Stoops Making Tremendous Strides at Arizona

Arizona defeated the USC Trojans 21-17 to finish the season 8-4 (6-3 in the Pac Ten) and they will now face Nebraska in the Holiday Bowl. The University of Arizona should be commended for allowing Mike Stoops the time to put six recruiting classes in a row together. Until last season's Las Vegas Bowl appearance the Wildcats had not been in a bowl game since the 1998 Holiday Bowl. In today's climate of college football most AD's are not patient enough to give a head coach six years to turn a program around. Coming into this season Stoops was 25-34 in his first five years, but the last two seasons Stoops is 16-9.

In the last three meetings with the Trojans the Wildcats have found a way to play them very close. In 2007 USC won 20-13 and in 2008 the Trojans got by the Wildcats 17-10. Led by a dominating defensive performance Arizona was finally able to beat the Trojans on Saturday in a game that had the Holiday Bowl on the line. The Arizona defense held USC to 144 yards passing, picked Matt Barkley off once and sacked him three times. Offensively Arizona could not get their running game together, but QB Nick Foles was very efficient finishing the game 22/40 for 239 yards. The last two seasons Mike Stoops has led this team to a bowl game. This year's Holiday Bowl invitation is a higher tier bowl than the Las Vegas Bowl in 2008. The next step for Arizona is to take advantage of their recent success by putting together a good recruiting class. Next year's team will return QB Nick Foles (So), RB Nic Grigsby (Jr.), RB Keola Antolin (So), WR Delashaun Dean (Jr) and WR Juron Criner (So). Defensively the Wildcats will lose six starters to graduation, but a solid recruiting class along with an experienced offense should result in the Wildcats competing for the Pac Ten Title in 2010.

Arizona will face one of the best defensive teams in the country when they play Nebraska in the Holiday Bowl. The Cornhusker defense put constant pressure on Colt McCoy in the Big 12 Championship Game. Texas could not run the football. Nebraska held them to 18 yards on the ground. The Wildcats have a very good passing game, but they will have to find a way to get Grigsby and Antolin going to slow down the Cornhuskers front seven. The direction that Mike Stoops has this program headed in should result in Arizona having a great chance of being bowl eligible every season.