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Wildcats again mired in familiar territory: picking up the piecesArizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 10.08.2007
CORVALLIS, Ore. — One of these days, the UA football program may very well get it turned around.
When it might actually happen is anyone's guess.
Saturday's 31-16 loss at Oregon State lessened the Wildcats' chances of making a bowl game and all but silenced any talk that the program had arrived in Year 4 of the Mike Stoops era.
A week after dismantling Washington State at home, Arizona was humbled by a middling Oregon State team in a game both teams described as must-win.
The defeat left the Wildcats in a familiar position: trying to explain how optimism could come crashing down in a matter of minutes. And things don't get any easier: Arizona will travel to the Los Angeles Coliseum this weekend to take on a stunned — and steamed — USC team.
"It's a bad habit that we have," defensive end Jason Parker said. "We can only afford a few more losses before our goals are shattered."
Arizona has lost 39 of 52 Pac-10 games since Dick Tomey resigned under pressure on the final day of the 2000 season.
The UA football program has been said to have turned the corner no fewer than four times since then. Each time, the Wildcats have run into brick walls.
Arizona has won back-to-back conference games under Stoops twice, including a three-game Pac-10 winning streak last season.
Saturday's loss kept the Cats from both their third such streak and the opportunity to improve to above .500 in conference play for the first time since 2000.
Arizona has displayed an uncanny ability to surprise — and disappoint — with regularity.
"I don't know if we ever quite got the confidence where we expected to win. It's a thing I can't explain," UA linebacker Spencer Larsen said. "We have the potential, and we have the ability, but we haven't played to that level. I can't think of one game where we've played our best and lost."
Players say it's hard to explain how the Wildcats can be so close one week and so far away the next.
As recently as nine days ago, the UA was celebrating a breakthrough offensive performance against Washington State.
Saturday, they were left trying to explain what went wrong.
"Words don't describe what it feels like to play so hard last week and come back this week and seemingly play as if we've never been in this offense before," center Blake Kerley said.
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