Dear Mr. Football: Is Jedd Fisch vs. Kyle Whittingham the biggest coaching mismatch in Pac-12 history?
A: Fisch is 4-17 at Arizona. Whittingham is 150-72 at Utah. That’s a difference of 146 victories. There has never been a greater games-won differential between Pac-12 head coaches dating to league expansion in 1978.
Until now, the biggest gap between career coaching victories in the modern Pac-12 was 144. That was in 1995 when UCLA’s Terry Donahue, with 148 wins, coached against Stanford’s Tyrone Willingham, who was 4-1-1.
And then there was the 1992 Washington-Cal game, when the Huskies’ Don James (146 wins at the UW) met Cal’s Keith Gilbertson, who was 3-1, or a difference of 143.
This doesn’t count interim head coaches, such as ASU’s Shawn Aguano, who lost to Utah in his first game as ASU’s interim coach in September. And it doesn’t count a coach’s victories at non-Pac-12 schools, such as James, who won 25 games at Kent State.
Dear Mr. Football: Is Whittingham on target to be the winningest coach in Pac-12 history?
A: In overall victories at Pac-12 schools, Donahue has 151 and James 150. Of Whittigham’s 150 victories, 66 came when the Utes were in the Mountain West Conference. It would probably take Whittingham eight more years at Utah to get to 152. But he’s a young and fit 62 and he’s got momentum. So why not? He could win 200 games at Utah if he stays until he’s 70. That wouldn’t shock many.
Frank Kush won more career games, 176, than anyone in the Pac-12 history. But Kush was only 6-4 in the Pac-10 before he was fired in 1979.
Dear Mr. Football: Has Arizona grown its football brand under Fisch?
A: The Arizona-Utah game will be the UA’s sixth consecutive game on the Pac-12 Networks. As far as I can research, that is a record — an undesirable record. The Pac-12 Networks often draws fewer than 100,000 viewers to its football telecasts. It’s difficult to grow your brand when so few are watching.
A year ago, seven Arizona games were broadcast on the Pac-12 Networks, but the longest streak was four in a row. The same thing happened in 2017.
According to Sports Media Watch, Oregon has drawn about 15.8 million TV viewers this year, and that’s not just because the Ducks are really good. Oregon has played one game on ABC, three on Fox and two on FS1.
Here’s the Sports Media Watch estimates of each Pac-12 school’s number of viewers this season:
- Oregon: 15.8 million
USC: 11.1 million
Utah: 10.4 million
UCLA: 8.9 million
Washington State: 8.5 million
Washington: 6.4 million
Stanford: 5.2 million
Cal: 4.9 million
Arizona State: 4.1 million
Oregon State: 2.3 million
Arizona: 1.7 million
Colorado: 1.5 million
Dear Mr. Football: Are the Utes unbeatable at Rice-Eccles Stadium?
A: Utah is on a 20-2 streak on its comfy home turf, capacity 51,444. The Utes have sold out all 22 of those games. It is the best home-field advantage in the Pac-12, by far.
By comparison, Arizona has never gone 20-2 at home over a 22-game stretch in school history. The Wildcats went 18-4 over the 1996, 1997 and 1998 seasons, and 17-5 over the Desert Swarm years, 1992, 1993 and 1994.
Utah has sold out 74 consecutive home games. UA has sold out just four games at Arizona Stadium in the last 10 years.
Dear Mr. Football: Do the Utes have a better athletic department than Arizona?
A: In the final standings of the NCAA Director’s Cup last year — a points system that distributes points based on the national success of each school’s total men’s and women’s sports programs — Utah finished No 44.
That was ninth in the Pac-12, trailing No. 35 Arizona, which was eighth.
But if you subtract football, the Utes would fall to 10th in the Pac-12, behind Oregon State and ahead of just Colorado and WSU.
Utah athletic director Mark Harlan, who graduated from Arizona and worked in its athletic department for a dozen years, is viewed as one of the rising stars in the athletic director business, and rightly so. Harlan is engaging, visible in the community and has instincts from years of learning under Arizona leaders Cedric Dempsey, Dick Tomey, Chris Del Conte and Jim Livengood, that you can’t buy.
But the Utes’ athletic department swings on football, women’s gymnastics and skiing, in which they earned 68% of their Director’s Cup points. Take away those sports, and the Utes are Washington State.
If you’ve got a football powerhouse, it covers up for a lot of bad basketball, baseball and soccer.
Dear Mr. Football: Are the Utes still known as “Sack Lake City?”
A: A year ago, Utah led the Pac-12 with 42 quarterback sacks. Just as impressive, Utah’s offensive line was so forceful that it limited opponents to 13 sacks. That split of plus-29 sacks was No. 3 nationally. That’s how you get to the Rose Bowl.
The Utes are not as powerful on the defensive line this year, with just 19 sacks. But that still exceeds Arizona, which has just nine QB sacks and almost none when you absolutely, positively need to sack the quarterback to win in the fourth quarter.
Over the last five years, Utah has 137 sacks and Arizona 73. Worse, the Wildcats have given up 119 sacks in that period.
There is no way the Wildcats are going to become a bowl team until it can close that margin.
Arizona’s 1968 win over Utah is considered one of the great comebacks in program history.
Dear Mr. Football: Has Arizona ever won in wintry weather conditions in Salt Lake City?
A: On Nov. 16, 1968, the 7-1 Wildcats trailed the Utes 15-0 with nine minutes remaining on a day it snowed four or five inches and the game-time temperature in Salt Lake was 38 degrees.
But late touchdown passes to Ted Sherwood — who was a UA guest at last week’s homecoming — and future NFL receiver Ron Gardin made it close. A field goal with three seconds remaining by Steve Hurley won the game for UA, 16-15.
Star sports editor Abe Chanin wrote it was the “most miraculous comeback in 69 years of Wildcat football.”
Beating the Utes on a cold and possibly rainy day in Salt Lake City in 2022 would be among the most unexpected victories by an Arizona team since 1968. But the ’68 Utes were awful, 3-7 overall, only winning WAC games against 0-10 New Mexico and 2-8 BYU.
Even if Whittingham is forced to use No. 2 quarterback Bryson Barnes again this week, it’ll be difficult for Arizona escape artist Jayden de Laura to produce more than 21 points at the league’s most imposing road venue.
Utah 34, Arizona 20.
