All Division I-A opponents and Wildcats receive votes in ESPN coaches poll

At the Pacific 10's annual Media Day, the Arizona football team was picked to finish last, but the Wildcats are confident they will become the latest 10th-place pick to have a winning record.

In head coach Mike Stoops's first year, the Wildcats were picked to finish 10th by the West Coast Media, which regularly covers the league.

"This is obviously a very exciting time for me and for our program. There are a lot of expectations out there," Stoops told the assembled media. "I don't know what we're picked, it's probably not close to the top, but this football team is very excited."

Junior running back Mike Bell, the UA's player representative at Media Day, said the Wildcats will beat the 2-10 (1-7 against Pac-10 opponents) record, that earned them last place in 2003.

"Coach (Stoops) came in with a lot of expectations, and he's just making our team so much better. Just him being around our team is making us a better team," Bell said to the media. "The communication is clear and straightforward as to what we have to do to be able to play. There's no miscommunication at all."

The Wildcats were just behind Stanford, which had 40 points to the UA's 38. USC had 240 and all 24 first place votes, the first time that has happened since the league became the Pac-10.

The media poll has picked the champion 21 of 43 times, though has picked the correct champ in five of the last six years. In two of the last three years the team picked to finish last posted a winning record.

The media picked California to finish second, Oregon third, Oregon State fourth, Washington State fifth, Arizona State sixth, Washington seventh and UCLA eighth.

Stoops was excited about the work the Wildcats have put into the off-season workouts.

"When I think about the past seven or eight months, I'm proud of what we've accomplished. When I took this position, I knew it would be a challenge at the beginning," Stoops said. "The players have made it very easy for me and they're very excited about having some success on the football field again. We feel we're a much stronger football team than we were back in December."

Every single one of the Wildcats' division I-A opponents received at least one vote in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches' poll, which came out last week. Southern California is ranked No. 1 by a wide margin, California No. 15, Utah No. 21, Wisconsin No. 22 and Oregon No. 25.

Oregon State, Washington State, UCLA, Arizona State and Washington also received votes. The Beavers were listed at No. 27, the Cougars at No. 29 and the Sun Devils and Huskies - along with Arizona - received one vote.

The Wildcats report to camp on Sunday and begin practice on Monday. Training camp practices are closed to the public, although there will be scrimmages on Aug. 14 and Aug. 20, Fan Appreciation Day.

"We've stressed a work ethic that will allow us to have success," Stoops said in Los Angeles. "I think our team will be able to play with more velocity in fall camp after spending spring learning our systems."

Umeh's death linked to enlarged heart

The autopsy report for former UA football player McCollins Umeh was released last week and, as expected, his death was attributed to an enlarged heart.

Shortly after his June 8 death, the Pima County Medical Examiner's Office concluded his death was not related to the afternoon heat and that he had an enlarged heart.

"The death of this adult male, McCollins Umeh, is ascribed to concentric hypertrophic cardiomyopathy," forensic pathologist Cynthia Porterfield, D.O. wrote in her report.

According to the American Heart Association, this condition, usually found in young adults, occurs when the muscle mass of the left ventricle enlarges. The "obstruction to blood flow from the left ventricle increases the ventricle's work."

In an AHA study from 1985 to 1995, HCM was the cause of 36 percent of the deaths of "young competitive athletes" with their median age being 17. Umeh, the UA's top recruit from the 2004 class, died shortly after his first workout as a Wildcat. UAPD's case has been closed, requiring no additional follow-up.