By
Maxx Wolfson
LOS ANGELES - Arizona was predicted to finish ninth out of 10 teams in the Pacific 10 Conference's annual preseason media poll last week.
The Wildcats were also nowhere to be found when the ESPN/USA Today Coaches' Poll came out last week, while four other conference teams - Oregon (8), Oregon State (12), Washington (14) and UCLA (15) - found themselves among the top 15. That's not including Southern California and Stanford, who both received votes to be included in the top 25.
Is this a slap in the face for a team that finished with the second-best defense in the conference last season? Does Arizona deserve more respect at this point in the season?
Nope.
With a brand-new coach and no clear choice at quarterback, the critics have a right to have roll past the Wildcats like a semi on Interstate 10.
But here is some good news - the polls and media usually aren't right.
This all came very to clear to me during the 1999 season, my first year as a student at the UA.
So for all the incoming freshmen out there, here's some advice that will help you save your money and spend it on better things like beer and pizza.
If your high school friends are going to be attending schools such as Oregon, Oregon State or Washington, make sure not to bet on the Wildcats this year. Just take my word for it.
In my first football game as a student at the UA, Arizona traveled to Happy Valley to take on Penn State.
Ranked No. 4 in the country and coming off a 12-1 season, the Wildcats had captured the imagination of the entire city. And despite being a UCLA fan growing up (what - you got a problem with that?), I was feeling pretty good about my new favorite college football team.
I decided to call one of my high-school buddies who was a freshman at Penn State. We made a friendly wager and we both thought there was no way our school was going to lose.
I sat down at my soon to be fraternity house and had a feeling of excitement about watching a football game I hadn't had since the Green Bay Packers won the Super Bowl two years before.
Penn State scored on the opening kickoff. I wasn't worried though, because I was sure that Ortege Jenkins and Trung Canidate were going to respond.
Then Arizona handed the ball back to Penn State and the Lions scored on 77-yard reverse to go up 14-0. It was all downhill from there.
Boy was I wrong about Arizona. UA got its butts handed to them by the Nittany Lions, 41-7. Needless to say, heavy drinking ensued.
My new school and the football team I was defending from the first day I stepped foot on campus six months before just got embarrassed. Worst of all it was on national television.
My phone was ringing off the hook from family and friends all over the country making fun of Arizona. And, of course, I got a call from my buddy at Penn State wanting to collect his winnings.
Oh well, I thought, it could only get better. Wrong again - Arizona ended its 1999 campaign a disappointing 6-6 and sat at home during the bowl season.
But the big story from the Pac-10 that year was not the collapse of the Wildcats. It was the surprise of the Stanford Cardinal.
Picked to finish No. 8 in the Pac-10 by the media in 1999, Stanford won the conference and played in the Rose Bowl. It just goes to show you how much the media knows.
Unfortunately, I was not asked to vote in the media poll this year. If I had, I think I would have given UA a little more credit and probably put them No. 5 in the conference between Washington at No. 4 and Southern Cal at No. 6.
Not that it would mean anything.
