Wildcat weaknesses apparent in season opener

Arizona Daily Wildcat Ryan Springston

The kicking game, from the opening kickoff to the punting, seemed to stick out the most in Tomey's mind.

"Our biggest failure was the kicking game," Tomey said. "The punting duel in the first half was completely one-sided."

Oregon punter Josh Bidwell averaged 40.5 yards on 11 kicks while Arizona punter Ryan Springston averaged only 34.2 yards on his 10 punts.

Both of Oregon's scoring drives started in Arizona territory.

The touchdown drive early in the second quarter started at the 36-yard line - after a miserable Springston punt. The drive resulting in a field goal began on the Arizona 49-yard line.

The kickoff troubles speak for themselves.

"I have never had a game start like that," said Tomey of McCullough' s 93-yard opening kickoff return. "I felt like we could crawl our way through that (the opening kickoff). Anytime you get your butt kicked it's a sick feeling.

"The opening kickoff was only 3.5 (seconds) hang-time, and that makes it very hard to cover the kicks," Tomey said. "The key to kickoffs is height, not how far it goes."

Now Arizona has to dig itself out of a hole and it doesn't have much time with highly-ranked Ohio State on the road in two weeks and then UCLA, who always plays Arizona tough at home, at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif.

"I hope they hurt, and I hope it didn't feel good; I hope it killed them, because if it didn't then we really have a problem," Tomey said.

"But also, they have to stay together, they can't start pointing fingers. They have to look at themselves and say: How do I make a greater contribution, whether I played every play or no plays, to the team. And then we have to understand that it is hard as hell to win a college football game."

Tomey insisted that there is no quarterback controversy, he just has an experienced back-up in Brady Batten.

"We had game-planned for Keith (Smith) to play, and Brady (Batten) to come in only if Keith needed a blow," he said. "But Keith missed some reads and we thought that he needed to settle down."

Ultimately, Tomey doesn't want to read too much into the first game.

"I don't think that we can draw major conclusions from the first game, positive or negative," he said.

If anything supports his claim, it's the fact that Washington lost their conference/season opener last season and went on to the Holiday Bowl.

"I am concerned with the rest of the season," Tomey said. "Our pride is hurt, but our belief is still solid."