Connor Doyle Staff Writer

There's no more talk of a conference title, no more talk of being able to win every game on the schedule. To say things have changed for the Arizona football team would be an understatement of epic proportions.

The running back, the one that made the Playboy All-America team, is on the sidelines with a blown knee. Right beside him is the all-conference cornerback with the same problem. Behind them are the senior free safety with a broken arm, the cluster of offensive linemen who can't play and the No. 3 running back with the broken ankle. As for the ones who have suited up to play, it seems its only a matter of time before the slight limp or the grimace after a hard hit turns into a "questionable" on next week's stat sheet.

At times this season it's hard to tell the difference between the Arizona sideline and a M*A*S*H unit.

This is what's happened to the 2002 edition of John Mackovic's Wildcats.

A season full of promise, or at least a lower-tier bowl game is lost to a rash of mostly freak injuries almost unfathomable at the beginning of the season. This team has suffered more misfortune than Job.

Sure, a Rose Bowl berth wasn't realistic, even though some thought it could be. But maybe expecting a great team wasn't either. But a good one was. All the signs were there for Arizona to have its first winning season since that magical year that ended with a Holiday Bowl win over Nebraska in 1999.

Before the season began, quarterback Jason Johnson ÷ one of the few starters who's managed to avoid injury ÷ said there wasn't a team on the schedule that they couldn't be beat. He was overconfident, perhaps, but it was a nice deviation from the usual pessimism that generally permeates this program.

Players on the team still maintain that a bowl bid is not out of the question.

But neither is cold fusion.

So when Washington State comes into Arizona Stadium tomorrow night, the Wildcats will simply be playing on, and playing for, pride. There was plenty of that shown in losses to Oregon and Washington, but little last week against Stanford. And while it's convenient to slam Arizona for losing to an awful Stanford team, the loss itself was inevitable. How much more gas did fans expect this team to have?

If Arizona wins tomorrow, it will be a huge upset. In fact, it might be the single most improbable win for the program since the Dick Tomey era.

But the more likely upset is for Arizona to leave this game no more injured than it was before.

That way, when the oh-so-beatable UCLA Bruins come into town, suffering some key injuries of their own, the Wildcats might not be such prohibitive underdogs. Who knows, maybe a win against UCLA and Oregon State will be enough to quiet the rumblings of disappointment over another losing season.

Then again, as long as the team that plays right down the block is among the best in the country, seventh-place in the Pac-10 for the football team will likely never be good enough.