Darren Safrenek UA Junior offensive lineman

For the second week in a row, the UA football team managed to emerge from a game without many injuries. However, the one serious injury will end up costing a player the rest of his season.

Junior lineman Darren Safranek tore his ACL in the third quarter of Saturday's game against California in Berkeley, Calif.

"Darren Safranek is going to be out for the rest of the year," UA head coach John Mackovic said. "He is probably going to have surgery on his shoulder at a later time (as well)."

Junior defensive tackle Young Thompson sprained his ankle in the second quarter, but later returned to the game and is expected to play Saturday against Stanford.

Both junior running back Leo Mills and sophomore guard Reggie Sampay missed the Cal game because of injuries, but Mackovic said he expects both will be able to practice this week and play Saturday.

Mackovic told reporters Monday he had received a call from a Pacific 10 Conference official confirming that two calls that likely cost the Wildcats wins were incorrect.

The first incident occurred in UA's game with Washington on Oct. 20, when sophomore cornerback Michael Jolivette was face-masked by Huskies wide receiver Reggie Williams, preventing him from making a potentially game-saving interception in the end zone late in the fourth quarter. No call was made on the play.

The second occurred in UA's game against USC two weeks ago, when Bobby Wade's touchdown off a punt return was called back because a sideline referee called the junior wide receiver out of bounds.

Mackovic wasn't forthcoming with comments on either call because of the conference's strict rules against criticizing officials, but did say the Pac-10 admitted both calls were wrong.

Cal head coach Tom Holmoe, who announced his resignation effective at the end of the season Sunday, said after his team's loss that he was less than pleased with Mackovic's decision to not sit on the ball late in the game with a two-touchdown lead.

"(Arizona) did give us a chance to run a few (plays), but they felt they had a comfortable ," Holmoe said. "Maybe (Mackovic) was testing his players, to see what they could do with the lead, to see if they could continue to build · That was his call."

Mackovic retorted by saying he was simply responding to Cal's defensive play-calling.

"I would have been happy to sit on the ball if they hadn't been blitzing us every down," he said. "But when they were bringing everybody to the line of scrimmage, we didn't have any choice but to try and protect our team and protect what we had worked so hard for. I put John Rattay in, we started subbing all our guys, we were doing little or nothing - we hardly called any passes - and they started bringing nine guys to the line of scrimmage, and, at that point, our guys aren't punching bags. So he's probably just frustrated more than anything."

Mackovic said making a bowl game this season may require more than the Wildcats just winning their next two games against Stanford and ASU.

"We're playing for an undefeated November, and we need that to be bowl-eligible," Mackovic said. "At the same time, I think if we were fortunate enough to win these next two games, we also have to prove to some bowl people that we're a worthy team to be in a bowl game. So we have to do more than just win, we have to go out and play terrific football, so people will recognize us."