Arizona will not win another football game until Sept. 17, 2016. Mark it down. That’ll be the day Hawaii visits Tucson.
Until then, the Wildcats will lose to Washington, USC, Utah and Arizona State. And then to BYU to open next season.
Hold me to it. There will be no bowl game. Arizona will be rolling in the deep.
Isn’t that what Adele sings? Rolling in the deep. It could be a haunting song in Tucson.
The one potential flaw is that Hawaii has discussed the possibility of shutting down its football program. Given Arizona’s issues on defense, the last thing it wants is for Hawaii to stop playing football.
The point isn’t that Arizona’s defense is abysmal, or that it is improperly coached or that its scheme doesn’t work. It’s that most of the defensive players UA deployed in Saturday’s 45-42 loss to a pretty average Washington State team are not ready to play winning football in the Pac-12.
Arizona was forced to start redshirt sophomore Jack Banda at defensive end Saturday. I’ve been told Banda is a good kid, and a superior baseball player who had scholarship offers to play baseball at Furman and UAB. He was also offered a chance to play football at FIU and Charlotte.
But on Saturday, about 30 pounds under the weight of typical Pac-12 linemen, Banda was starting his first career game, against one of the most clever offensive coaches in football history, Mike Leach.
Why? Because there is no one else.
The Cougars moved the ball with such ease that when Leach ordered quarterback Luke Falk to “find the open man,” Falk’s candid reply might’ve been “Coach, EVERYBODY’S open.”
I am only using Banda as an example of the UA’s roster problems, not to say that he didn’t play well or that it was his fault the Cougars racked up 631 yards and broke the all-time opponent’s record against Arizona, passing for 514 yards.
If you want an example, here are 16:
Dakota Conwell, linebacker, gone.
Dylan Cozens, defensive end, gone.
C.J. Dozier, linebacker, gone.
Kyle Kelley, defensive end, gone.
Dwight Melvin, defensive end, gone.
Yamen Sanders, defensive back, gone.
Leo Thomas, defensive back, gone.
Derek Babiash, defensive back, gone.
Ryan Dunn, linebacker, gone.
David Maka, defensive line, gone.
David Price, defensive back, gone.
Rodney Carr, defensive back, gone.
Jerod Cody, defensive end, gone.
Patrick Glover, defensive back, gone.
Timmy Hamilton, defensive line, gone.
Antonio Parks, defensive back, gone.
Those are 16 defensive players recruited and acquired by Rich Rodriguez and his staff who are not available to play. Misfires. No college team in the country, neither Alabama nor TCU, can overcome the defection of 16 defensive players.
So on Saturday, Arizona fielded a hodgepodge of not-ready-for-prime-time defensive players who haven’t had time to properly develop in the weight room and in practice. You want names? Here you go: Jace Whittaker, Devin Holiday and Cam Denson. More? Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles, Kwesi Mashack and Carter Hehr.
Who did I miss?
Given time, those aforementioned players might someday be the backbone of an Arizona defense. But on Saturday, it was a football version of “Men in Space.”
Whenever Falk dropped to pass, especially when he utilized a pair of receivers running horizontal routes, the Cougars were in open pasture.
Ordinarily, some of the UA’s defensive recruits from 2012 or 2013 would’ve manned those positions, but those 16 players mentioned are no longer on the roster.
The Pac-12 will have no mercy on the Wildcat defense.
That said, RichRod’s offense was resourceful enough to hang tight until the final ticks of the Arizona Stadium clock. That’s remarkable. Anu Solomon was again, strangely ineffective. And the UA offensive line was beaten at the point of attack by the Cougars most of the day, shutting down Arizona’s running game for long enough to take a 38-21 lead.
For Arizona to lose by just 45-42 is a testament to hanging in there, for whatever that’s worth.
After the game, RichRod indicated that his team properly identified many of WSU’s plays and packages, but that his team was unable to do much about it.
UA defensive coordinator Jeff Casteel essentially eliminated linebackers from Saturday’s schemes and played a 4-7 alignment. Four rushers. Seven in coverage. It gave Arizona a numbers advantage in the secondary, but it was nullified because the UA’s four rushers couldn’t put enough pressure on Falk.
In baseball terms, it would be like summoning a young player from Double-A and hoping he’d hit a few home runs against Clayton Kershaw in his first game. It ain’t happening.
Rebuilding the UA defense is going to take more than the recruiting class of 2016 and the return of the injured Scooby Wright and Derrick Turituri. This could be the beginning of a long roll in the deep.
“We have been underdogs on the road three times this year, and came away with (three) wins,” Leach said. Sure, the oddsmakers picked Arizona as a touchdown favorite, but what did they know about the UA defensive depth chart, or the lack of it?
That’s where the game was decided. That’s why the future looks so grim.
A year ago in Pullman, Arizona took WSU apart, 59-37, and the Cougars appeared to be in a free fall, bound for a football type of hell. Arizona went on to what some insist was the top season in school history.
On Saturday, 364 days later, the teams flipped positions.
Because of that, the UA’s new football theme might soon be “Bring on Hawaii.”
