Arizona Finds Roots in UCLA Family

Arizona devotes a page to the Rose Bowl in its media guide, filled with information regarding tiebreaker procedures and the Granddaddy’s storied tradition.

The joke until now: Why would any of this concern Arizona?

For although it has played 11 games in the Rose Bowl dating to a 1929 win over Occidental, Arizona remains the only school from the Pacific 10 or Big Ten conference never to have played at the Jan. 1 Rose Bowl.

Since joining the expanded Pac-10 in 1978, Wildcat players have dreamed of the day they might storm the field after a conference-clinching win, red-stemmed roses clenched in their teeth.

“We’re going to Pasadena, baby!!!”

Isn’t that how it’s supposed to go?

Instead, the Wildcats’ Rose Bowl destiny is in the hands of UCLA quarterback Cade McNown on Saturday and a computer hard drive on Sunday.

Arizona might get its first Rose Bowl invitation.

Or, it might not.

Waiting is the hardest part.

“It’s like you want to celebrate, but you don’t want to celebrate,” star tailback Trung Canidate said by phone from Tucson this week. “Because you know, in college football, anything can happen.”

Because of a newfangled system known as the bowl championship series, Arizona’s possible first Rose Bowl appearance remains in limbo.

If UCLA defeats Miami on Saturday, and the Bruins qualify for the Jan. 4 national title game, and the Rose Bowl Executive Committee deems 11-1 Arizona worthy to play Wisconsin (it will), the Wildcats’ Rose Bowl drought will have ended.

If UCLA loses, however, the Bruins go to Pasadena.

Or, if UCLA wins, but does not finish ranked No. 1 or No. 2 in the BCS standings, the Bruins still go to the Rose Bowl.

And Arizona ends up in . . . the Holiday Bowl.

“If UCLA wins, like they should, we’re going to the Rose Bowl,” Canidate declared.

What an odd state of affairs.

UCLA tagged Arizona with its lone defeat. Yet, come Saturday, Wildcat players will gather in their dorms and apartments, put some munchies on the coffee table, and root wildly for UCLA, the school that knocked them out of the national title race.

No hard feelings?

“No, not at all,” Canidate said. “It’s like when you’re fighting somebody within your family. They’re in our family. When they’re going up against somebody else, we’ve got to back the family member up.”

Even if UCLA wins, Arizona must wait until Sunday morning’s final BCS rankings are announced before it can order the Rose Bowl party favors.

Probably not how Wildcat players pictured all this as kids.

CANDIDATE TRUNG

There are reasons Arizona, not Arizona State, became the jewel of the desert this season.

Coach Dick Tomey’s decision to platoon quarterbacks Keith Smith and Ortege Jenkins worked beautifully.

Arizona’s defense, while not Desert Swarm, has been Desert Bend-but-Don’t-Break.

The real difference maker, though, has been junior tailback Canidate, a converted defensive back and wide receiver who battled back from a stress fracture in his foot that forced him to miss fall practice and the school’s opener at Hawaii.

In 10 games since, Canidate has rushed for 1,220 yards, scored 10 touchdowns and averaged a nation-leading 7.3 yards per carry.

The only thing Canidate has lacked is timing.

Of all days, Canidate picked last Friday to announce his national arrival.

Last Friday, of course, was Ricky Williams Day across America. In a sunrise football service against Texas A&M;, Texas’ Williams broke Tony Dorsett’s Division I career rushing mark and probably sewed up the Heisman Trophy with 259 rushing yards.

OK, let someone top that.

Actually, Canidate did. In a 50-42 victory over Arizona State later in the day, Canidate rushed for a school-record 288 yards in 18 carries, scoring on runs of 80, 66 and 48 yards.

With the win, Arizona kept its Rose Bowl hopes alive and Canidate clinched the Pac-10 rushing title.

Canidate said he didn’t mind being overshadowed by Williams.

“I was laying up in the hotel, watching the game,” Canidate said. “It kind of inspired me to go out and show I could play too. He broke the record on that nice run. It was beautiful just watching him.”

Canidate made his own statement and positioned himself nicely for a Heisman run of his own next season.

Game breaker? Canidate has averaged 51.7 yards in 15 career touchdown runs.

He also comes equipped with a campaign slogan from the gods:

Heisman Canidate:

“Oh, I’m not thinking about next year,” Canidate said. “I’ve got this year to finish up first.”

AWARDS, KUDOS AND COMMENTS

A brief recap of the 1998 season:

* Worst QB Toss:

No. 3--Notre Dame’s Eric Chappell against USC.

No. 2--Notre Dame’s Arnaz Battle against USC.

No. 1--UCLA’s McNown through his facemask against Oregon.

* Best decision by an athletic director:

No. 3--Texas’ DeLoss Dodds hiring Mack Brown to replace John Mackovic.

No. 2--Arkansas’ Frank Broyles hiring Houston Nutt to replace Danny Ford.

No. 1--UCLA’s Pete Dalis deciding maybe it’s a good idea to make up that Sept. 26 game against Miami wiped out by Hurricane Georges.

* MVP (Offense):

Tie between McNown and Kansas State’s Michael Bishop.

McNown has led the Bruins to a nation-leading 20 consecutive wins; Bishop has led the Wildcats to 19 in a row. Without McNown and Bishop, UCLA and Kansas State might be squaring off in the Mele Kalikimaka Bowl.

* MVP (Defense):

Chris Claiborne, linebacker, USC. Is it me, or do running backs seem to stick to him like Velcro?

* Upset specials:

No. 2--North Carolina State shocked Florida State, 24-7, on Sept. 12, then celebrated by losing the next week to Baylor.

No. 1--Temple’s 28-24 win at Virginia Tech on Oct. 17 may rank as the upset of the century. The Owls were six-touchdown underdogs and had recently lost to Division I-AA William & Mary.

* Best hang time:

Winner: Kansas State linebacker Travis Ochs on Nebraska quarterback Eric Crouch’s facemask. Also rates as worst non-call by an official. Ochs nearly ripped Crouch’s head off (check out the Sports Illustrated picture) on the fourth-down play with three minutes left. A penalty would have given Nebraska, trailing 34-30, a first down near midfield. Kansas State won, 40-30.

* Biggest flops:

No. 1--Louisiana State. The Tigers, otherwise know as Swamp Thing, were a preseason top-10 pick before bowwowing out at 4-7.

No. 1a--Arizona State. Their national-title hopes dashed with a tough home loss to Washington in the opener, the Sun Devils took the rest of the year off and finished 5-6.

* Five best games:

No. 5--Syracuse 28, Virginia Tech 26. Donovan McNabb marches his team 83 yards in 14 plays and tosses the game-winning touchdown pass on the game’s last play.

No. 4--Washington 42, Arizona State 38. Fourth and 17 in the closing minutes? No sweat for Husky quarterback Brock Huard, who hits Reggie Davis for the game-winning touchdown pass to knock the Fiesta out of ASU.

No. 3--Tennessee 28, Arkansas 24. Amazing. Shocking. Incredible. Arkansas has No. 1 Tennessee on the ropes until quarterback Clint Stoerner’s stumble-and-fumble sets up Tennessee’s game-winning touchdown with 28 seconds left.

No. 2 UCLA 41, Oregon State 34--Look, Ma, no coverage! McNown beats the Beavers in the final minute with a 61-yard bomb to Brad Melsby.

No. 1 UCLA 41, Oregon 38 (OT). The UCLA coach elects not to use a timeout at the end of regulation, Chris Sailer shanks a chip shot, then redeems himself with the game-winning boot in overtime.

* Play of the year:

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s . . . Arizona quarterback Ortege Jenkins.

The setup: Oct. 3: Arizona trailed Washington, 28-24, with three seconds left and no timeouts. With one last chance at the Washington nine, Jenkins bolts toward the end zone, plants a foot at the four, somersaults three Washington defenders and lands on his feet for the winning score. Not bad, eh, Mary Lou Retton?

* Biggest mismatches

No. 3--Kansas State 66, Indiana State 0.

No. 2--Kansas State 73, Northern Illinois 7.

No. 1--Kansas State 62, Northeast Louisiana 7.

* Biggest mismatches (1999)

No. 3--Kansas State vs. Temple.

No. 2--Kansas State vs. Utah State.

No. 1--Kansas State vs. Texas El Paso.

* Coach of the year:

No. 5--Butch Davis. Ah ha! That Syracuse blowout proves Davis didn’t have much talent.

No. 4--Phil Fulmer. Give the lug credit for being the winningest active coach in Division I-A.

No. 3--Tomey. Shame on all of you (OK, me) for thinking his QB rotation would backfire.

No. 2--Nutt. Souiiieeee! indeed. Nutt inherited a 4-7 team and led it to within two plays of a perfect season.

No. 1--Tommy Bowden. Wow. A coach uses Tulane as a springboard to the Clemson job? Bowden must be a genius.

* How the Heisman was lost

--Sept. 19. Daunte Culpepper. Central Florida falls apart at Purdue in Culpepper’s only national television appearance.

--Oct. 1. McNabb. Syracuse stinks it up in a Thursday night ESPN loss at North Carolina State.

--Oct. 10. Bishop. After a victory at Colorado, Kansas State Coach Bill Snyder puts a media gag order on Bishop that lasts five weeks.

--Oct. 31 McNown. UCLA picks up a lucky win against Stanford on the day Ricky Williams and Texas upset Nebraska at Lincoln.

--Nov. 21 Tim Couch. Kentucky quarterback throws two interceptions and is sacked six times in humbling 59-21 defeat to Tennessee.