The before and the after were televised, chronicled and analyzed.
The in-between, however, remains mostly a mystery.
During the days between their Oct. 8 loss at Oregon State and Thursday's win over UCLA, the Arizona Wildcats overhauled their defense, discovered a new place-kicker and put their offense in their starting quarterback's hands.
If it was a surprise, well … that was the whole point.
"We put ourselves in a cocoon, which we needed," interim coach Tim Kish said following Thursday's 48-12 win over UCLA. "It was a tough 10 days, and we rallied around each other. All I wanted was for us to go out and be successful, and that's exactly what we did."
Kish did so by closing practices, putting players off-limits to the media and inundating them with so many meetings and special guests that center Kyle Quinn joked that it "felt like it was over a year" between games.
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"I woke up (Thursday) morning and thought, finally, it's game day. I think a lot of the guys felt the same way," he said. "We had enough time practicing … We said, 'The talking was over. It's time to go play.' "
But if the goal was to bind the team together and bring back some fun following the firing of coach Mike Stoops, Kish succeeded.
The Wildcats set a program record for points in a half (42) against a conference opponent, forced two turnovers and stuffed UCLA's "pistol" offense on the way to a rout of the reeling Bruins. Kish broke out a 1990s-era look, the double-eagle flex defensive front, and the UA limited UCLA to 37 rushing yards. Wildcats quarterback Nick Foles designed the team's first drive himself. And John Bonano, a walk-on who's attending the UA on an academic scholarship, was a perfect 8-for-8 on kicks.
The victory was Arizona's first against a Division I-A school in 355 days and second of what was, at least until this week, a lost season.
Special guests, all of whom encouraged the Wildcats to continue fighting, reinforced Kish's message. Kish called many of the nation's top football coaches, including Michigan State's Mark Dantonio and Oklahoma's Bob Stoops, for advice. Frank Busch, the UA's former swimming coach and a national champion, advised Kish on how to keep a fractured team together.
But it was pair of basketball coaches - Arizona's Sean Miller and Los Angeles Clippers assistant John Lucas - who drove the point home. Miller spoke to the Wildcats briefly, challenging the upperclassmen to play with pride. Quinn called it "a great talk."
"He told us to go out there and play motivated, play fired up," he said.
Lucas, a recovering alcoholic and drug addict, shared his story of rehabilitation and redemption with the team, then connected the lessons he learned to Arizona's situation.
"Basically, he said, 'Adversity's going to happen. It's how you respond,' " Vassallo said.
And, boy, did Arizona respond. The Wildcats will head to Washington this week with a sense of purpose, and fun, that was largely missing throughout the first half of their season.
"It was a tough 10 days, and we really rallied around each other," Kish said. "All I wanted was for us to go out and be successful, and that's exactly what we did."
On StarNet: Follow the Cats on Ryan Finley's blog at azstarnet.com/finley
Up next
• What: Arizona at Washington
• When: 7:30 p.m., Saturday
• TV: FSAZ
