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Senior free safety wins back starting spot

All season long, UA head coach Dick Tomey has talked about giving players second chances.

That second chance has arrived for senior free safety Rafell Jones, who won back his starting job with a strong game against UCLA this weekend.

"We're probably going to start Rafell this week because I think he's done a good job of working his way (back)," Tomey said. "If he practices well, I think that's what Coach (Duane) Akina wants to do. He's really done a nice job of working his way back into things, Jarvie's done a nice job but last week, Rafell played better than Jarvie in the game. We have to reward that. Rafell might well deserve the start."

Jones was happy to hear he'd have his job back after losing it when he showed up late to a mandatory practice the morning after UA's 50-22 loss to Stanford.

"It feels great," Jones said. "You sit back and say you didn't think about it much. But I just knew that I had to come out day in and day out and work hard and elevate my game, but for my (fellow) players also.

"I had to get back on the field and have confidence starting with myself."

Tomey said he respects the way Jones has handled being benched.

"That hasn't been easy for him," Tomey said. "Because as a senior to lose your job to a freshman, to maintain your attitude and keep working I think that's been tough. But he's done that. And that stuff happens over the course of a season."

The question as to whether or not Arizona can still go to the Rose Bowl came up in the wake of the Wildcats' 33-7 win over the Bruins and Stanford's 35-30 loss to Washington.

Arizona can still make the Rose Bowl, but it's not going to be easy.

The best thing the Wildcats can do is to win out, sweeping Washington, Oregon State and Arizona State. That would leave UA at 6-2 in the conference.

If the Huskies lose to UA and then win out against Washington State and UCLA, UW will also finish 6-2.

Then, if Stanford loses once more, at home against California or on the road against Arizona State, and no one else finishes at 6-2 (Cal, ASU and Oregon still can, technically), then the following would be used to determine the conference champion because three teams would be 6-2.

Since UA beat UW but lost to Stanford which in turn lost to the Huskies, things would go to a point system. A team gets four points for each conference win and then three points for each non-conference win over a Division I team.

Arizona would wind up with 33 points that way, having swept TCU, UTEP and Middle Tennessee State. Washington only has one non-conference win, against Colorado, leaving the Huskies with 27 points. Stanford has lost its two non-conference games to date, against San Jose State and Texas, but still has a home game against Notre Dame coming up.

So the Cardinal will have either 24 or 27 points, but it really doesn't matter. The two lower scoring teams would be decided by their play against one another. Washington beat Stanford, so the Cardinal would be eliminated.

Then Arizona would win out over UW since UA beat the Huskies head-to-head.

Got all that?

Senior running back Trung Canidate enters the Washington game only 161 yards short of tying Ontiwaun Carter's school record of 3,501 rushing yards in a career.

While breaking Carter's record is something easily within his reach, Canidate isn't making too much out of the possibility.

"The main thing is I'm not even thinking about the record," he said. "Anything that happens is going to come. What I'm focusing on right now is the Huskies. That's my main goal, to win. If I achieve that the record will be secondary. It'll be something nice to look back on with my little kids someday."

With 588 yards of total offense against UCLA, the Wildcats have pulled off an improbable feat of five consecutive games with 500 or more yards of offense.

"It's extraordinary because it has never happened before in the history of the Pac-10," Tomey said. "And this conference has had all kinds of offenses that were just terrific."

Tomey's only regret is that UA couldn't win all five of those games.

"We won four of those games, but I would feel better if we had five W's," he said. "This week if we can get a 'W,' it doesn't matter how many yards we get."

Junior right guard Marques McFadden said there's really only one difference from last year to this year.

"We've got an explosive offense, pretty much the same offense we had last year," he said. "We're just running the ball more."