With the hiring of Lane Kiffin at USC, Mike Stoops is the only Pac-10 head football coach with a defensive pedigree.
The Pac-10 is the most explosive, cutting-edge offensive league in college football. The last five head-coaching hires - Kiffin, Oregon's Chip Kelly, Washington's Steve Sarkisian, Stanford's Jim Harbaugh and UCLA's Rick Neuheisel - are all nationally prominent offensive names with their own systems.
The league has big name "system guys" like Norm Chow, Andy Ludwig, Mike Riley, Jeff Tedford and Dennis Erickson. Even Wazzu head coach Paul Wulff is an ex-offensive coordinator.
By comparison, Arizona will now operate with an old school offensive lineman, Bill Bedenbaugh, and an old school fullback, Seth Littrell, running its offense.
I think it's a very good thing. They are tough guys in a tough game. They have reached this level not through flashy statistics but through hard work, effective coaching and productive recruiting. With co-defensive coordinator Tim Kish, Bedenbaugh is the top recruiter at Arizona in the last decade, and maybe longer.
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Bedenbaugh and Littrell learned the Texas Tech system thoroughly while coaching under Mike Leach. No, neither has called a play in a college football game. Neither had Sonny Dykes when he arrived at Arizona in 2007.
And yet the Wildcats established school records in points and yardage with "rookies" like Dykes, Bedenbaugh and Littrell running the offense. I trust Stoops to figure out the play-calling duties and get it operating effectively before the Sept. 18 game against Iowa.
It's encouraging, almost ironic, that on the first day Littrell was named co-coordinator, coveted Oklahoma prep quarterback Daxx Garman committed to play for the Wildcats a year early. In its Pac-10 years, Arizona has never been part of a recruiting coup involving a quarterback, and especially one of Garman's reputation.
Getting Garman means the Wildcats won't have to worry about getting Arizona's Gatorade Player of the Year, Chandler junior QB Brett Hundley Jr., whose father was a reserve defensive back at Arizona from 1983 to 1986.
Hiring Littrell and Bedenbaugh suggests that Stoops believes the best way to win is to work within the resources available at Arizona: run a spread offense, play defense at high speed and hope to develop the UA's usual second-level recruits and transfers better than those who sign all the high school All-Americans.
PIMA COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Aztec women have a chance to make history when CAC drops by
The basketball Game of the Week/Year/Decade in Tucson is likely to be played Wednesday at 5:30 p.m., at the Pima College West Campus. That's when defending NJCAA women's national champion Central Arizona is to engage Todd Holthaus' Aztecs.
Get this: Central Arizona had won 143 straight ACCAC games through Friday. The Vaqueras were last beaten in a league game on Nov. 25, 2003. They have since posted five consecutive 22-0 ACCAC seasons (and three 30-0, national-title finishes).
By comparison, Holthaus, whose PCC team finished third in the NJCAA last year, took an 18-4 ACCAC record into Saturday's game at Scottsdale. In the first CAC-Pima game this year, at Central, the Aztecs lost at the wire, 76-73.
Capacity in the PCC gymnasium is about 1,500, maybe less. My advice is to arrive early if you want a seat.
SHORT STUFF
Marana's Swan on verge of joining an elite group
The three most-touted girls basketball recruits in Tucson history remain Santa Rita's Paula Pyers, who went to USC; Salpointe's Sybil Dosty, who played at Tennessee and ASU; and Amphitheater's Catherria Turner, who played at Oregon and Oklahoma State. It could be that Marana's 6-foot-3-inch sophomore Jamee Swan will be at the top of that list by her final season in 2012. Through Friday's games, Swan is averaging 21.7 points, 15.0 rebounds and has blocked, amazingly, 127 shots. She has already been offered a scholarship by UA coach Niya Butts. Jamee is coached by her mother, Diane Swan, whose club takes a 13-8 record into the final week of the regular season. … Since his team lost to Amphi on MLK Day at McKale Center, Pueblo shooting forward Michael Perez has averaged 33.1 points in six games. Perez scored 42 Friday against CDO; his career high, 45, came against Phoenix Moon Valley in late December. Perez is averaging 29.9 points. As far as I can research, no Tucson prep basketball player has ever averaged 30 in a season. … Ben Hurley's 25-1 Amphi boys basketball team has already clinched the 4A Gila Region championship, but it plays two significant games this week: Tuesday against 21-5 Palo Verde and Friday against 19-5 Santa Rita. Panthers sophomore Tim Derksen is averaging a team-high 17.7 points and 8.8 rebounds, and is bidding to become the Tucson player of the year in a race with Perez, Palo Verde's Bryce Cotton, Santa Rita's Terrell Stoglin and two Panther teammates, Lester Medford and Malcolm Millner.
Ex-Wildcat Shakur earns All-Star nod in D-League
Tulsa 66ers point guard Mustafa Shakur will be at the NBA All-Star Game next week in Dallas. He was selected to the D-League All-Star team last week, and deservedly so. The ex-UA four-year starter is averaging 19.5 points and 6.8 assists. He buried a three-pointer in the last minute in a victory over the Utah Flash on Friday night. … The chances of Tiger Woods playing in the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship next week are almost nil. It's absurd to think he's been able to practice or play golf, and he's probably the last guy on the PGA Tour to rush a return when it will be watched by so many millions of people. Where could he have practiced? Someone, somewhere - a guy mowing greens or someone gathering range balls - would've photographed the outing. … Fully qualified for the Champions Tour for the first time, Tucsonan Ronnie Black makes his 2010 debut this week in the ACE Group Classic in Naples, Fla. Ex-UA golfer Don Pooley, a regular behind the UA bench at McKale Center, will skip the Oregon series to make his '10 debut as well. … Congratulations to retired Tucson educator Jim Fogltance, who was inducted into the Western States Football League Hall of Fame last week. Fogltance has officiated Pac-10, junior college and high school football for almost 40 years.
Murray's appearance adds to celebrity list at McKale
You never know who you'll see at McKale Center on the day of a big game. Last week's appearance by Bill Murray eclipsed the 1990s appearances of actor Michael Douglas and tycoon Donald Trump. Also sitting on the front row, against Cal, was Joey Rodolfo, a Nogales, Ariz., native and UA alumnus who owned the Cutter & Buck sportswear firm (he sold it), has been vice president of the Callaway golf apparel division and is now director of design for the chic Tommy Bahama group. Rodolfo has a home at Starr Pass. … The Class AAA Portland Beavers of the Pacific Coast League are looking for a temporary home for the 2011 season while ballpark issues in Oregon can be settled. It wouldn't be a shock if they target Tucson Electric Park for the '11 season. It is the one immediately available facility for a PCL team. … Pima College baseball coach Edgar Soto has put together an impressive list of coaches for Saturday's alumni weekend camp at the PCC baseball facility from 9 a.m. to noon. Diamondbacks hitting coach Jack Howell, D-backs' minor-league pitching coach Dan Carlson and minor-league coaches/scouts Gil Heredia, Clark Crist and Tom Spencer are among those who will be instructing ballplayers of all ages. Information: 206-6005. … Among the many impressive recruits signed by Pima football coach Pat Nugent is former Cienega High lineman Zac Davila, who spent last season redshirting at Utah. Davila decided to leave the Utes and spend a year at PCC when the man who recruited him, ex-UA coach Charlie Dickey, left for a job at Kansas State. … Ex-CDO slugger Chris Duncan is back in baseball. After being released by the Boston Red Sox last summer, he has signed a minor-league deal with the Washington Nationals.
My TWO CENTS
Ex-Saints aide Feder says it's 'so wild' in Big Easy
In a previous life, before he returned to Tucson to help rescue professional and amateur baseball, ex-Tucson Toros and Sidewinders general manager Mike Feder worked in the front office for the New Orleans Saints.
From 2001 to 2005, he lived the culture of the long-woebegone Saints. In 2006, he returned to Tucson after Hurricane Katrina devastated the area. Now director of the Pima County Sports and Tourism Authority, Feder resisted the urge to travel to Miami for today's Super Bowl.
"It's crazy, but the real action is in New Orleans, not Miami," he said. "People are flying into New Orleans to enjoy the game there, filling up the hotels. The regular football fan can't imagine what it's like to be a Saints fan, or what it will be like there today. It's unique. Schools are closed on Monday and they're going to have a parade on Tuesday, win or lose. It's just so wild."
Wild it is. Saints 34, Colts 31.
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