. And the UW and USC teams they played were no slouches.
Yet Nansen was on the winning side of 27-17, 44-17 and 39-36 games during that period.
First team to 40 wins, right?
Dear Mr. Football: Who will be the best offensive lineman on the field Saturday at Arizona Stadium?
A: It’ll be Eben Britton, who will be at midfield to participate in the pre-game coin toss. Britton is Arizona’s only first-team All-Pac-12 offensive lineman since 1998. Alas, he exhausted his eligibility for the Wildcats in 2008, becoming the 39th player selected in the 2009 NFL Draft.
Britton, who is a nationally-known spokesman for the Wellness profession — he has a national podcast “Eben Flow’’ — will be reunited Saturday with his 2008 Wildcat teammates quarterback Willie Tuitama and 2010 All-Pac-10 defensive end Brooks Reed, who also will participate in the coin toss.
They will be accompanied by an old Wildcat friend, Colin Jordan, a football student manager, 2005–09, who began his business career by working for the UA’s “A Club’’ for two years. Jordan then went into technology and began accelerating his career with tech startup companies. A few years ago, he became CEO of Pawtocol, a pet services company that uses blockchain technology “to enhance the lives of pets and pet owners.”
Jordan’s firm is an official corporate partner of UA athletics and is the presenting sponsor for the Mississippi State game.
Britton, Reed, a Sabino High grad who was honored by induction into the UA Ring of Honor last season, and Tiuitama, the second-team All-Pac-10 quarterback in 2008, became close friends with Jordan during his days as a UA manager. It all comes full circle Saturday when they return to Arizona Stadium to support Jedd Fisch’s rising program.
Dear Mr. Football: Is there any Mississippi State blood in the UA athletic department?
A: Arizona associate director for development Nick Byrne was about as big a Mississippi State fan as possible from 2006-10, when his father, Greg Byrne, was MSU’s athletic director.
When Greg Byrne became Arizona’s AD in 2011, Nick, then 14, switched sides. He ultimately earned a UA degree and is now trying to work his way up the college athletics ladder as his father and grandfather, Bill Byrne, did.
Bill Byrne also began as a fundraiser as a young man, operating the New Mexico Lobo Club. 1976-79, before becoming the AD at Oregon, Nebraska and Texas A&M. (He hired Arizona AD Dave Heeke in 1988, giving Heeke his start in the business.)
Greg Byrne followed his father’s footsteps, beginning his college athletics career as the regional director of development for the Oregon Ducks in 1995, joining ex-Duck associate Heeke. Greg Byrne then worked similar jobs at Oregon State and Kentucky before going to Mississippi State.
Small world: Byrne hired MSU’s current athletic director, John Cohen, to be Mississippi State’s head baseball coach in 2008.
Jacob Cowing became one of the country's most sought-after transfers following a standout 2021 season at UTEP.
Dear Mr. Football: Did anyone suspect UA transfer receiver Jacob Cowing would be this good?
A: In his senior season at Marciopa High School near Phoenix, Cowing caught eight passes for 275 yards and two touchdowns in a season-opening 45-13 victory over Surprise Willow Canyon. But he didn’t even make the Arizona Republic’s all-state honorable mention list.
The recruiting chase for Cowing was modest, if that. UTEP was the only FBS school to offer him a scholarship. UTEP? The Miners were coming off back-to-back seasons of 0-12 and 1-11. They were widely viewed as the worst football program in America.
But after Cowing caught 11 passes for 170 yards against Rice and nine for 166 against Louisiana Tech, word spread. Most college football programs employ someone full-time to monitor potential transfer portal acquisitions, and by last November most of them had a file on Cowing.
Cowing’s performance against San Diego State — eight catches for 152 yards and three touchdowns — is the most prolific debut by an Arizona receiver since freshman Mike Thomas caught seven passes for 92 yards and a touchdown in the UA’s 2005 opening game, a 27-24 loss at Utah.
Thomas went on to be the real deal, catching 259 passes at Arizona, a school record.
Dear Mr. Football: Who will be the most fired-up fan at Arizona Stadium?
A: Arizona president Robert C. Robbins graduated from medical school at Ole Miss and also earned a degree from Millsaps College, about 125 miles south of Starkville.
Robbins was born in Laurel, Mississippi, also known as an Ole Miss precinct. Robbins’ distinguished academic and medical career is widely admired but he is not the most well-known grad of Millsaps College. That would be Gary Burghoff — Radar O’Reilly of the esteemed sitcom “MASH.”
Dear Mr. Football: What is the connection between UA coach Jedd Fisch and Mississippi State receivers coach Steve Spurrier Jr.?
A: When Spurrier Jr., then a graduate assistant coach, left the Florida Gators staff after the 1988 season — his father Steve Spurrier was the head coach — the Gators gave his GA spot to Fisch.
Five years later, Spurrier Jr., was a receivers coach on Mike Stoops’ second Arizona team. That staff, which went 3-8 but laid the foundation for winning season from 2008-10, was full of elite-level coaching. Here’s what happened to that UA staff of ‘04 that included Mississippi State’s Spurrier:
Eric Wolford: Now Alabama’s offensive line coach.
Mike Canales: Now Bethune-Cookman’s offensive coordinator.
Tim Kish: Now retired after being Oklahoma’s linebackers coach, Kish lives in Tucson and is president of the Southern Arizona Chapter of the College Football Hall of Fame.
Kasey Dunn: Now the offensive coordinator at Oklahoma State.
Joe Robinson: Retired after coaching at UTEP in 2020.
Mark Stoops: Now the head coach at Kentucky.
Mike Tuiasosopo: Now the defensive line coach at Kansas State.
Charlie Williams: Now the director of football management for Arkansas.
Dear Mr. Football: Could the crowd at Arizona Stadium intimidate Mississippi State?
A: Over the past four full seasons, MSU has played road games before the following average size crowds:
2021: 61,948 (including 87,457 at Auburn)
2019: 69,927 (including 101,025 at Texas A&M)
2018: 73,909 (including 101,821 at Alabama)
2017: 73,606 (including 92,746 at Georgia)
On Thursday, Arizona announced it had sold about 42,000 tickets. Maybe it’ll reach 45,000. Maybe the Zona Zoo will sing Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” (the school’s new late-game, get-jazzed anthem) so enthusiastically to start the fourth quarter that it’ll make a difference.
But probably not.
This is the chill Pac-12. Last year, Arizona played before an average road attendance of 44,383. If the Wildcats are to beat Mississippi State, it’ll be because Jayden de Laura outplays MSU’s Will Rogers, who has been an excellent “system QB” under Leach, if not an NFL prospect.
I think Mississippi State is probably the equivalent of the Pac-12’s Oregon State this season, which isn’t a knock on anyone. The Beavers are legit.
But don’t stop believin’.
Arizona 34, Mississippi State 30.
