"Tell them … tell the team to bear down"

Wade on Nagurski watch list

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• Arizona cornerback Trevin Wade is one of nine Pac-10 football players on the 70-man watch list for the Bronco Nagurski Award, given to the nation’s top defensive player
• Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops, brother of Arizona coach Mike Stoops, claims he was “excited” about the possibility of a Pac-16 conference

Arizona coach Mike Stoops has received a commitment from one of the top linebackers in Texas. Rob Hankins from Dallas becomes the seventh player to commit this month.

Hankins is considered the 24th-best player in Texas by Scout.com, and the ninth-best middle linebacker in the nation. ESPNU and Rivals.com also rate Hankins No. 9 nationally among inside linebackers.

He also had offers from Miami, Texas A&M, Arkansas, Nebraska, Notre Dame, Missouri, Oklahoma State, UCLA, Cal, Texas Tech and many others.

With Hankins and Canyon del Oro running back Ka’Deem Carey, Stoops has landed two Rivals.com four-star recruits in the past 10 days.

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Corso “coming to your cit-ay” once again

By Javier Morales

When Lee Corso presumably puts on the Wilbur the Wildcat mascot head — can you imagine the uproar otherwise? — Saturday morning by Old Main he might finally feel what it’s like to be appreciated in Tucson.

Lee Corso strapped on this helmet with Florida State back in his playing days as a teammate of Burt Reynolds. Will he strap on Wilbur the Wildcat’s head on the GameDay set Saturday morning?

If you think Corso is entirely fond of Tucson, I must tell you: Not so fast, my friend.

Thirty-six years ago, Corso brought his Indiana team to town and was beaten soundly by quarterback Bruce Hill and the Cats 26-10. A year later, the UA traveled to Bloomington, Ind., and won easily 35-20 en route to a 5-0 start and 9-2 record overall.

“They beat the crap out of me,” Corso told Ryan Finley of The Arizona Daily Star in Friday’s edition. “They outran me, they had speed, they had everything. They tore us every way but loose. I don’t remember what the score was, but it was embarrassing.”

Corso, 72, was the hotshot young coach who elevated Louisville’s football program to prominence from 1969-72 when he took over the Hoosier program. Arizona coach Jim Young and his team helped Corso start his career 2-9 and 1-10 at Indiana in 1973 and 1974, respectively.

Ironically, Corso was a possibility to coach Arizona in 1973 after the Wildcats let go of Bob Weber after four losing seasons. Instead of going after Corso, Arizona hired Young, the defensive coordinator at Michigan, in 1973. Young coached only four years at Arizona, compiling a 31-13 record, before he returned to the Big Ten to Purdue, where he would coach against Corso annually for the Old Oaken Bucket.

Young went 3-2 against Corso before resigning as Purdue coach to become the associate athletic director of the school.

One more tidbit about Corso and Arizona — a significant one in the realm of the recent development of the Wildcats: Who can forget the time former coach John Mackovic was interviewed on College Gameday after a player revolt near the end of his turbulent time at Arizona?

Corso, college football’s answer to Dick Vitale, told Mackovic to tell everyone at the UA to shove it if they didn’t like the way he coaches. Mackovic resigned shortly thereafter, midseason 2003, and Mike Stoops was hired after that season. Essentially, the UA unfortunately had to tell Mackovic to shove it, and the Cats are better off today because of that.

Now on to some facts you may not know about the Oregon-Arizona game Saturday (none that include mindless Duck facts, such as a duck’s quack does not echo — or does it? Anybody care to put our mind to ease about that?):
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Hard to believe Antoine Cason was only a two-star recruit on Scout.com./Chargers.com photo

By Anthony Gimino

As part of a larger story I did at TucsonCitizen.com on the early success of the Class of 2008 recruits, I started researching all of coach Mike Stoops’ recruiting efforts. It’s pretty amazing the kind of two-star talent he and his coaching staff have uncovered and developed.

The following players were rated only two stars by either Rivals.com or Scout.com, or both:

2004
DL Yaniv Barnett
OL Joe Longacre
DB Dominic Patrick
CB Antoine Cason

2005
LB Spencer Larsen (coming back from a church mission)

2006
DT Lolomana Mikaele

2007
CB Trevin Wade
WR Bug Wright

2008
RB Greg Nwoko
WR Juron Criner
WR David Douglas
OL Herman Hall

That’s a major-award winner and a first-round draft pick (Cason), a first-team all-conference linebacker and valuable 2008 NFL rookie (Larsen), a 40-game starter on the offensive line (Longacre) … and seven players from 2006 to 2008 who look to be significant contributors for a few more years (except for Hall, who was a JC transfer).

Wade, in particular, could be a major star.

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Harbaugh’s NFL ties gives Stanford a recruiting advantage

Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh is 2-0 against the UA. The Cardinal has won five of the last six against Arizona and six of the last eight games in the series.

By Javier Morales

One of the Pac-10 reporters I was fortunate to meet during my days as beat reporter for the UA hoops team was the Oregonian’s Ken Goe, who has years of experience covering the conference.

Reading opinions of knowledgeable folks outside of Tucson and Arizona — especially on the West coast — is always a good barometer of what the perception is concerning Arizona athletics. I bring this to your attention because Goe posted his weekly “Two-minute drill: An irreverent look at the week in Pac-10 football” on Thursday and in it included noteworthy items about Arizona.

The most important is Goe agrees that the referees and the replay officials in the booth blew it last Saturday at Husky Stadium. That’s refreshing because for a while there I felt polarized. This is what Goe writes:

Why do we have instant replay in college football, anyway?
1. Duh. More chances to pitch ads for beer and erectile dysfunction.
2. Only possible explanation for bringing the UW-Arizona game to a complete stop and still missing the call.
3. Had these guys been on the case, Dewey beats Truman.
4. What could be more exciting than seeing 22 players stand around while a guy in a white hat talks to the replay booth.
5. Let’s see, the ball is brown, the field is green and Delashaun Dean‘s shoes are white — how hard could it be?
6. Replay officials don’t work with black-and-white monitors. Or, do they.
7. The Huskies got hosed the week before, so what goes around comes around.
8. What made this Arizona’s turn?
9. Uh, have you seen Arizona coach Mike Stoops in full tantrum mode?
10. Dude makes Freddy Krueger look like a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize.

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By Anthony Gimino

The reader who goes by “azgood” asked in the comments section about what position on the current Arizona defense would be “right up there or better” than the Desert Swarm teams.

Good question.

The answer: Not many.

For comparison, I used the 1993 Desert Swarm — the pinnacle of the era. Perhaps that’s not fair to compare any UA defense to that unit, but let’s do it anyway.

In some cases, it’s apples and oranges, because the current Wildcats are often in a nickel package, inserting Corey Hall for Sterling Lewis. And there is no 2009 equivalent to Shawn Jarrett, who played the unique whip linebacker position in the double-eagle flex scheme. Considering how he lined up all over the field, he was dubbed the X-factor.

Fair or not — apples and oranges or not — let’s give it a whirl. Here is the starting breakdown between 1993 and 2009:
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By Anthony Gimino

• Gronk’s best move is to come back, draft analyst says
• A little luck helped UA uncover a gem in Trevin Wade

I wrote earlier in the week about Devin Ross’ game-saving interception against Oregon State (with a video breakdown from Versus.com), and today I talked to an NFL draft analyst about the senior cornerback.

Ross is Arizona’s top senior prospect, listed as a third- or fourth-round prospect by the reputable NFLdraftscout.com, whose work also appears on CBSSports.com.

Look for Ross’ ranking to be improving really soon.

“I am looking forward to watching this week against Washington,” said analyst Rob Rang of NFLdraftscout.com.

“That third-round grade is what we had going into the year, and we haven’t made any adjustments. My typical rule of thumb is to watch three games before adjusting a player’s stock, and this will the third game of Arizona that I will be able to see.

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By Anthony Gimino

Arizona didn’t have TE Rob Gronkowski, DE Brooks Reed, OT Mike Diaz, OG Vaughn Dotsy and WR Bug Wright, lost RB Nic Grigsby on the first series, lost RB Keola Antolin in the first half, and was using a first-time starting quarterback … on the road in its Pac-10 opener.

So, yeah, nice win.

Arizona’s 37-32 victory at Oregon State — helped by a safety with 25 seconds left — showed that the Wildcats have a quarterback of the future (Nick Foles), has all kinds of depth at running back (welcome to the bigs, Greg Nwoko) and has the overall kind of depth that it didn’t even come close to having when Mike Stoops took over for the 2004 season.

Foles was 25 of 34 for 254 yards, with three touchdowns and no interceptions. He also rushed for a touchdown.

Enjoy the win.

* * *

New play of the game: Devin Ross’ interception!

* * *

Keenyn Crier: Play of the game? He scoops up a low snap and gets off a 62-yard punt to the OSU 3 with 3:03 left.

Just need a stop, defense.

* * *

Nick Foles has been great so far. Does he have one more big drive in him? UA needs to run out the clock — or close to it — as Oregon State closes to 35-32 with 4:09 left.

* * *

No way — no way — Sean Canfield got the first down. I don’t care if you can’t see the ball when his knee went down. There was no way it could have been close to the 39-yard line.

* * *

Nick Foles? I think we’ll keep him. He throws his third touchdown of the game — 13 yards to Terrell Turner –for a 35-25 lead with 8:08 to play. He is 25 of 32 for 254 yards, with no turnovers.

* * *

No complaints. The replay officials got the mark right at the 29 1/2-yard line, forcing fourth down for UA.

At least, Keenyn Crier comes back with the kind of booming punt he is capable of hitting.

* * *

Good call by Mike Riley to go for two. Bad call by the refs to let the two-point conversion stand. In any case, it’s 28-25 Arizona with 13:44 to go … and this could be heading to a fab finish.

Bad news: Arizona, under coach Mike Stoops, is 6-16 in games decided by eight points or less.

* * *

I wrote on TucsonCitizen.com this week about a story from Nick Foles’ high school days at Westlake High in Austin, Texas. Westlake offensive lineman Andy Theodosis, talking about Foles’ accuracy, said Foles sometimes messed around in practice and would fire footballs that would hit players who weren’t paying attention in the head — from 50 yards away.

We can see that accuracy today with some perfect fade passes, including one to Juron Criner that gave UA a 28-17 lead in the third quarter.

What the Cats need know is a defensive stop.

* * *

So, it’s Nick Booth who is next at running back.

* * *

When a quarterback is starting for the first time, the natural question you have is, “Will the game be too big for him?” Nick Foles is giving us an emphatic “no” on that one.

He’s cool and calm, feels the pressure in the pocket very well, and can scramble to buy time to make the throw. It all leads to another touchdown drive after a Trevin Wade interception, as UA goes up 21-17 with 6:21 to go in the third quarter.

Who’s next at RB?

* * *

Had internet issues. Sorry for not posting for a while.

* * *

Oregon State gets a 22-yard field goal on the last play of the first half for a 17-14 lead. Those were three points that UA kind of gave away, inasmuch as it couldn’t get one more first down to run out the clock at the end of the half and then junior Keenyn Crier made things worse with a 13-yard punt. The guy has a top 10 leg, but his consistency hasn’t improved since his freshman season.

To recap the first half:

Foles good.

Antolin could start for a lot of BCS teams.

How serious is Grigsby’s shoulder injury?

Can the defense, unlike last week, make a key stop in the second half?

* * *

Keola Antolin is back. So that’s good news.

* * *

Arizona is showing off its depth at running back. Neither of the Versus announcers knows how to say the last name of Greg Nwoko, but they might want to learn at halftime. Nic Grigsby left the game early with a shoulder injury and Keola Antolin (who is so superb at attacking the line of scrimmage) hobbled off on the last drive.

So in comes Nwoko, a big redshirt freshman who patiently picked his way for a 19-yard score on his first carry. Arizona tied the game at 14 with 3:39 left in the first half.

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