Greg Hansen: Despite uneven performance, Wildcats go from hopeless to hopeful in 60 minutes

Quarterback Jordan McCloud arrived on Arizona’s campus with a notable statistical streak: He had not thrown an interception in his last 144 passes at South Florida.

Just as impressive, McCloud also played against No. 7 Notre Dame, No. 17 Cincinnati, No. 18 Memphis and No. 19 Wisconsin without throwing an interception in 58 pass attempts.

And yet Saturday night at Oregon he threw five interceptions, each one seemingly more damaging than the previous. It didn’t seem to fit with his otherwise winning performance at Autzen Stadium.

McCloud isn’t a rookie — far from it, he threw for 2,770 yards at USF in 20 games. In his starting debut at South Florida, September 15, 2019, McCloud was so impressive that the Tampa Bay Times’ banner headline the next morning said:

“New QB to the Rescue.’’’

The newspaper wrote that “McCloud provided USF fans the dazzle for which they hoped.’’

But college football is neither predictable nor a venue where dazzle is renewable week to week. When McCloud left USF last winter, the Bulls had lost eight consecutive games. Dazzle had turned into a different word with two z’s — fizzle.

Yet by the time the plane transporting Jedd Fisch’s football team touched down at the Tucson airport just before dawn Sunday morning, the landscape of college football in this town had changed.

The Wildcats had gone from hopeless to hopeful.

Arizona’s loss at Autzen Stadium did not produce dazzle, but the one thing it did do was chase away the fizzle of a dreadful loss to NAU. Reactions are sure to range from encouragement to what one Oregon newspaper termed as the result of Oregon “playing down to the competition against a vastly overmatched and inferior opponent.’’

But I disagree for two reasons: One, Arizona matched the Ducks in physicality and toughness, winning the battles at the line of scrimmage, which hasn’t happened at Arizona since, when, 2014? And, two, the Wildcats clearly out-coached Oregon’s staff, implementing an NFL-style running game and short passing strategy for which the Ducks were unable to adjust for the full 60 minutes.

Back to homepage

Subscriber Login

Keep reading with a digital access subscription.

Subscribe now

In an attempt to kill the clock, Arizona controlled the game’s tempo (it dominated possession, 38 minutes to 22 for the Ducks) and effectively blocked Oregon’s much-ballyhooed defense as sophomore running back Drake Anderson showed signs that he could become a productive player in the Pac-12.

Arizona also held the Ducks to 393 yards, Compare that to the UA’s soft defense of 2019 when it was outgained by No. 6 Oregon and No. 7 Utah by a cumulative 988 to 436 yards, with the Wildcats getting clobbered 34-6 and 35-7 in those games.

Progress.

It was the first clear sign that Fisch’s persistence in hiring high-grade assistant coaches DeWayne Walker, Don Brown, Chuck Cecil, Ricky Hunley, Brennan Carroll, Jimmie Dougherty and Jordan Paopao is in the process of turning the worst football franchise in the Pac-12 into one that, over the next year or two, should be able to punch it out with the Oregons and Utahs.

McCloud seems to be the short-term answer at quarterback, if by default. Given his statistical history at USF, it’s likely his five-interception game at Autzen Stadium was a freakish night. He was like a baseball player who pitched a five-hit, complete game — yet all five hits were home runs.

Arizona remains in undesirable company as one of seven FBS teams (out of 130) yet to win a game this year. That group includes UMass, UConn, Navy, Ohio, UNLV and Florida State. But after Saturday’s game, it’s not as crazy to think the Wildcats can break through soon, perhaps winning at Colorado or even winning against higher stock such as UCLA or Cal.

A lot of Arizona quarterbacks have been stained by statistical blemishes such as the one that will follow McCloud.

At the 1968 Sun Bowl, after climbing into the AP Top 25 for the first time in school history, Arizona was punched out 34-10 by Auburn on a nightmarish-type afternoon during which Wildcat Bruce Lee threw a school-record six interceptions.

That was probably the worst statistical day by a UA quarterback in modern history. Lee, a fifth-year senior, was 6 for 24 with six picks. But he was the same guy who led the Wildcats to a stunning victory at Ohio State the year before and, incredibly, had only thrown two interceptions in his previous 104 passes that season.

Lee had a good excuse. The Star referred to the ’68 Sun Bowl as the “Wind Bowl,’’ with sustained winds over 30 mph that afternoon in El Paso with temperatures in the mid 40s.

McCloud can’t use the weather at Oregon as an excuse, but he doesn’t need one. He’s got eight games remaining to show that he’s more like the QB who ended his USF career without a pick in his final 144 passes.