Dear Mr. Football: Are the odds really 7-to-2 that Rich Rodriguez leaves to become Virginia Tech’s coach?
A: Seven reasons RichRod might become the Hokies’ next coach:
1. It’s only 238 miles from RichRod’s home turf, Morgantown, West Virginia, to Blacksburg, Virginia. If you get a chance to go “home,” you usually go, even if it’s called “Gobbler Country.”
2. Sixty-nine players on Tech’s roster are from Virginia. As RichRod likes to say about recruiting in distant locales, “you don’t have to fly over a lot of good schools to get there.”
3. You don’t have to play or recruit against USC and UCLA every year. Tech’s opponents in the ACC’s ridiculously inviting Coastal Division are Duke, Pitt, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia Tech and Miami. That’s five basketball schools and a football school that hasn’t been good for a decade.
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4. It’s not a tough act to follow. Outgoing coach Frank Beamer lost his touch about the moment RichRod was hired at Arizona. Tech’s last three bowl games have been the Military Bowl, Russell Athletic Bowl and Sun Bowl.
5. You don’t have to clean up the developing mess at Arizona; the Wildcats are almost sure to be picked last in the Pac-12 South next year.
6. You don’t have to wonder why so many seats in your stadium are empty. The Hokies drew 60,118 against Furman this year in 65,632-seat Lane Stadium and 63,257 against Duke.
7. Rather than buy a summer retreat in the mountains of Arizona or Colorado, RichRod bought one near the Georgia-South Carolina border.
Two reasons RichRod might stay in Tucson:
1, 2. His daughter is a sophomore cheerleader at the UA and his son is a junior quarterback at Catalina Foothills.
Dear Mr Football: Who is Arizona’s best player?
A: Punter Drew Riggleman is the only Wildcat with a chance to make the All-Pac-12 SECOND team. Forget first team. No way anyone in an Arizona uniform will make the first team in 2015. That’s how far RichRod’s team has slipped.
Riggleman would be the league’s top punter had Utah’s Tom Hackett not arrived from Australia to become the No.1 punter in college football. Riggleman is again second to Hackett in punting average (47.8 to 44.5). No other UA player is close to the lead in any Pac-12 statistical category.
How bad is it? The UA’s leading tackler, safety Will Parks, ranks a distant 27th in the league.
Dear Mr. Football: What does Arizona have in common with Ernest Hemingway’s classic book “The Sun Also Rises”?
A. One of the most-quoted lines in Hemingway’s book is this:
“How did you go bankrupt?”
“Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.”
That should be the working theme for Arizona’s 2015 football season. The Wildcats thought they made a significant deposit by winning at Nevada. But since that game, the Wolf Pack lost to 1-8 Wyoming and 2-6 UNLV, two of the worst teams in college football.
That opening victory over UTSA? The Roadrunners are 1-7.
The UA’s September checks bounced.
Dear Mr. Football: Does misery love company in college football?
A: No man in the Pac-12 is under more fire than USC athletic director Pat Haden, the former Rhodes Scholar who blundered by hiring Lane Kiffin and then Steve Sarkisian, two capable quarterback coaches who couldn’t figure out how to lead an entire brigade of players.
No one has publicly criticized Haden more than former Amphitheater High School linebacker Riki Gray Ellison, who led the Panthers to the 1975 state championship, and USC to the 1978 and 1980 Pac-10 title.
On his Facebook account, Ellison wrote: “Lets not feel sorry for his incompetent, toxic leadership destroying USC. He is making millions from USC and not even working full time so he can focus on all of his other paid jobs he is doing, proving once again at USC you can fail upward if you are an entitled golden boy following the precedent of Kiffin and Sark. The USC President should have an accredited class at USC on failing upward; we are the nation’s very best in this unique skill set.”
Other jobs? The Los Angeles Times reported last week that Haden’s annual salary and benefit package at USC is $2.5 million. It revealed that Haden collected about $135,000 combined in annual fees from four charitable foundations, according to the most recent Internal Revenue Service filings.
Dear Mr. Football: What’s Arizona’s most impressive statistic in the Pac-12?
A: The Wildcats are ranked No. 4 in home attendance, 51,899 per game, which is almost inconceivable.
But attendance has lagged so much in the Pac-12 After Dark era that only USC’s 73,519, UCLA’s 64,979 and Washington’s 60,315 lead the UA’s home average. Even at that, the Trojans, Bruins and Huskies all average more than 10,000 empty seats per game.
What about ASU? The Sun Devils draw a mere 50,481 at Sun Devil Stadium. It says a lot about the lack of a football mentality in the Pac-12.
Dear Mr. Football: How did Arizona ever beat USC eight times?
A: The forensic work on Arizona’s eight-ever victories over the Trojans doesn’t take a crack CSI unit. It’s simple: fumbles, interceptions, sacks and the punting game.
USC lost 16 fumbles and threw 13 pass interceptions in those eight losses. It allowed a punt return TD to Chuck Levy, a fumble return TD to Kelvin Hunter and a pick-six to Darryl Morrison.
In 1999, the Wildcats sacked Trojans quarterbacks seven times. In 1993, it was six sacks. That historic 13-10 victory over the No. 1 Trojans in 1981? USC lost three fumbles and an interception.
In RichRod’s crazy 39-36 victory over USC in 2012, the Trojans lost three fumbles and threw two interceptions to fully blow a game in which USC gained 618 yards.
Dear Mr. Football: Is there any chance Arizona can beat USC?
A: Because of injuries on the offensive line, Arizona is now making it up as it goes on both sides of the ball. Former Chadron State Eagles guard Kaige Lawrence is likely to play against the Trojans; Lawrence is a fifth-year senior who has rarely stepped on the field since transferring from the Nebraska school and then playing for Chaffey (California) College.
Kaige was in the same 2011 Chadron recruiting class with Salpointe Catholic linebacker Dylan Furrier, who leads the Eagles with 89 tackles entering Saturday’s game at Western New Mexico.
If Furrier could get to the Los Angeles Coliseum by kickoff, he might be the UA’s top defensive player.
Trojans 48, Wildcats 17
