TUCSON, Ariz. -- One win. That’s all Arizona needs to become bowl-eligible.
Yet it’s like getting a touchdown against UCLA, or what it was like attempting to get a touchdown in the red zone in September. Sounds easy, but it’s not always as easy as it seems.
Arizona (5-4) found out last week that the slippery ladder of success isn’t all that sturdy.
Still, the Wildcats need just one victory to become bowl-game eligible. And who would have thought that was possible three months ago?
Of course, getting to six wins doesn’t mean Arizona will necessarily get invited to a bowl game, but it’s assurance that the process has started.
"It will be a nice goal," UA coach Rich Rodriguez said. “After I was first hired, we were sitting at home and 70 other teams were playing a bowl game. Our guys certainly did not like that. I wanted it to hurt. If you are a college football player at the Division I level and you aren’t playing a bowl game, you should be disappointed.
"We have not talked about it as being a goal, but it is certainly out there for us."
First, the Wildcats must do something about it. And it’s more than likely that they'll have to do it without the services of starting quarterback Matt Scott, who on Thursday was listed as doubtful for the game because of a concussion.
Enter junior college quarterback B.J. Denker, who has been taking many of the snaps this week in preparation for an opportunity he called “a dream come true."
Perhaps fortunately for Denker and Arizona, that opportunity will come against Colorado, a team that is reeling and, frankly, not all that good, having given up 295 points while scoring just 86 in Pac-12 play. The Buffs are even worse overall, as they've given up 416 points and scored 145. Over the last three games, they've been outscored 168-20, and they're among the bottom 10 teams nationally in total yards, points scored, total yards allowed and points allowed.
Colorado also is going through quarterback problems of its own, ruling out starter Jordan Webb in favor of letting the two younger quarterbacks on the roster -- Connor Wood and Nick Hirschman -- compete for the job to get some experience.
Arizona couldn't ask for a better opportunity to get that sixth win than will be presented in a brunch date with Colorado. Now all it has to do is answer its wake-up call from last week’s debacle against UCLA.
The last thing the Wildcats can do – given their vulnerability after last week’s ugly 66-10 loss – is think it’ll be easy. It’s never easy.
"I think every team is dangerous," Rodriguez said. "I just told the team that we need to take the approach that every team is dangerous and that we have to hold ourselves to a higher standard. Certainly in some games we have, but in other games -- like last weekend -- we didn’t play to our standard, so we have to get that fixed.”
A quick review of last week's tape should provide plenty to fix. Arizona wasn’t in it from the start and was in blowout territory by halftime, getting bruised and battered -- ego and otherwise. And now it must regroup without its starting quarterback, the focal point of the offense.
"Colorado might feel that they have a better chance after our game against UCLA, but we are going to prepare for them the way that we have been preparing for the other games,” Rodriguez said. “We’re not going to forget completely about the UCLA loss; we’re going to learn from the loss, but that game is in the past.”
Remembering the past should help provide motivation for the future. One more win and Arizona will at least have the possibility of a little more of a future this season.
But as the Wildcats know, winning is never easy.
NOTABLE
Colorado’s assistant head coach Rip Scherer was Arizona’s offensive coordinator in the late 1980s under former UA head coach Dick Tomey. Scherer left to become the head coach at Memphis.
