Hansen's Sunday Notebook: Here's why Kevin Sumlin's Wildcats bucked the trend, won again

In the Rich Rodriguez years, Arizona established a disconcerting habit of upsetting a highly ranked team and then falling off the edge of the football earth a week later.

It is one of the things that kept the Arizona teams of 2012-17 from building and sustaining a fan base and being anything more than a periodic upstart. Consider:

• In 2012, Arizona stunned No. 10 USC — and a week later was humiliated 66-10 by UCLA.
• In 2013, the UA shocked No. 5 Oregon — and was kicked around 58-21 by Arizona State a week later.
• In 2014, the Wildcats again upset No. 2 Oregon — and a week later, climbing to No. 10 in the poll, stumbled and lost to unranked USC.
• In 2015, Arizona surprised No. 10 Utah in double overtime — and a week later was blown out 52-37 by a 5-5 ASU club.

A year ago, after Khalil Tate’s Mr. October performances, capped by an upset over No. 15 Washington State, the Wildcats vanished, going 1-4 down the stretch.

That maddening yo-yo act led to a precipitous decline of fan support; Arizona Stadium’s yearly attendance fell from 51,392 to 48,288 to last year’s 20-year low of 42,632.

That’s why Friday’s 42-34 victory over Colorado was so encouraging. Arizona was coming off a blowout win over No. 19 Oregon and, for the first time in forever, proved that it wasn’t some type of fleeting happenstance.

How is this happening?

Part of it is that Kevin Sumlin’s staffing does not appear to be part of the RichRod hiring system. RichRod had a flawed habit of hiring yes-men assistant coaches with unimpressive résumés and personalities that he could dominate.

But if you examine Arizona’s improvement on the offensive line over the last 10 weeks — a period in which the UA started four (and sometimes five) new players, which is often football suicide — it’s clear that Sumlin has different standards.

His offensive line coach is Joe Gilbert, who spent the last six years in the same capacity for the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts. Moreover, Sumlin hired Harold Goodwin as an offensive analyst. Goodwin was an NFL offensive line coach with the Steelers, Colts and Cardinals the last 11 seasons.

Who in college football has a superior coaching/planning/scouting offensive line staff than Arizona? Not many.

Over the last 10 weeks, Gilbert and Goodwin have helped to develop rookie-type linemen Josh McCauley, Bryson Cain, Donovan Laie, Michael Eletise and seldom-used junior Cody Creason into useful Pac-12 players.

Even as Tate hobbled on a bad ankle, even as Tate completed just 49 percent of his passes in losses to BYU, Houston, Utah and USC, the new offensive line improved piece by piece.

In wins over Oregon and Colorado, the UA gained 1,031 yards, Tate was sacked just twice, and Arizona’s rebuilt offensive line won the battles up front two weeks in succession.

Running back J.J. Taylor, who has gained 1,234 yards to lead the Pac-12, has become a revelation.

Why? A lot of it is that the offensive line coached by NFL veterans Gilbert and Goodwin has grown into its shoes, and, so, too, has Sumlin’s first Arizona team.

In recent years, Tucsonans Cole and Jeannie Davis have contributed close to $19 million dollars to fund building projects at McKale Center, the Richard Jefferson Gymnasium and, last week, $8 million for the indoor sports facility.

The 45,000-square-foot, 65-foot tall Cole and Jeannie Davis Sports Center will be the centerpiece of a massive athletics facilities makeover that has required close to $200 million the last five years.

The annual debt service will be a big number, as it is at all schools. Here’s some context: the Arizona Stadium press box/loge suits and boxes, built in 1989, are still being paid off at about $300,000 per year through 2019.

The Davis’ financial gifts keep Arizona competitive in the Pac-12. It’s almost head-shaking to see the figures other schools have received from donors.

At USC, donor Louis Galen contributed $50 million to the Trojans’ new basketball arena/practice facility. Stanford donor John Arrillaga paid an estimated $100 million to rebuild the football stadium — and an estimated $150 million for other Stanford projects, including the athletic department headquarters.

UCLA recently got a $10 million gift from donor Jim Collins and another $10 million from donor Casey Wasserman to bring the Bruins’ on-campus football facility to modern standards.

And then there’s Phil Knight and Nike at Oregon. In college athletics, for better or worse, it’s a game of spending as much as it is a game of wins and losses.

Arizona’s epic 1988 Final Four basketball team is in the process of completing Stage II in Pac-12 sports. On Friday night, Jordyn Elliott — Sean’s daughter — completed her sophomore soccer season at Cal. Earlier this season, Jordyn played 23 minutes in a double-overtime 3-3 tie against Arizona at Mulcahy Stadium, about a mile from the place her father became college basketball’s 1989 player of the year. Earlier, Steve Kerr’s daughter, Maddy, was a four-year starter for Cal’s  volleyball team, coinciding with a period in which Jud Buechler’s daughter, Reily, was a standout for UCLA’s volleyball team. That ’88 UA team, which also included freshman Sean Rooks, continues to carry his legacy in the Pac-12. His daughter, Khayla, is a starter for Washington’s women’s basketball team. And, of course, ’88 backup guard Harvey Mason’s daughter, Mia, is a senior starter on the UA’s beach volleyball team. Some good genes from ’88 have carried on impressively.

On Friday night at Washington State, Dave Rubio’s No. 21 Arizona volleyball team staged a dramatic rally to beat No. 18 WSU. That was tough enough. But Rubio — already down two injured starters — lost two more in the game, Devyn Cross and Makenna Martin. On Saturday morning, Rubio said the Wildcats have now lost seven players with concussion injuries this season. “I don’t know how we won, but it was the guttiest match I have ever been part of,” Rubio said. “The third- and fourth-string just wouldn’t give in. Just amazing.” It only gets tougher: Washington, UCLA and USC are among Arizona’s final seven opponents.

At today’s New York City Marathon, Tucson will have a strong delegation. Bernard Lagat, 43, will run the first competitive marathon of his life — he won Olympic silver and bronze medals at 1,500 meters. His goal is to break the world master’s marathon record of 2 hours 12 minutes. He will get plenty of competition from Tucsonan Abdi Abdirahman, 41, a four-time Olympian who was the first American to finish in the NYC Marathon in 2016. Abdirahman and Lagat have been training together in Flagstaff for two months. Additionally, Tucson nurse anesthetist Sarah Sellers, who finished second at the Boston Marathon in April, will be one of the headliners in the women’s field. Sellers, who works 36 hours a week at Banner Health-UMC, said she isn’t likely to win, which would require a time of close to 2 hours 25 minutes. Her No. 2 time in a rainy and cold Boston Marathon was 2:44. But it could be that the distance runner of the week in Tucson is Kate Bruno, a Pima College sophomore who will run for the NJCAA cross country championships Saturday in Garden City, Kansas. Bruno, a Canyon del Oro High School grad, is among the four or five favorites entering the finals.

Did you realize Jason Terry is out of basketball? After his 19th NBA season last spring, Terry, 41, said he hoped to return for the 2018-19 season, but it ultimately didn’t come to pass. The UA’s 1999 consensus All-American is keeping a close watch on Steph Curry’s 3-point shooting totals. Terry is No. 3 in NBA history with 2,282 3-pointers, trailing Ray Allen at 2,973 and Reggie Miller at 2,560. But Terry tweeted last week that Curry is barreling down on his No. 3 spot. Indeed, the Warriors inestimable distance-shooter had 2,188 3-pointers through Friday night. Terry lives in Dallas and operates a girls basketball foundation/operation.

Two ex-Wildcats, Gabe York and Rawle Alkins, were opponents in Friday’s G League opener in Lakeland, Florida. York, a starting shooting guard for the Lakeland Magic, scored nine points in 34 minutes. Alkins, who started at shooting guard for the Windy City Bulls, played 27 minutes an scored eight points. Also in a G League opener, ex-UA guard Kadeem Allen started for the Westchester Knicks, scoring 15 points in 32 minutes.

Pima College’s men’s basketball team, coached by Sahuaro High School grad Brian Peabody, opens the NJCAA Division II season ranked No. 1 in the nation. That’s not much of a surprise. Peabody’s Aztecs finished No. 2 in the NJCAA finals a year ago, averaging 102 points per game. Even though PCC sent five players to four-year colleges, it has a core of standout players, including Cholla High grad Abram Carrasco and Salpointe Catholic grad Robert Wilson. Pima opens its season Friday night at the PCC gymnasium and leads a top five that includes JC teams from Illinois, North Carolina, Ohio and Iowa.

Pima College women’s basketball coach Todd Holthaus, whose team opens the year ranked No. 14 in the NJCAA, was a class act last week after he was not chosen as PCC’s new athletic director. He attended a press session with the new AD, football coach Jim Monaco, and applauded when Monaco was introduced. “Either way, I was going to be OK with the decision,” said Holthaus, whose 2011 team finished No. 2 in the nation. “Jim and I have always gotten along and I respect him a lot. I’m eager to see where he can take our athletic department.”

The sports development of the week in Southern Arizona sports was the selection of Sahuarita’s Charlie Montoyo as manager of the Toronto Blue Jays.

In the 1987 MLB draft, Montoyo was a sixth-round selection of the Milwaukee Brewers. A native of Puerto Rico, Montoyo toiled in the minor leagues for 10 years before getting the well-known “cup of coffee” — five at-bats in the big leagues.

He did not quit.

Montoyo finally got his big- league job after 18 years as a minor-league manager.

He met his wife, Samantha, who worked in the media relations department for the Triple-A Durham Bulls. They married and moved to Sahuarita.

On Montoyo’s 42nd birthday in October 2007, his son, Alex, was born in Tucson. Sadly, Alex required multiple heart surgeries as an infant — he had his last open-heart surgery in 2012 — and Charlie and Samantha had to relocate to Los Angeles for a few months as Alex underwent care at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. Charlie’s former teams in Durham and Charleston, South Carolina, both held fundraisers to help pay medical bills and expenses.

Alex had his 11th birthday a few weeks ago and has become a big-time baseball fan. Charlie told reporters in Toronto that Alex knows “all the statistics” and all the lineups of big-league baseball teams.

In 2014, noted sports author John Feinstein wrote a book: “Where Nobody Knows Your Name: Life in the Minor Leagues.” Montoyo and his family are a big part of the book. I read it in one day last week. It was terrific, and so is the success story of the Blue Jays’ new manager and his Sahuarita family.