2011 Arizona Wildcats Football Preview

Several college football programs across the United States bear uncommon burdens. The Arizona Wildcats arguably bear the greatest burden of all.

The Wildcats have finished a season in the top 10 on two previous occasions, the 1993 season and the 1998 campaign. Yet, those successful years didn’t lead the U of A to Pasadena, California, on New Year’s Day. While Vanderbilt and North Carolina State and Northwestern all endure their own bouts with failure on different levels, the Arizona program labors in the shadow of a very dubious distinction.

The Wildcats are the only team in the past-tense Pac-10 Conference – the collection of schools that does not include Pac-12 arrivals Utah and Colorado – that has never made the Rose Bowl. The decades come and go, and Arizona is never found in the shadows of the San Gabriel Mountains on the first afternoon of the new year. This is the door Arizona must knock down, the hurdle the program must surmount in order to breathe freely. Unless or until this happens, restless souls will continue to dwell in the Old Pueblo.

The Cats want to get 2010 out of their minds. What started as a 4-0 record and a top 10 ranking ended with a five-game losing streak capped by a blowout Alamo Bowl defeat at the hands of Oklahoma State. While the Wildcats return quarterback Nick Foles and All-Pac 10 receiver Juron Criner, the upcoming season may not be the best place to bounce back. The schedule certainly doesn’t do the Wildcats any favors, even though the school’s placement in the Pac-12 South is a favorable one, enhanced by the championship and postseason ineligibility of the USC Trojans.

After an FCS matchup with Northern Arizona to begin the season, Arizona travels to face the same Oklahoma State team it couldn’t handle at the end of last year. Things don’t get easier after that tilt. Back-to-back home games against perennial Pac-12 favorites Stanford and Oregon are next, followed by a trip to Los Angeles to play Southern California. Suffice it to say, if Arizona can somehow manage this early season landmine, the rest of the season will be smooth sailing by comparison.

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The offense will need to be firing on all cylinders for that to happen. Breaking in an entirely new offensive line will make that difficult to imagine. The Wildcats will be able to score given the talent of Foles, Criner, and company, but to match last year’s gaudy passing stats, coach Mike Stoops will need to coax a complete team effort from his boys each and every Saturday. If the spring is any indication, they just might be up to it, but that tease has echoed through Tucson before. It’s the ability to come good on gamedays that matters in the Southwest.

Hopes for this team in 2011 might have more to do with the Arizona defense than anything else. While returning seven starters, the U of A’s defense will still need to make a drastic improvement. The Wildcats lost to their two best defensive ends and will need to defend the pass better to have a chance in the Pac-12. The conference arguably has the best set of quarterbacks in the country, at least in its top tier with Darron Thomas at Oregon and Andrew Luck at Stanford. Any deficiencies in the secondary will surely be magnified; addressing that element of competition will acquire primary importance for the Wildcats this summer.