Dear Mr. Football: Are you considered a football school if you draw 50,000 fans at Arizona Stadium?
A: Of the 279 games played at Arizona Stadium since the Wildcats joined the conference, just 129 have drawn 50,000 or more. Thatโs 46%. If you subtract the 20 UA-ASU games and the 13 UA-USC games that drew 50,000, it means that Tucson has been a โfootball townโ in just 39% of Arizonaโs home games in that period.
Dear Mr. Football: Is that what the school thought when it expanded the stadium from 40,000 to 58,000 in 1976?
A: Bob Jacobsen, a former Arizona ticket manager and sports information director told me that UA football was such a hot item in the mid 1970s โ thank you coach Jim Young โ that they thought they could sell lawn chairs to those who couldnโt get regular seats.
He was joking, of course, but a fever for UA football never happened. Instead, the stadium expansion proved to be too much. The east side upper deck wouldโve been much better at about 10,000 seats instead of 17,000.
The two most successful decades of Arizona football, the 1980s and 1990s, drew 50,000 fans just 52 times in 127 games, or 41%.
Dear Mr. Football: What was the most popular period for Arizona football?
A: Tucson fans totally bought in when Mike Stoops was hired in 2004, which is promising considering Jedd Fischโs rebuilding job mirrors that of Stoopsโ first three years: 3-8, 3-8, 6-6.
Stoopsโ teams surpassed 50,000 for games against the Citadel, New Mexico, NAU (twice), Toledo and Central Michigan. Thatโs hard to believe today.
From 2004-10, as Stoops rebuilt from the John Mackovic ashes, Arizona drew 50,000 or more fans in 38 of 46 games, or 83%. Everything pointed to the UAโs climb to a permanent Top-25 program and then, as if overnight, the Wildcats went bust in 2011, even with senior Nick Foles at quarterback. Tucson crowd interest has never sustained the 50,000-plus level.
Dear Mr. Football: How in the world did the Pac-12 fail to select UA quarterback Jayden de Laura as the Offensive Player of the Week?
A: The league chose to put more of a premium on UCLA quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinsonโs winning performance against No. 15 Washington. DTR completed 24 of 33 passes for 315 yards and three TDs. He also ran for 53 yards.
De Laura had better numbers โ 33 of 46 passing for a school-record tying six TDs. De Laura rushed for 28 yards. Coloradoโs defense wasnโt exactly a stone wall.
Dear Mr. Football: Does the league historically select quality of opposition over straight-up statistics?
A: Quarterback Tom Tunnicliffe is the UAโs record holder in player-of-the-week awards; he was honored five times from 1981-83. His selection set the standard for choosing meaningful victories over big numbers. Hereโs how he fared in his POW awards:
1981: Arizona defeated No. 1 USC and Tunnicliffe completed 21 of 37 passes for 291 yards. He threw one touchdown pass, the game-winner to Vance Johnson.
1982: Arizona defeated No. 9 Notre Dame as Tunnicliffe completed 19 of 36 passes for 199 yards. No touchdowns. But he led three gritty, field-goal producing drives late in the game to win it.
1982: Arizona defeated hapless Pacific 55-7 as Tunnicliffe shattered school records with six TD passes, going 21 for 29 for 427 yards.
1982: Arizona stunned No. 6 ASU, knocking it from the Rose Bowl, as Tunnicliffe threw TD passes of 92 and 65 yards and was 12 of 19 for 270 yards.
1983: Arizona rallied to beat UCLA 27-24 as Tunnicliffe completed 33 of 46 passes, no interceptions, and a game-winning TD pass to Jay Dobyns.
Dear Mr. Football: Has any other Arizona player failed to win player-of-the-week honors when it seemed a lock?
A: Trung Canidate, who is the UAโs honorary team captain against Oregon this week, failed to get a player of the week award when he rushed for a then-school record 288 yards against ASU in 1998, capping the UAโs 11-1 regular season. Canidate rushed for TDs of 88, 65 and 47 yards that night.
Alas, because there were only three conference games on that Thanksgiving weekend, no award was given. Big mistake.
Dear Mr. Football: Do Oregon coach Dan Lanning and the UAโs Jedd Fisch have much in common?
A: You couldnโt get two more different coaching backgrounds.
Fisch, the son of a New York attorney who grew up a tennis player in a New Jersey suburb, began his coaching career for the Florida Gators.
Lanning, the son of a teacher from small-town Richmond, Missouri โ The Mushroom Capital of the World โ played college football at Division II William Jewell College and got his first coaching job at Park Hill South High School in small-town Missouri.
Fischโs mentor was Heisman Trophy winner Steve Spurrier, a slick, good-on-his feet orator. Lanningโs mentor was former ASU coach Todd Graham, an old-school drill sergeant who essentially lost his jobs at ASU and Hawaii for being too old-school.
But itโs not that Lanning doesnโt come from an impressive football background. His William Jewell teams of the 2004โ07 period have been something of a coaching tree. His teammates included John Egorugwu, now the linebackers coach for the New York Giants, Rob Discher, an assistant coach at Tulane, Ryan Florence, a scout for the Seattle Seahawks, and Trent Figg, an offensive assistant on the Oregon staff.
Either way, the paths to becoming a college football coach have no preferred route.
Arizona wide receiver Jacob Cowing stiff-arms a Colorado defender during last weekโs win over Colorado.
Dear Mr. Football: Has Fisch ever been blessed with receivers like Jacob Cowing, Dorian Singer, Tetairoa McMillan and Tanner McLachlan, who have already combined to catch 105 passes?
A: When Fisch was Miamiโs offensive coordinator in 2011-12, he was blessed with future first-round NFL draft pick Phillip Dorsett, third-round pick Clive Walford and fourth-round pick Travis Benjamin.
How good were they? The ex-Hurricanes have combined to play 26 years in the NFL with 414 receptions and 36 touchdowns.
It wouldnโt be a surprise to see Cowing, Singer, McMillan and McLachlan play in the NFL someday, but theyโve got a long way to go to reach Fischโs receiving brigade at Miami.
Arizona quarterback Jayden de Laura tied a program record for touchdown passes in a game last week. What will he do on Saturday for an encore?
Dear Mr. Football: Does Arizona have some type of Tucson upset karma over the Ducks?
A: A lot is being made of the UAโs stunning Tucson victories over Top-25 Oregon teams of 1998, 2007, 2013 and 2018. What seems to be forgotten is that the Ducks have often won big in Tucson during that 25-year period by scores of 63-28, 56-31, 48-10 and 31-14.
The reality is that Oregon has superior personnel on the offensive and defensive lines and its quarterback, Bo Nix, is considered one of the Pac-12โs four franchise-type QBs, with Utahโs Cam Rising, UCLAโs Thompson-Robinson and USCโs Caleb Williams.
Even If de Laura can outplay Nix, the Ducks still have the manpower to beat Arizona. But unless de Laura can elevate himself to the Rising-DTR-Nix-Williams level, the Wildcats wonโt have much of a chance,.
Personally, I think de Laura will rise to the occasion and keep it reasonably close.
Ducks 44, Wildcats 34.
