At the beginning of the season, Arizona seemed like a trendy
pick to be the Pac-10 dark horse.
Even coming off of a 3-8 season, it appeared as though the
Wildcats had shown enough signs of promise under third-year coach
Mike Stoops to do some serious damage in 2006. So far, this has not
been the case.
Coming into Saturday’s matchup against UCLA, Arizona is
winless on the young Pac-10 season, suffering losses to USC and
Washington while also being blown out by LSU in nonconference play.
While the Wildcats have not played horrendously, they aren’t
meeting the high expectations which Stoops had set for his
team.
“It is obviously very frustrating to everybody
involved,” Stoops said. “There are things we have to
get cleaned up. I’m just disappointed that we are not further
along.”
A main factor in Arizona’s struggles has been the
inconsistency of heralded sophomore quarterback Willie Tuitama.
Bruin fans will remember Tuitama from the second start of his
collegiate career against UCLA last season when he commanded the
Wildcats to a dominating 52-14 victory, ending UCLA’s hopes
for an undefeated season.
From that point on, Tuitama and the rest of the Wildcats’
play was much improved, giving the squad high hopes for this
season.
This year, however, Tuitama has not lived up to the hype as one
of the top quarterback recruits in the nation. The highly touted
recruit from Stockton has put up less than stellar numbers while
also piloting an offense that has mustered just 13 total points in
its first two conference matches.
Though Tuitama has shown glimpses of breaking out ““ such
as his career high 308 passing yards against Washington a week ago
““ Stoops knows that he will need his offense giving maximum
effort to compete with the conference’s best.
“Our margin for error is very, very minimal as a program,
whether it be offense, defense or special teams,” Stoops
said.
“There are times where we do some good things, but
we’re just not consistent enough as a program in what we do
offensively and defensively.”
Stoops’ squad also has a defunct running game, which is
probably the biggest reason why teams can focus on containing
Tuitama.
In the past two games, Arizona has rushed for negative yards on
the ground. Coupled with a bewildered offensive line, the
Wildcats’ offense has been a hodgepodge of sloppy play,
missed opportunities and frustrating series.
“Right now it looks like things are caving in on
you,” Stoops said.
“But there are a lot of positives that you have to take
away from the game.”
The positives which Stoops has drawn on generally all come from
the other side of the ball. The Wildcats’ defense is the only
thing keeping the team’s bowl hopes alive.
Outside of the lopsided loss to national powerhouse LSU, Arizona
has allowed an average of just 16 points per contest. Still, the
team from Tucson’s lack of success has some Bruin players
baffled.
“˜I’m not really sure,” said UCLA running back
Chris Markey when trying to explain the wildcard’s woes.
“I just know that they have a really good defense. I think
they’re a very solid defense. I don’t really see any
weak points.”
Several Wildcat players recently called for a players-only
meeting, showing just the kind of leadership which this team direly
needs. Stoops knows that if his team is going to climb out of the
doldrums and into bowl contention, he will need that kind of fire
from his athletes.
“I hope they find themselves and understand that we need
strong leadership obviously on the field and that comes from
them,” Stoops said.
“It can’t come from just the coaches.”