Georgia Tech game homecoming for Yellowjacket coach

By Craig Degel

Arizona Daily Wildcat

Maybe someone should get Arizona football coach Dick Tomey a new watch ‹ one that has the day.

The shorter duration between games that the Wildcats are experiencing this week has caused Tomey and the rest of the Arizona football team to adjust their mental clocks a bit. Tomey walked into his weekly press conference on Monday and said, ³It doesn¹t feel like Wednesday ... but it is.²

Tomey was referring to the fact that Monday was three days before game day, which traditionally is Saturday. Arizona will play a television-friendly game tomorrow night against Georgia Tech. The game will be carried nationally on the Prime Sports Network.

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Backup tailback Robbie Glanton, who transfered from Northwestern in 1994, did not play in Saturday night¹s game after being declared academically ineligible. Tomey said he did not know when, or if, Glanton would return this season. However, under the Buckley Ammendment, which protects a student¹s privacy, Tomey was unable to comment further on the situation.

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Georgia Tech first-year quarterback coach Eddie Wilson will be experiencing a homecoming of sorts when Gerogia Tech visits Arizona Stadium tomorrow night. Wilson quarterbacked the Wildcats for three years, from 1959 to ¹61. He also served as Arizona¹s quarterback coach under head coaches Jim LaRue and Bob Weber from 1967-71. Wilson was a third-team All-American in ¹61 as well as an Academic All-American.

After leaving Arizona, Wilson spent five years in professional football with the NFL¹s Kansas City Chiefs, New England Patriots and Miami Dolphins. He also spent 1974 as quarterback coach for the Kansas City Chiefs, working alongside head coach Hank Stram.

In an area where many schools are deficient ‹ namely, graduation rates ‹ Wilson¹s record is impeccable. In 28 years of college coaching, all but three of Wilson¹s athletes have finished school within five years. Of course, he did coach at Duke and Army.

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The UA running game will face a much tougher test this week when it goes up against the Georgia Tech defensive line. The Yellowjackets line is coached by Larry New, who knows a thing or two about defense.

New was a defensive lineman and college teammate of Dick Butkus at Illinois and was the defensive line coach last season at Virginia, which had the No. 1 rushing defense in the nation. The test should be a good one for what is still a largely untested offensive line ‹ one that has an approaching showdown with the nation¹s most highly touted defensive presence, linebacker Simeon Rice of Illinois

³I don¹t even want to talk about Simeon,² UA offensive line coach Charles Dickey said. ³I guarantee you those guys (on the offensive line) don¹t even know who that is.²

Rice is a probably candidate for the Butkus Award, All-America honors, and a long shot for the Heisman Trophy.

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Arizona players dominated the first AT&T Long Distance Awards of the 1995 college football season as the 17th-ranked Wildcats came up with two of the longest plays in NCAA Division I-A this weekend in their 41-9 rout of Pacific.

Quarterback Dan White and reciever Richard Dice won the award for longest pass play, an 89-yard touchdown connection. Jon Prasuhn took the honors for longest field goal with his kick of 57 yards.

In honor of their ³long distance² accomplishments, AT&T has donated $800 to the NCAA¹s Degree-Completion Program. White, Dice, and Prasuhn will each be awarded an engraved plaque in recognition of their achievements.

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