SEATTLE
Dear Mr. Football: Is playing in Husky Stadium late on Halloween night a hardship?
A. The most ridiculous, logistically challenging trip endured by an Arizona football team was an Oct. 5, 1935, visit to Centenary College in Shreveport, Louisiana.
UA coach Tex Oliver and his team boarded a Southern Pacific train at 10 a.m., on Thursday. The Wildcats got off in Dallas and worked out at SMU, where they spent the night. On Friday, they rode the train to Shreveport and stayed at a hotel adjacent to the Southern Pacific yard. The noise never stopped.
After losing 14-7 on Saturday afternoon, Arizona’s traveling party re-boarded the train, heading West. They arrived in Tucson at 4 p.m., Monday, and went immediately to a campus workout. Not only that, the UA played Centenary minus a scouting report. Assistant coach Fred Enke was to fly to Shreveport a week earlier to scout the Centenary-Northwestern State game, but his plane, beset by mechanical issues, was forced to land in El Paso. Enke then caught a train back to Tucson.
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Without a bye that year, Arizona went 7-2.
Dear Mr. Football: Has Jerrard Randall finally arrived?
A. Randall “arrived” on the football scene in September 2009, a transfer from Miami Norland High School to Chamindade-Madonna College Prep. His club went 13-1, beating teams like Pompano Beach High 83-0.
What happened next was predictably unpredictable, which is what a journey through college football has become.
Randall committed to play QB at Oregon but didn’t academically qualify. He subsequently told Scout.com that LSU coach Les Miles “called me two weeks straight, every night.”
Thus impressed, Randall signed with LSU. He was challenged by QB Stephen Rivers, who has since transferred to Vanderbilt. The starting job was won by Zach Mettenberger, who had been kicked off the Georgia Bulldogs team and now starts for the Tennessee Titans.
Randall ultimately transferred to Northeast Louisiana JC; Arizona is his fifth team since 2008. His most high-profile teammates from that charmed ’09 team at Chaminade-Madonna have similarly experienced good, bad and in between.
Linebacker Ruben Narcisse, who signed with Wyoming, was killed in an automobile crash near Cheyenne, Wyoming, in 2010. Receiver Demitri Beal signed with Cincinnati but didn’t play a down; he is now a sprinter on the Cincinnati track team.
Lineman Charles Takeh played three years as a sub for 1-AA Georgetown and is now a teaching assistant, Physics, for the Hoyas. Lineman Travis Bridges graduated from the Naval Academy, a second-team nose guard, and is now on duty in Norfolk, Virginia.
Randall’s odyssey from Florida to Louisiana to Mississippi and finally, to Tucson – and those of his prep teammates — should serve as an example that football is a temporary diversion. Life goes on.
Dear Mr. Football: Who is the most highly recruited player in tonight’s game?
A. Washington true freshman quarterback Jake Browning threw 91 touchdown passes last year at Folsom High School near Sacramento, California. Yes, 91. Yes, one season. His team went 16-0, and the top senior lineman for the Folsom Bulldogs was Cody Creason, now a redshirt guard/tackle at Arizona.
“I’ve played with Jake since I was about 12,” Creason said Tuesday. “I saw it all develop and play out. He’s legit.”
Browning passed for 16,775 yards at Folsom. Yes, 16,775.
“Our two leading receivers got scholarships,” said Creason. “Josiah Deguara went to Cincinnati, and Cole Thompson is at Harvard. We always seemed to have recruiters at the school. One of our tackles, Jonah Williams, is going to Alabama.”
There won’t be any bad feelings between the old Bulldogs, Browning and Creason, no matter what happens in Seattle.
“I speak to him almost every day,” said Creason. “We’ve been friends forever. He’s a great guy.”
Dear Mr. Football: Is Scooby Wright recognized everywhere?
A. Scooby walked without a limp Friday morning when he boarded a Southwest Airlines flight from Tucson to San Diego. With a stocking cap pulled over his head, he didn’t appear to be recognized. Had he worn his trademark “eye black” over his face, his incognito act would’ve probably failed.
Rich Rod said Wednesday that Scooby is not part of the 70-player traveling squad because whatever “inspiration” or “Kumbaya” moment it would provide would be short-lived.
Scooby is likely to be healthy enough to play in a bowl game, if Arizona qualifies. But it’s my suspicion that once the Territorial Cup is over, he will hire an agent and conclude his college days. Why risk another draft-scuttling injury for something like the Hertz-Avis Weedwacker Bowl?
Dear Mr. Football: Who will act as Arizona’s tour guide to Husky Stadium?
A. Offensive line coach Jim Michalczik grew up 50 miles from the UW campus in Port Angeles and regularly took the ferry to watch Don James’ great Washington teams, including the ’84 Huskies who went 11-1.
Michalczik wanted to be a Husky, but they didn’t recruit him; he went to rival Washington State and, as a player and a coach at Oregon State, Cal and Arizona, is 3-5 in Seattle. His 2005 Cal team won 56-17 at Husky Stadium.
Jim is the only son of the late Joe and Maxine Michalczik, a couple who grew up in Wisconsin and moved to the Seattle area after Joe served in the Korean War for the U.S. Air Force. Joe earned a degree in electrical engineering and made his living operating two hydroelectric dams on the Elwha River near Seattle.
Joe died in Tucson a year ago this week, at 78.
His son said his high school buddies from Port Angeles won’t be at Saturday’s game. “It’s the opening of elk hunting season,” he said. “They’ll be somewhere in the mountains.”
Dear Mr. Football: Does it always rain during UA-Washington games in Seattle?
A. In 16 games between Arizona and UW at Husky Stadium, it has rained 11 times. In 1988, it rained so hard someone started to build an Ark. Arizona won that game 16-13 when Pac-10 defensive player of the year Dana Wells popped UW quarterback Cary Conklin, forcing a fumble at the 4-yard line in the final minute of a 13-13 game.
Wells and Conklin?
Wells is executive vice president of the Outfront Advertising company in Phoenix, who owns thoroughbred race horses. Conklin is a scout for the Detroit Lions.
Remember the famous “Leap by the Lake” game in which Ortege Jenkins somersaulted into the end zone to win a 31-28 epic and push Arizona to 5-0? It rained so much before and in the first half of that game my socks were wet all night.
But rain isn’t likely to determine this UW-Arizona game. You can trace Arizona’s problems back to the UTSA opener when the Roadrunners gained a school-record 525 yards. Since then, UTSA has slogged to 1-5 and is averaging just 338 yards per game.
UTSA quarterback Blake Bogenschutz passed for 335 yards in Tucson and has passed for only 564 since. That was the first sign of trouble for the Wildcats.
If Browning’s shoulder is fit enough for him to play, the Huskies should win, rain or moonshine. If not, Arizona has its last realistic chance to win a game until the Territorial Cup.
Huskies 30, Wildcats 27
