|
Bearing down won't be easy
|
Monday October 1, 2001
The Arizona football team gave up 28 points in the first seven minutes of a game against unranked Washington State on Saturday. If you think that is bad, you might not want to show up when the Wildcats face No. 8 Oregon this Saturday night at Arizona Stadium.
Whether UA players and coaches are willing to admit it, things are not looking good for the Wildcats.
Saturday night's 48-21 trouncing courtesy of Washington State marked the sixth-straight conference loss for Arizona and served as a rude wake-up call for what is in store for the Wildcats this season.
Two of Arizona's next three opponents - Oregon and Washington - are nationally ranked. Unranked Oregon State - which the Wildcats play Oct. 13 - was selected by Sports Illustrated to win the national championship prior to this season. The Wildcats will likely be underdogs in their next three games.
"Obviously our confidence is a little shaken, but I think over all we have good guys and good players," junior quarterback Jason Johnson said. "We don't need to go over it and try to explain it. Everyone just needs to work on themselves. We know what happened. We didn't play up to our ability. You can't do that at the Pac-10 level."
Arizona's previous opponents this season - San Diego State, Idaho and UNLV - weren't exactly quality opponents. So far this season, the three schools are a combined 1-11.
How is Arizona expected to compete with national powerhouses like Oregon, Oregon State and Washington with a soft non-conference schedule?
UA sophomore running back Clarence Farmer, trying to make the best out of a bad situation, said he's going to pretend like Saturday's loss never happened.
"We don't look at the past - we look at the future," Farmer said. "We're looking for challenges and we except challenges."
Sophomore wide receiver Andrae Thurman said the team needs to find a way to get ready for today's practice, where preparation begins for the Ducks.
"Everybody's kind of down, but that's they way it is," Thurman said. "We have to get ready for (today). We have a long season ahead of us."
Although many of his teammates seemed down after the loss, Johnson - who always seems to say the right things - tried to be optimistic about the next few games.
"I think there are going to be some ups and down this season," Johnson said. "Sometimes you're not going to be the best, but the ones that succeed over the long haul are the ones that keep coming back and fighting and fighting."
|
