Three things that most catch my attention at Mike Stoops' training camp, 8.0:
1. Stoops wisely removed position coaching responsibilities from offensive coordinator Seth Littrell. What Littrell does is extremely complicated. Offenses at the BCS level of college football require sophistication in every conceivable variable: speed, timing, accuracy, execution and strength.
You no longer just try to overpower the other guy. You no longer want a coach carrying too much of a load.
Nick Foles, for example, will become a drop-back passer when he gets his shot in the NFL next year, but there is little drop-back passing at Arizona. Much of it is that Foles is fronted by an entirely new offensive line (not recommended) and that Arizona QBs have been sacked 45 times the last two seasons.
When Oklahoma State smacked Arizona 36-10 in last year's Alamo Bowl, the Cowboys threw just four drop-back passes in 41 attempts. Expect more of that at Arizona this year.
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"You can't take sacks and put yourself in dead plays," Stoops said Saturday. "If you throw 15 drop-back passes a game, you probably get beat." That is the way football is at any level now."
2. New offensive line coach Robert Anae, who frequently coached 22- to 24- year-old returned LDS missionaries during his time as BYU's offensive coordinator, might have the most difficult coaching assignment of any BCS position coach.
Arizona's five starting offensive linemen could be the strength of the team - next year. As it is, only junior center Kyle Quinn has started a (one) college game.
"The only thing we've played in together was the spring game," said Quinn. "We've watched a lot of film, drawn a lot of plays on the chalkboard. We've got very good potential."
No pressure on those guys, right?
3. Freshman tailback Ka'Deem Carey of CDO and those eager to watch him play must be patient. Stoops said that tailbacks Keola Antolin and Daniel Jenkins are "light years ahead" of the other backs.
Carey finds himself in a training camp no different from other touted UA freshmen tailbacks who started out buried on the depth chart. For every true freshman tailback who was game-ready and productive - Vance Johnson in 1981 and Clarence Farmer in 2000 were exceptions - the reality is that it takes a few months just to learn the playbook.
"Everybody wants him to be a Superman," said Foles. "He's going to be a very good back for this school."
Short Stuff
Oregon lures UA baseball assistant for $140K a year
In the attempt to reinvent Arizona baseball by moving the Wildcats' total operation to Hi Corbett Field, UA athletic director Greg Byrne hopes to be in position to compete financially with Pac-12 opponents. The Oregon Ducks last mpnth hired away the UA's top assistant coach, Mark Wasikowski, by paying him $140,000 annually. He was earning $92,500 at Arizona and was the highest paid assistant coach in any nonrevenue sport on campus. Oregon is paying even more than UA head coach Andy Lopez is paid, at $132,000. That's nuts. … Tucsonan Walt Roberson, a three-year UA baseball letterman during Frank Sancet's glory days, says of the move to Hi Corbett Field: "Those of us who played on the old field where the UA library now stands were disappointed when the move was made to the present field. Tradition with 'Pop' McKale and Frank Sancet and the many great games played there were important to us, too. But times change and that is what is happening now." … Salpointe and UA grad John Fina, a 10-year NFL lineman, will be the color analyst for Arizona football when games are broadcast by Fox Sports Arizona. You can't say he hasn't prepared. Fina spent three days at the recent NFL Broadcast Boot Camp in Mount Laurel, N.J., working with every conceivable type of electronic media broadcasting. Fina should be among those strongly considered for Pac-12 network assignments that will undoubtedly expand opportunities for those in the radio/TV industry. … After coaching Catalina Foothills to four state girls golf championships (2004, 2006, 2009 and 2010), Mark Polich has chosen to leave the Falcons and won't return for the 2011 season. … Oro Valley's Robert Seby, who is ranked No. 1 in Arizona by the USTA and No. 12 nationally in Boys 14-15 singles, won't play high school tennis in Southern Arizona this year, when he will be a freshman. He has chosen to attend a charter school. It's not much different than the paths chosen by Tucson's most successful teenage tennis players of the last 40 years, Jim Grabb and Meghann Shaughnessy. Grabb played for Tucson High until midway through his junior season, when he moved to Scottsdale to train.
'Labor of love': Legion coach wins 9th state title
Tucson attorney Alex Gaynes coached KFC Post 59 to its ninth state championship in American Legion baseball. In his 20th season as head coach, Gaynes does so without pay. "Every time we win, I ask myself, 'Am I going to get to do this again?' " he said. "It's a labor of love." Post 59 was eliminated from the Western Regional in two games in Fairfield, Calif., last week. Two of Gaynes' players, shortstop Robby Pearson and pitcher Nicco Blank, have accepted scholarships to play at Texas Southern in 2011-12. Pearson and Blanks were the key performers for Catalina High's 2011 state baseball championship. … Tucsonan Terry O'Hara and his wife, Monica, took their three children to a Red Sox-Seattle game at Fenway Park in late July and were in the process of buying their 6-year-old son, also named Terry, a Red Sox jersey when club officials randomly asked if the young man would like to go onto the field and shout "Play Ball!" as part of the pregame ceremony. O'Hara's entire family was then taken on the field. Their names were shown on the big screen in center field. This attracted the attention of Red Sox manager Terry Francona, a UA alumnus whose wife, Jacque, is a Salpointe grad. Seeing the Tucson connection, Francona left his pregame meeting with the umpires, summoning the O'Hara family members to chat and have his photograph taken with them. And how was your summer vacation?
More Short Stuff
Salpointe soph blisters track at junior nationals
Salpointe sophomore Michaela Crunkleton-Wilson won the 100-meter dash at the USATF National Junior Olympic Championships last week, with a sizzling time of 11.71 seconds. It is the fastest known time for a female junior sprinter in Tucson history, and No. 1 of all female sprinters in the USA class of 2014. Until Crunkleton-Wilson's 11.71 in Wichita, Kan., the fastest time for a Tucson runner was a 10.8 in the 100-yard dash by Santa Rita High School's Kim Burke in 1978. That's the equivalent of 11.9 in the 100 meters, said UA track coach Fred Harvey. To put it in perspective, current UA assistant track coach Dawn Boxley, formerly Dawn Mortensen, ran 11.77 in the 100 meters for the UA in 1997 and was considered fast. "Michaela is one of the most intelligent athletes I've worked with in my career," said Harvey, who doubles as a youth coach for the Tucson Elite Athletic Club. "We worked purely in trying to change Michaela's acceleration mechanics and in three days she grasped the whole process and executed it properly." … Sam Busch, son of ex-UA swim coach Frank Busch, has been hired by national powerhouse Auburn to help coach the Tigers. Sam Busch was a coach at West Virginia last year. His brother, ex-UA assistant coach Augie Busch, is now the head coach at Houston. … Tucson Ford Dealers Aquatics took 42 swimmers to last week's USA National Championships, most of any American swim club. UA and Flowing Wells grad Marcus Titus, third overall in the 100 breast stroke, and UA grad Lara Jackson, winner of the 50 freestyle, enhanced their chances to be top contenders at the Olympic trials next summer. … This week, Ford Aquatics has five swimmers at the USA Junior Nationals at Stanford - Sabino's LeighAnne Oliver, Foothills' Cole Puchi and Jason Alentado, Ironwood Ridge's Sara Borendame and Rincon/University's Reed Patterson. It has been a good start for new Ford Aquatics head coach Kevin Milak, who replaced former national championship coach Roric Fink, now an assistant at Missouri. … Good to see Jason Gardner, 30, back in college basketball. The glue guy to Arizona's 2000-03 basketball juggernaut will be an assistant coach and recruiter for Loyola of Chicago. He spent last season coaching Cathedral High School in his hometown of Indianapolis. … In his first week of work with the Green Bay Packers, ex-UA pass rusher Ricky Elmore found out just how different life is in the NFL. The Packers flew his mother and stepfather to Green Bay for the weekend, all expenses paid, as part of their rookie weekend.
My Two Cents
Loyalty beats 'dream job' for Amphi coach Portillo
When Sunnyside High wrestling coach Bobby DeBerry resigned last week, after winning 14 consecutive state championships, the obvious choice to replace him was Amphi coach Sam Portillo, a 1985 Sunnyside grad who had coached the Panthers to prominence and is now part of the USA Wrestling coaching staff.
But Portillo told Sunnyside athletic director Richard Sanchez he will remain at Amphi and not take over Tucson's most dominant athletic program of any kind.
"That was my dream job," Portillo told me. "But I don't have the heart to leave my kids at Amphi. You teach loyalty to your kids and right now would be a good time to lead by example. I am more than a wrestling coach to them; I believe they need me in their lives."
And who said sports are running amok?
