Jeffries’ journey
Brian Jeffries has had quite the week.
Excuse Jeffries — the longtime play-by-play voice of Arizona Wildcats football, basketball and baseball — if he’s a little jet-lagged.
Last week, on Saturday, Jeffries flew to Salt Lake City for UA’s game against Utah, which the Wildcats won 42-10. He flew back to Tucson and got in at 8 p.m.
The next morning, at 7:15, he had a flight from Tucson to Maui, with a layover in Los Angeles, and he arrived in Hawaii at 12:30 local time.
After he relaxed by the beach, “goofed around,” he said, with a beer and a burger, he went to bed, woke up on Monday and called Arizona’s Maui Invitational game against Missouri.
Arizona won that one: Next up: Kansas State on Tuesday.
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UA won again, so Wednesday, he called the title game against San Diego State.
When that was over, and the Wildcats were champions, he flew back to Tucson from Maui on a 9 a.m. Thanksgiving flight and got home by 7 p.m., where his family waited for him with a fully-cooked meal. He then woke up Friday morning at 6:30 a.m. for the Wildcats’ afternoon game against the Sun Devils.
Got all that?
“I’ll admit, he said, smiling, “I’m tired.”
All in all, the Wildcats were 5-0 in those games, including the 42-35 win in the Territorial Cup against Arizona State, which clinched the Pac-12 South Championship for the UA.
“It’s fun because all the games have been exciting and anytime the team wins, you feel good,” Jeffries said. “Everybody around you is happy, so that kind of buoys your emotions. Sometimes it comes and goes so fast you don’t get to enjoy it. I didn’t have the chance to absorb a whole lot. Sometimes you like to sit back and say ‘Oh, that’s good.’”
Up next for Jeffries?
A home basketball game Tuesday against Gardner-Webb, then to Santa Clara, California, for Friday’s Pac-12 title game, a rematch against Oregon.
Big number
5:02 Time left on the clock when UCLA’s 31-10 loss to Stanford was official, setting Arizona up with a shot to be Pac-12 South champions. This is when Mickey Baucus, a senior Arizona offensive lineman, heard the good news.
“My life got a whole lot more stressful for the last few minutes,” he said.
John Button Salmon, reincarnated
Friday, John Button Salmon made an appearance.
Or, at least, a fan dressed up like him for the weekend, for this special game.
“I’ve come back through time,” he said. “I have a weekend pass from Heaven.”
Salmon, if you don’t know, inspired the ‘Bear Down’ slogan with his dying words in 1926.
This Button Salmon is actually Santiago Murillo, a UA and Pueblo High grad, and he loves the Territorial Cup.
So much that he recreated the Button Salmon uniform.
“This is an original 1912, U of A football uniform. With the helmet, the cleats, and of course my pads,” he said. “I went to the museum and I had to replicate most of it.
“This is my Super Bowl,” he added, talking about the Cup, “I’m a Minnesota Vikings fan, so I’ll never get to the Super Bowl.”
He said it
From my vantage point, he was hitting the circle button, the square button. It reminded me of a Nintendo Playstation game.
I thought somebody would catch him eventually. That was huge.
— Rich Rodriguez,
on Samajie Grant’s 69-yard
touchdown catch in the
first quarter, where he cut across
the field and avoided at least
three defenders before scoring.
Senior Day
Before the game, Wildcat seniors walked out onto the field and were honored alongside close family members and friends.
Unsurprisingly, Jared Tevis — a Canyon del Oro High grad — received the biggest cheers and had the biggest crew with him, as he was rolling about 10-15 people deep.
During the game, this senior class was as impactful as ever.
Tra’Mayne Bondurant had 11 tackles, two for loss and a sack. Also:
Austin Hill: Four receptions, 45 yards
Tevis: four tackles and a sack
Dan Pettinato: three tackles, two sacks
Jourdon Grandon: Five tackles, and an interception in the fourth quarter that led to an Anu Solomon TD pass to Grant with 8:31 to go, giving UA a 42-28 lead.
“I couldn’t go out in a better way,” Grandon said.
Reunion
Early in the third quarter, UA tailback Nick Wilson was tackled by Tashon Smallwood, an ASU defensive linemen.
It was a reunion of sorts for them — Wilson and Smallwood, both freshmen, were teammates at Central High School in Fresno, California.
Wilson fared a little better on Friday than his ex-teammate — he won the game’s MVP, rushing for 178 yards and three touchdowns. Smallwood had three tackles, one for loss.
Zack Rosenblatt
