Aiming at the wrong target

[Pine Donkey]

Before the faithful or the haters get upset and start shooting daggers from under their respective rocks, let me tell you I am a fan of the Arizona Wildcats and the ASU Sun Devils. I have attended all four universities in the state and have degrees from two of them, so I pass the casual fan litmus test that some posters apply. I was not happy with the dismantling of the Cats last week, but understand that this year the Devils are a much better team. I am very upset with the game tonight. The devils did not step up to play on this stage. The Devils will still have their best year in the last 17 rankings wise, so why were they completely dominated tonight?

 

 

I have been thinking about this for some time, and have had conversations with many fans, from both sides about why college football in Arizona can't make it to the upper tier of the game. The best answer I can come up with is, WE ARE AIMING AT THE WRONG TARGET".

 

 

The football rivalry between the two teams is one of the strongest and most emotional in the country. Ask any Wildcat fan and they will tell you that the U of A leads the all-time football series. The Devil fan will respond that is only because of the years before ASU was a university. Quickly, the Wildcat fan will point out that during that time, ASU was the better team during the WAC era (ancient history) and U of A was better during the Pac10 era (recent times). Each fan will attempt to draw the line at the point that "proves" their team is the best. The reality is that arguing which school has the best football team is like arguing with your neighbor over who's spike had the longest eye guards! ( I stole that line from an earlier CWT post, but can't remember who made it). Over the last twenty years, based on the year end rankings, ASU is the 37th best team in the country, and U of A is the 56th best team (collegefootballpoll.com). So the ASU spike has longer eye guards, however both teams are spikes.

 

As a comparison, let's look at U of A basketball during the same time. They are ranked as the number 6 team (ESPN College all-time rankings) along with iconic programs such as Duke, North Carolina, Kentucky and Kansas. (No this is not a shot at ASU basketball). How can a basketball national powerhouse be built in Tucson, yet either of the two football teams can only manage to end the season in the top ten about once every two decades? I believe this is partly due to the rivalry that works to tear the other team down as often as it works to build up a team. Just think of the impact on ether team if they had a couple more blue chip players.

 

The culture of the rivalry has created the belief, in many, that true evil lives just a couple hour drive away via I-10. For this reason, both schools are loosing impact players to other teams. For example, there may be a stud QB at an Arizona high school that loves one of the colleges, but hates the other. Now if his favorite school offers a scholarship to another QB, he will feel left out. Due to his hatred for the other program he turns to out of state teams and the school in Arizona looses out. (Think Hundley, UCLA). It only takes this scenario happening a few a year to drag both teams down below the top tier.

 

Carry this thought process forward to today. How man ASU fans will attempt to mitigate the impact of tonight's loss by saying "at least we beat the U of A...it is a good season". This false bravado, while embracing mediocrity is at the core of the problem. Who cares that ASU beat the U of A...they had the chance to win the PAC 12, go to the Rose Bowl and earn their first top ten ranking since 1997, but they failed. Beating a pathetic Wildcat team is not in the same realm of significance...that long eye guard spike is still a spike.

 

When next year's schedules come out, there will be football fans, wearing red bad blue or maroon and gold, who quickly scan down to the rivalry game and circle it as the most important game of the year. By contrast, the fans of Wildcat basketball don't place huge significance on the ASU match ups. They know that whether they win or loose those games, the important games of the season take place in the later rounds of the NCAA tournament. Next year college football will see its first national championship playoff series. That should be the focus of both teams, and of all the fans.

 

Until that time, let's shift our focus and root for that Devil/Wildcat basketball National championship game. Now that would be something to make some noise about, and would be like you and your buddy arguing who's 120 inch coues is a better deer!

[kwp]

Good post Pine Donkey. There is so much that goes into building a college sports program that there's no way to discuss them all. One big one is obviously recruiting and getting top tier players. Another is getting a little lucky with timing. When Lute came to UA in the 80s the timing was perfect because UCLA was struggling through the post-Wooden era. Olson was able to get a stud out of Tucson (Sean Elliot) and some good recruits out of CA that normally would have gone to UCLA. That team was UAs first Final Four and the rest is history. When Sean Miller came to UA the timing was perfect because UCLA was trending down, USC was in turmoil and there weren't any real good teams in the PAC10/12. Miller was able to immediately start getting the best players in CA and rebuild UA basketball in very short time.

 

Timing is good for both of these football programs. USC is struggling, leaving the door open to steal the recruits necessary to build their programs. Unfortunately, the timing has been good for a while now and each school had a couple coaches that didn't pan out. UCLA has had a few solid years in a row and may be taking advantage of USCs problems. Both UA and ASU teams this year were still primarily built off recruits from the previous coaches. These next 2 years will be crucial for the two programs to continue to move forward as there are going to be some big holes to fill. A step back now could lead to more years of mediocrity and this rivalry meaning nothing outside of Arizona.

[DesertBull]

Rivalries are what make college sports. Nothing wrong with it.

[BeardownAZ]

Rivalries are what make college sports. Nothing wrong with it.

Nobody said there was anything wrong with it. But so much focus on the other is distracting and not helping put the teams over the top to the next level.

[DesertBull]

North Carolina and Duke have a heated rivalry and it has not stopped them from

Winning.

 

In college it is recruiting than wins. You must get the right coach to build a program.

 

Fans calling each other names makes zero difference.

[Snapshot]

Maybe it's hard to draw top talent, when pre-season practice starts when it's a 110 degrees in the shade 300 lb lineman don't like that.

 

Seriously......It's really difficult to recruit blue chip players to Arizona Football, when the Big 10 teams, wine, and dine them with visions of championships.

[muleskinner]

College basketball is about which program can get me to the next level the quickest. So, its mostly one and done now. A coach who has good connections and a history of placing guys in the NBA, will have an advantage in the recruiting game. Also, winning begets winning! Arizona football has a lot of past mediocrity to overcome. If they can catch lightening in a bottle one of these years, they may get some momentum going their way. Otherwise its gonna be a long uphill battle. In the long run, its just a diversion from the serious issues of life...family, finances, health, relationship with the good Lord...not exactly in that order.

[Lucafu1]

i think UofA will be pretty good next year, especially if carey stays ( i think he will). we should have a decent QB as well.

[BeardownAZ]

Will be interesting to see where both go next year

[25-06]

You guys and your dang foozball.