Arizona linebacker Spencer Larsen has 43 tackles, including 6 1/2 for losses, and two fumble recoveries in the Wildcats' last three games.

Related articles:

Opinion by Greg Hansen: Sea of change in two games averts shipwreck of season

Other articles by Greg Hansen:

Opinion by Greg Hansen: New team likely out of price range Opinion by Greg Hansen : Holy Toledo, you really expect another 70-point game today? Opinion by Greg Hansen : In '21, rout pushed Cats into new era; can history repeat? Opinion by Greg Hansen : Toros of old leave their mark on Tucson Opinion by Greg Hansen : Tucson baseball touched lives, made a differenceOpinion by Greg Hansen: Lopsided victories unusual and enjoyable for everyoneOpinion by Greg Hansen: Sunday notebook Opinion by Greg Hansen : At 61, former Wildcat aide still swinging on sideline for Idaho Opinion by Greg Hansen : 'Vagabond' Vomacka wins Southwest Section title Opinion by Greg Hansen : For most Olympians, true mettle comes later

Trades/Construction
Cascade Electric
Journeymen Electricians Dental
DENTAL ASSISTANT Employment Information
Plant Manager Trades/Construction
Borderland Construction
Carpenters Education
Sonoran Science Academy
Elementary Teacher General
Confidential
Lead Maintenance Restaurants and Clubs
Buffalo Wild Wings
Cooks, Greeters, Servers, Cashiers, and Bartenders

Dear Mr. Football: Who is the most successful offensive coordinator in Arizona history?

A: Introducing UCLA's assistant head coach, Dino Babers. His 1999 UA team averaged 471 yards per game of total offense, which is unthinkable in the context of Arizona's unproductive football history. The runner-up? Babers' '98 team, which averaged 445 yards.

Babers' '98 team averaged 35 points in the regular season, the highest total in modern UA history.

Dear Mr. Football: Why isn't there a statue of Babers at this offense-forsaken school?

A: He was encouraged to seek employment elsewhere in November 2000, when Dick Tomey also was pushed from the premises.

If you are superstitious, you would tend to shy away from having Babers on your coaching staff. Coaches at five schools at which Babers coached, 1990-2002, ultimately were fired or requested to leave. It started with Steve Axman at NAU, Jim Colletto at Purdue, Ted Tollner at San Diego State, Tomey and R.C. Slocum at Texas A&M. Not that Slocum deserved any empathy; he demoted Babers in the third game of the '02 season, trying to save his own backside.

Babers then coached one year for Walt Harris at Pitt, who bolted the Panthers program just to be fired after two years at Stanford.

Got that Karl Dorrell?

Dear Mr. Football: Arizona has allowed 27.9 points per game, fifth-worst in the school's Pac-10 history. Has defensive coordinator Mark Stoops ever been in a fix like this?

A: Here's a healthy perspective: 19 years ago, Mark Stoops was sitting on the sidelines at Iowa, a safety whose knee had been torn apart two weeks earlier against Michigan, ending his season. A week before that, his father, 54-year-old Ron Stoops died of a heart attack while coaching a high school football game in Ohio.

So, no, allowing 572 yards at Washington (and winning) is not a problem.

Dear Mr. Football: Wasn't that 48-41 UW game fun? Why can't we have more 48-41 games?

A: History lesson: In Pac-10 history, 1978-current, only two games finished 48-41 in regulation. Arizona played in both, losing 48-41 to USC here in 1982.

Scoring 40 or more points in regulation and losing in the Pac-10 is freakish. It has happened 18 times in roughly 1,175 conference games. Arizona has done so twice: that '82 game against USC and a 44-41 game here against Oregon in 1999.

Dear Mr. Football: The Los Angeles Times last week referred to UCLA's game at Washington State as an area of "nothingness.'' Is that correct? Have those cosmopolitan big shots ever been to Eloy or Ajo or to see "The Thing'' near Willcox?

A: The UA is almost without doubt the most remote location for a BCS football school. Tucson is surrounded by millions of acres of dust. The surrounding area makes the road to Pullman, Wash., come off as Tahiti (with periods of blowing snow).

But as one who has traveled the Pac-10 road since 1978, I would rate the bottom of the Pac-10's football game-day experiences with 9, UCLA and 10, USC, far below much-mocked and ridiculed Pullman and Corvallis, Ore.

The cumulative effects of smog, congestion, the random chances of being shot and the relative lack of community interest in L.A. make Pullman a more desirable destination for a football game.

Put it this way: the L.A. Coliseum remains the only place at which security guards have escorted me (and other reporters) to the parking lot.

Dear Mr. Football: How difficult is it for an Arizona linebacker to be the Pac-10 defensive player of the week?

A: Spencer Larsen's last three games have been the best of his career: 43 tackles (6 1/2 of them for losses), an interception and two fumble recoveries. That's a season for a lot of linebackers. And yet he did not get the Pac-10's weekly award. That bites.

The only UA linebackers to ever receive the award are Ricky Hunley, Chris Singleton and Marcus Bell. All were multiple winners. All became NFL starters. Larsen has inched into that territory but doesn't get the recognition because, unlike Bell, Hunley and Singelton, he plays on lousy UA football teams.

Dear Mr. Football: What is KJD8 Enterprises?

A: It is the name of Dorrell's business entity, which has a contract with UCLA through 2011. That's two years longer than Mike Stoops' contract.

The coach whose team wins today's game will get a one-week reprieve from the fire-the-coach theme. An Arizona win would almost surely keep Stoops employed here in 2008.

Not so for Dorrell; after losing to Utah, an abysmal Notre Dame team and an even-worse Washington State club, Dorrell's future is much murkier. The Bruins still must play USC, Oregon and Arizona State.

If Arizona loses today, Stoops' business entity would be wise to adopt the title SOS Enterprises.

But there is one big difference. If UCLA loses today, Dorrell's job is almost irretrievably lost. If Arizona loses, so what? It's going to take more than a loss to UCLA — and probably more than losses to Oregon and ASU — to trigger a coaching change at Arizona.