(Pac-12) The Wildcats play on a grass field at Arizona Stadium (seats 57,400)
- Mike Stoops is in his 8th year as head coach at Arizona. Last year they finished with a 7-6 record, which really isn’t that impressive until you think about the fact that it made it the third straight year with a winning record for the Wildcats. The last time that happened was from 1993-1995.
- 2010 started off great for the Wildcats. They were 7-1 after week 9 and ranked #13. But they fell to a higher ranked Stanford team the next week and continued their decline as they lost five straight games to end the season. Coming off of such a disappointing slide presents an added challenge for them heading into 2011.
- This year the big issue is the offensive line, which returns zero starters from last year. They are completely inexperienced and have the least about of returning starts of all 120 FBS teams.
- Quarterback Nick Foles quietly led his team to a top 10 passing offense in 2010 (9th). The top receivers all return as well.
Quarterback Nick Foles
Stoops told Blue Ribbon that “The strength of this team lies in our offense, in our quarterbacks and in our receivers. Certainly, we feel like we have a great group of skill guys. We have a plethora of receivers and they’re really starting to mature and come on.”
- They have back their 2010 leading rusher Keola Antolin, but the running game was just 88th in the country last year and it will be a struggle to improve upon that with the situation on the O-line. Because even with all of the offensive skill position players returning, they can only do so much while their linemen grow into their
Running Back Keola Antolin
positions.
- Defense takes a hit as well with the loss of three of their four starters on the line. Their two defensive ends are gone, and with them the majority of their sacks from last year. Luckily the rest of their defensive is in decent shape at least compared to last year and they return their top tackler from 2010 (weak side linebacker Paul Vassallo). And the defensive backs can just hope that free safety Adam Hall returns from his ACL injury sooner rather than later.
- The schedule is not easy. They face Oklahoma State in Stillwater on September 8th and although the following two games are at home, they are against Stanford and Oregon. Then they travel to the Coliseum to play USC the next week.
