For more than 30 years I have worshipped at the Norm Chow tabernacle of football. Most of it was because his BYU quarterbacks used to take my school apart every year, hang 70 points on the lovable Utah State Aggies and never change expressions.
One year it was Jim McMahon, another it was Steve Young and then Ty Detmer.
For three decades, Chow was indeed The Wizard of X's and O's, and Aahs, too.
Chow went from BYU to North Carolina State where he inherited the fabulous Philip Rivers. Then it was off to USC where he became the most famous of all offensive coordinators, punching up plays for Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart.
But until Saturday night in the press box at Arizona Stadium, I had never actually seen Norm Chow in the flesh. It was one of the Oz-comes-out-from-behind-the-curtain moments. His team had been whacked 27-13, gaining a scant 211 yards, and UCLA's quarterbacking came off as something you'd see at Snow College.
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Chow is taller than you think, he's probably 6 feet 3 inches, a robust former All-WAC lineman, but late Saturday night he looked neither tall nor imposing. He looked like a man waiting for the next balloon to Kansas.
Incredibly, before he left for the airport, Chow told Los Angeles reporters: "I have never played with a freshman quarterback before. That's the situation we're in. Most kids get two years before they have to do this job."
It was like some multimillionaire discovering that before they deliver the filet mignon to your table, there's actually a process of butchering and cooking.
Never played with a freshman quarterback before?
In Arizona's 31 Pac-10 seasons, talent-challenged UA offensive coordinators have started freshman quarterbacks Tom Tunnicliffe, Ronald Veal, George Malauulu, Keith Smith, Ortege Jenkins, Kris Heavner, Richard Kovalcheck and Willie Tuitama.
And I'm sure I left out a few more, and that doesn't include sophomore transfers. Dan White and Nick Foles, who essentially were thrown into the UA starting lineup with no college experience.
Chow operates from a position of strength because UCLA has a recruiting prowess exceeded in the Pac-10 only by USC. So, no, I didn't feel like offering him any sympathies on Saturday. If he stays at UCLA long enough, Chow will again coach a Heisman-contending quarterback.
The juxtaposition on Saturday was fascinating. Arizona offensive coordinator Sonny Dykes was so successful that his players were dancing a blurry jitterbug around UCLA's defensive players. Arizona's offense has so many moving parts that the Bruins were too often in the wrong place at the wrong time.
That's a credit to Dykes, his staff, and to Mike Stoops' recruiters and talent evaluators.
Almost everybody Arizona's offensive coaches have deployed produces. The Colin Baxter-led offensive line did not yield a sack again Saturday. Arizona leads the Pac-10 in fewest sacks allowed (four). Injuries and illness have forced Bill Bedenbaugh's group into a fluid situation, mixing and matching every week.
When Rob Gronkowski and Nicolas Grigsby can't play, Dykes has been clever, replacing their yardage with versatile Juron Criner, Terrell Turner, Delashaun Dean and Bug Wright delivering creative plays.
Twice this year, at Washington and against UCLA, the Wildcats have been reduced to using their fourth-string tailback.
And somehow, Arizona leads the Pac-10 in total offense (445 yards per game) during a year Dykes has trained two new QBs and continued to manufacture yards and points while the offensive line, the backfield and the receiving crew have mostly been transitioning between injuries.
On Saturday, Dykes called running plays using four receivers. It was a dazzling success, gaining 95 yards. But when it was suggested that he might've outwitted the Bruin defense and out-coached the great Chow himself, Dykes predictably demurred.
"I try not to think about those things," he said. "A lot of the stuff I do now, Norm Chow was doing 20 years before I was born. So you try not to think that way.
"When I was coaching at Kentucky (1997, 1999) and we started throwing it all the time, Norm was one of the first guys we went to see."
No one is calling Dykes a genius, nor is he being fronted as the next Norm Chow. For now, being Sonny Dykes is a good thing.
