Bear Down Wildcats

TheCatInTheHat

Pac-12 Arizona is listing a replay of the ASU soccer team's loss at Stanford in that time slot. I'm kind of anticipating the Pac-12 Networks fizzling out like air out of a balloon as the year goes on. Feel sorry for yourself, do the minimum, save money, then slap padlocks on the equipment and wave g...

TheCatInTheHat

If JDL is out there throwing interceptions like he’s got money on the Huskies, they’re going to blow us out of the water. Protect the ball and eat up clock on long drives. Keep it close and anything can happen. Well, if we're looking for hopeful signs, MSU held them to 41, and Cal scored 32 on them...

TheCatInTheHat

Read it and weep. They seemingly have everything. If anybody cries that they've lost a running back and a center and are otherwise a little dinged-up, don't buy it. They're deep and big and athletic and fast. For them, it really is just Next Man Up. Boise St W 56-19 Tulsa W 43-10 @ Michigan St W 41-...

TheCatInTheHat

Carroll always has some real stellar types on his team, like Metcalf. You could see how fired up Aaron Donald and the rest of the team were about beating those jackasses. Rematch is at SoFi on November 19.

TheCatInTheHat

We shouldn't make too many assumptions after two weeks of the season. There's one narrative of "how ironic that the Pac-12 finally got its act together just in time to blow itself up," followed by boo-hoo or whatever. No doubt league teams are generally off to a very good start. As to Colorado, we'l...

TheCatInTheHat

They brought back 19 starters from the team that beat us, in our house, by 22 points. Going toe to toe with them, losing -- in overtime -- by 7, in their house, after us having 5 TOs, gives me a lot of hope/confidence for the rest of the season. It really shows how far this team has come. And we ha...

TheCatInTheHat

Charter Communications (Spectrum) is in: New York City, LA, Dallas, Tampa, Orlando, Cleveland, Charlotte, and many other markets. So, they're in contract negotiations with Disney Corp, which owns: ESPN/ESPN2/ESPNU, and a number of other channels, which includes (of course) the SEC Network which is c...

TheCatInTheHat

One point I hadn't noticed is their OTs line up way back of the LOS. Not sure what the rule is about that in terms of acceptable distance back, versus procedure for not having 7 on the line. Maybe they always have 4 receivers on the LOS. Otherwise, it's kind of like a batter kicking away the chalk o...

TheCatInTheHat

[https://youtu.be/8NNdkly99jI?si=IroG1_3q4ARWYM62] This guy is great. While analyzing our team, he does a great job of showing us non XO guys what we were trying to do against NAU and, at the same time gives a great preview of the Miss St game. Highly recommended. Thanks for the link; that was exce...

TheCatInTheHat

Maybe Fisch figures they'll get so fed up with it, they'll play angry when they hear it Down South. The history of it is that Mississippi State football fans used cowbells from the 1930s until 1974, when the SEC banned them. The NCAA currently allows noisemakers, under certain conditions. In 2010, t...

TheCatInTheHat

Yeah, I just heard about it. Second time offense, so he's definitely gone. Baseball aside, with a very happy long-term marriage myself, I don't get it. Even if only one person falls out of love, figure out the money and move on to healthier relationships. And keep your hands to yourself (unless you ...

TheCatInTheHat

Went to the game yesterday. Just gorgeous, nice breeze, grilled Dodger Dogs and beer. Bobby Miller looking very good. I'm a little worried about rushing Buehler back, but he pitched two perfect innings for AAA OKC on rehab and hit 96. Disappointing to lose 3 of 4 at home, but Dave went with Lance Ly...

TheCatInTheHat

The game came down to Max Zendejas attempting a ridiculous 60-yard FG in the heavy air with no time on the clock in a one-point loss. I was a junior and only listened on the radio. Was his kick even close? I don't remember. The game ended on a failed 4th down conversion. [youtube]https://www.youtub...

TheCatInTheHat

MSU's going with a "white out" for our game with fans in white, white rally towels, and all-white uniforms. I guess we must have improved a little. Think I'd just stick with our first game unis: white-blue-blue. This reminds me a little of when we went down to LSU in '84 (not the blowout there in 20...

TheCatInTheHat

The score vs. SE La was 3-0 after Q1, 20-7 at Half, 27-7 after Q3, and then the floodgates opened. SE La's punter averaged 46 YPP as their best performer, so MSU PR Jaden Walley didn't get a chance to do much. MSU is very experienced, starting 9 seniors on offense, and 10 on defense. Offensive Start...

TheCatInTheHat

Don't think anybody can bitch about 38-3. Throughout history, many teams have started out slow and improved over the season. Running up the score to 70 or 80 points (Hi, Oregon) on some overmatched team doesn't buy very much. On defense, we kept NAU out of the end zone and only gave up a 49 yard FG....

TheCatInTheHat

Depending on what happens, there is some money at stake, but I'm betting lawyers will wind up getting a big chunk of it. OSU and WSU may feel they can get one last big payday out of the residual money in the Pac-12. I gather that, rather than going, hats in hand, into the MWC, there might be some ki...

TheCatInTheHat

They listed 43,000 attendance; what typically lying clowns, despite giving tickets away. Couldn't have been much more miserable with a sand storm, endless delay, and a disappointing 3-point win over the Thunderbirds. Last year, Southern Utah went 5-6 against St. Thomas, Utah, Western Illinois, Utah ...

TheCatInTheHat

I'm just happy Stanford and Cal are off the board. I had some concern that the Big XII might change (lose?) its mind and add them at the last minute. And I can't see OSU/WSU pulling off any coup in adding MWC schools. Why should MWC schools switch to a league managed by people who have failed so mis...

TheCatInTheHat

Heeke with some pre-season comments about looking for a title sponsor for Arizona Stadium and an "athletic district", which I'd say is bullshit bingo for getting some stadium renovation work paid for in exchange for a multi-use development. So, maybe say goodbye to Hopi Hall and Bear Down Field and ...

TheCatInTheHat

https://www.latimes.com/sports/story/20 ... 023-season

TheCatInTheHat

It's interesting that people focus on the last ten minutes of something, instead of looking at the whole picture. For our new brethren in the Big XII, they get a somewhat insightful introduction to ASU, but this kind of stuff has been going on forever. They are the most penalized institution in NCAA...

TheCatInTheHat

I'd guess we'll continue to sorta pass to set up the run and get balance that way and just hope that with a true freshman and some juggling in the mix, we'll be reasonably solid in the O-line. If we do better than that, it could be pretty exciting. Meanwhile, de Laura not learning to take snaps unde...

TheCatInTheHat

I dunno...I guess it depends on what UCLA's baseline consists of these days and how much anybody's cracking the whip. They've had 2 decent seasons under Kelly, 3 under Mora, 1 under Dorrell, and 2 under Toledo. That's in the last 27 years, and then you're back to the end of the Donohue Era. I'm pret...

TheCatInTheHat

Here they are:

https://arizonawildcats.com/news/2023/8 ... paign.aspx

https://nauathletics.com/news/2023/8/28 ... urday.aspx

TheCatInTheHat

I thought this was amusing this morning. Last year, it was: "the winner of the USC/UCLA game will probably play for the national championship." This year it comes off as: "which team will win the Pac-12 this year, USC or UCLA?" This, when most credible prognosticators rank Washington, Oregon, Utah, ...

TheCatInTheHat

Well, one thing's for sure. For the first time in...forever?...we're generally not undersized and have some line depth.

TheCatInTheHat

Have to wonder how crisp our tackling will be, especially against Miss St That's the age-old dilemma: how much hitting do you do before the first game? I know one Arizona fan who thought only Tony Mason ever had it right: "hit...hit again...hit some more...now do it again." Always and forever. (I'v...

TheCatInTheHat

I'm somewhat sympathetic to their situation, but at some point reality has to take over. Even when we joined the Pac in 1978, USC and others wanted to eventually cut them loose...as replaced by us and Tempe. In football, we lead OSU all-time 24-16-1, and we've won 3 of the last 5. We lead WSU 27-19 ...

TheCatInTheHat

Meanwhile, on top of their transparent manipulation, ASU is getting ripped from all sides (Wilner and several others) for waiting until the portal window closed to announce it. So there's some talk that the NCAA should give additional eligibility to those players. I'd say yes to that, but only if th...

TheCatInTheHat

Today: Navy vs Notre Dame, Ohio U at San Diego St, UMass (coached by former Arizona DC Don Brown) at NM St, and San Jose St at USC.

And in one week: Arizona Football 2023. In honor of that, here's a montage of the last 60 years of Arizona football:

TheCatInTheHat

If Rashada has confidence problems and it's because of Dillingham's coaching inexperience, this does not bother me. If memory serves from Tucson days, Jody played at being a contrarian, like a small market Lee Hamilton, and now he's gotten all the way to Phoenix. I wish him well. All any of this tel...

TheCatInTheHat

Obviously, we want to be good every year, and it would be nice to have a final "vengeance ride" through the Pac-12, just to give each team a little something to remember us by. But, it'll be really interesting in the Big XII. Using this past season's final rankings, 1.) Oklahoma and 11.) Texas are g...

TheCatInTheHat

Well, to stick with the title of this thread...Fuck ASU. Herm, their big football "CEO" who was going to be the ASU brand for continuity and oversee things while coordinators came and went, got busted for cheating. Maybe they'll get off the hook with an emasculated NCAA in the suddenly relaxed NIL e...

TheCatInTheHat

Seems like a lot may depend on how well the Kentucky transfer and the two freshmen can do. And the impact of the new pitching coach.

TheCatInTheHat

Yeah, and she'll probably be there. She's listed as "utility", and I just tried to throw last year's best performers at the wall with the newcomers mixed in. As usual, some may not do as well, and some may surprise. Caitlin may have to juggle a little to get the best bats and D in there, but it shou...

TheCatInTheHat

Here's a list of key personnel, with their most recent available stats: CF 21 Jasmine Perezchica Sr .361 0 HR 3B 30 Blaise Biringer Sr .365 1 HR 1B 20 Carlie Sculpin Sr .337 10 HR RF 9 Allie Skaggs Sr .333 14 HR C 26 Olivia DiNardo So .382 7 HR DH 34 Devyn Netz Sr .303 13 HR LF 4 Dakota Kennedy So ....

TheCatInTheHat

I actually did. God, it was the worst...especially during a time when Snowden's guys wanted to run up and down the court willing to give up 110 to get 120 (which I believe they did more than once.) One of the worst parts of it was that while the crowd was bored into a silent stupor, the visiting UTE...

TheCatInTheHat

Not sure if it's the season-opening series, but Northwestern will be coming to Hi Corbett early in the 2024 season, according to Chip Hale. So far on the docket, it's Northwestern, the U San Diego Toreros, and the tournament in the north Dallas area with Dallas Baptist, Alabama, and Indiana.

TheCatInTheHat

Next year, we've got New Mexico, NAU again, and then at Kansas State. Short notice for both schools to find replacement teams if it's a conference game. On the other hand, if K-State isn't scheduled as a Big XII league game, playing them non-conference could be a solution. There were some weird sche...

TheCatInTheHat

Kind of slim pickings last night for sports after the Chargers game, but in flipping around, I stumbled on ASU soccer. Ordinarily, there'd be no chance, but I didn't feel like starting a movie or something. I thought it might be another really bad idea by the Pac-12 Network to show some prior year s...

TheCatInTheHat

Sounds like it was reasonably productive. Penalties, but better now when you can learn from them. Some nice catches, but balanced with some good defensive plays. Interesting to see how they use Speedy Luke in a hybrid RB/WR role. Wiley sprung with a good block for a 100 yard KO return, but also a bl...

TheCatInTheHat

Regarding "The Professor", I'd be willing to bet it was like a situation I was involved in once working for a company in which an unfortunate but necessary desired outcome was a foregone conclusion. But there was pushback from a key organization. So, a well-known consulting firm was retained. A mont...

TheCatInTheHat

This is a decent story on the sequence of events from the LA Times: https://www.latimes.com/sports/story/2023-08-16/pac-12-collapse-decisions-realignment-ucla-oregon For those who struggle with paywalls, here's the gist of it: After Texas and Oklahoma split for the SEC, the remaining 8 Big XII schoo...

TheCatInTheHat

My view is that it's not necessarily a case extremes. Of course Fisch isn't going to turn into Woody Hayes. He's consistently thrown the ball at least 50 percent of the time, and I'd expect that to continue, even when we can get away with smash-mouth against bad teams. (Subject to the normal mercy-r...

TheCatInTheHat

It's the opening game of a promising season, and what happened will be remembered, so I'm sure the players will be into it. I think last time, it was the second game, and Fisch was maybe taking an approach of instilling "you have to play like a professional on an even keel week-to-week without too m...

TheCatInTheHat

The last game, in 2021, we went up 13-10, then they got a pick six right before halftime. Nothing in the 3rd until they benefitted from a targeting penalty and scored late to take a 14-10 lead. Okay, says me, we'll wear 'em down in the 4th and take a disappointing win. Then they score half-way throu...

TheCatInTheHat

Three weeks to go. Well, this wasn't easy, as the FCS level doesn't tend to put as much out there. A fair amount of speculation on my part, but here goes: Offense QB 2 6-2 215 Kai Millner SO (CALIFORNIA) RB 8 5-8 190 Draycen Hall JR 546 YDS 2 TD WR 6 5-11 175 Coleman Owen JR 690 YDS 4 TD WR 10 6-1 2...

TheCatInTheHat

Wilner's in an interesting spot. He leveraged the Pac-12 so he could purport to be the authority on conference-wide matters, as well as where each individual school ranked (because various matters obviously must require completely subjective ranking.) He was geographically located near the conferenc...

TheCatInTheHat

A couple of sportswriters listed our all-time records against future Big XII opponents. Obviously the record is the record, and some people are into snapping the record book shut like it's the Bible and slamming it on the table. But that doesn't tell the whole story when the whole point is to glean ...

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