In celebration of Arizona's centennial, the Star will feature our picks for the 100 best athletes, moments and teams.
Throughout the summer, we will showcase our list - with the first 90 in no particular order. In August, Greg Hansen will choose his top 10, with a column on each.
UA Desert Swarm defense
Achievement
Darryl Morrison and the rest of the 1992 Arizona Wildcats football team were walking to their locker room at the Orange Bowl before a regular-season game against defending AP national champion Miami when they started hearing the taunts.
"We were talking through the stadium, and I'll never forget this, the police officers in the tunnel were laughing at us," Morrison said. "Everyone wanted to intimidate you. It didn't really work. We respected them, but we weren't afraid of anybody."
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And, that, according to Morrison, is when Arizona's Desert Swarm was truly born. Despite losing to the Hurricanes 8-7 the mindset to dominate was there.
"Without a doubt for me, even though we lost, that shaped our identity," Morrison said. "We realized that we were a better team and we should have won that game. We played as hard as we could after that and were intent on never losing a game like that again."
After the one-point loss to Miami, Arizona won its next five games and allowed six or less points in four of the five.
The Wildcats allowed just 65.1 rushing yards per game that season, second best in the nation, and upset No. 1 Washington 16-3 in Tucson.
Desert Swarm was just getting started.
In 1993, the UA boasted the top rushing defense in the country, allowing just 30.1 yards per game or 0.9 yards per carry.
Ten times in 1993 and '94 each, Arizona held its opponent to less than 100 rushing yards. In '93, the Wildcats went 10-2 overall and got revenge on Miami in the Fiesta Bowl with a 29-0 win.
In '94, Arizona again had one of the best rushing defenses in the country, holding opponents to 65.3 yards per game, which was second best in the country. The Wildcats went 8-4 and played in their third straight bowl game.
Over that three-year stretch, Arizona had seven defensive players - Morrison, Keshon Johnson, Ty Parten, Brant Boyer, Rob Waldrop, Mike Scurlock and Sean Harris - selected in the NFL draft. Two more players, Tedy Bruschi and Chuck Osborne were picked in the '96 draft.
Waldrop and Bruschi were both unanimous first-team All-Americans, and Harris was a third-team All-American. Safety Tony Bouie also was a consensus first-team pick in 1994.
He said it
"I didn't realize it in the moment, but I look back and I can't believe how good we were. We had some really talented players that worked hard and wanted to be great as a team." - Morrison
Daniel Berk
