Confidence replaced the familiar smog in the Los Angeles air during the annual Pac-10 football Media Day yesterday at the Sheraton Gateway Hotel in the middle of downtown.
"We're very excited about next year," and "I'm very optimistic," were the phrases of the day among the coaches and players available to the media during the five-hour event.
Arizona head coach Mike Stoops said he noticed the hopefulness surrounding the festivities as well.
"I think it's the greatest time in sports when a season gets started," the second-year UA coach said, "everyone is excited and optimistic about the year.
"We're no different, we feel like we have a chance to have an outstanding football team," he said.
Darrell Brooks, Arizona's senior safety and the player chosen to accompany Stoops and represent his teammates at Media Day, exuded some of the confidence of which there was no shortage in the hotel.
"We expect nothing less than a bowl game," he said. "We're not making any predictions about which bowl we're going to, but we just know that we're going to develop and improve every aspect of our game."
While the media voted that the Wildcats would finish the Pacific 10 Conference schedule eighth in the preseason Media Poll, the prediction didn't have much of an effect on Brooks.
"We don't worry about what people say about us, we know that we're going to perform well," he said, then turning his attention to the first game of the season in Utah on September 2nd.
"Utah's a team that we played horrible against (during last season's 23-6 loss in Tucson), and we gave them the closest game they had all season," he said. "We didn't play well and we have a chip on our shoulder about that."
Two-time defending National Champion Southern California was a unanimous pick to win the conference again in 2005, as the team returns Heisman trophy winning quarterback Matt Leinart and tailback Reggie Bush, a Heisman finalist, to its lineup. California was picked to finish second, followed by Arizona State, Oregon, and UCLA to round out the top five. Washington State, Oregon State, Arizona, Stanford and Washington rounded out the Pac-10's ten-team field.
Brooks drew some parallels between the Wildcats of 2004 – Arizona finished 3-8 overall and 2-6 in Pac-10 play a year ago – and the 2005 versions of Washington and Stanford. Both schools will be led by new coaches this year, with former Notre Dame and Stanford head coach Tyrone Willingham taking over the Huskies in Seattle and former Pittsburgh head coach Walt Harris taking over the Cardinal in Palo Alto, Calif.
"There's definitely a learning curve that comes with having a new coach," Brooks said. "(Stanford and Arizona's) situations are similar. There's a lot of talent there, (the hard part) is learning how to win and gaining that experience."
A hot topic for discussion Tuesday was the installation of instant replay to all Pac-10 games.
"Anytime you can try and get the call right, we're all for it," Stoops said. "The game moves awfully fast and human error is part of the game, but if we can correct the mistake to overturn something to get it right then I'm all for it."
According to Stoops, one of the most meaningful quotes of the day came from a player who wasn't even in Los Angeles for the event.
"It was Brad Wood that said, 'Last year we were trying to build a team, now we're trying to build a program,'" Stoops said, quoting his junior tight-end.