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Banged-up Wildcat secondary ready for Bruin aerial attack
![[Picture]](12_1_i.gif)
UCLA throws the ball a lot. This is a fact not lost on the Arizona secondary, a unit that must prepare for Saturday's showdown minus some key players. Junior cornerback Leland Gayles is out after suffering a bruised nerve, junior free safety Rafell Jones has to sit out the first half after getting ejected for fighting at Washington and senior strong safety LaChaux Rich's injured foot has yet to fully heal. "We're not sure yet," secondary coach Duane Akina said of Rich's chances to play Saturday. "There's a real outside chance he will play, but he won't be able to practice all week long." Akina said Gayles will "be out for quite a while. It was quite a shock and a scare he went through." But even without the two injured players, senior cornerback Chris McAlister is feeling good about Arizona's chances against Bruin quarterback and Heisman candidate Cade McNown. "I'm very confident," McAlister said. "They'll hold up just as good as the starters. If they can win a game without me, we can win it without those guys." The reserves who will get called into action that McAlister referred to are redshirt freshman free safety A.J. Brown, junior cornerback Kelvin Hunter and junior strong safety Greg Payne. Payne started the Wildcats' last two games after Rich's injury while Hunter started in place of McAlister against the Huskies when McAlister was suspended for a game by the NCAA. "It's giving me a lot of motivation right now," McAlister said of his unplanned weekend off. Akina said McAlister's enthusiasm is apparent. "Chris is fairly excited. We might have to pour a little water on him to cool him down," Akina said. "He's really handled this thing well and is just concentrating on UCLA now." Ê Ê Jones was still feeling remorseful about the incident at Washington that led to his suspension. "It was just a little situation where I got into a confrontation with a lineman," he said. "He had an aggressive hold on my face mask and I swung at him. From a team standpoint, it was a pretty selfish thing to do." Akina agreed with Jones' personal assessment. "I was very disappointed in his decision," Akina said. "But you know a guy in that position needs to maintain his poise and wait 35 seconds until they break the huddle." Jones' replacement in the first half against the Bruins will be Brown. "Definitely," Jones said when asked if Brown can handle himself. "Even if I didn't have confidence in him the coaches did. I talk to him everyday at practice about what he needs to do." Akina said Brown may be suffering some jitters prior to his first start. "A.J. is a pretty cool customer but I think he is nervous," Akina said. "You want a little nervousness and a lot of confidence. He has a week to prepare and he needs to come in and get some extra time with me. We'll try to keep it as basic as possible but it's going to be hard when you're playing such a good offense." As for whether or not Brown will still be playing in the second half when Jones' suspension ends, Akina was fairly candid. "I'll cross that bridge if I see a tremendous game from A.J.," he said. Ê Ê As of yesterday afternoon at about 4 p.m. there were only 400 tickets remaining for the game. By the day's end there were no remaining student tickets and only a few scattered singles for the general public. All of this follows up Monday's record of 5,839 tickets sold in a single day. Arizona was estimated to have 11,500 tickets remaining for the game, but the tickets disappeared almost as fast as Washington's 28-24 lead last Saturday. The team is trying to pitch a "red siege" campaign for the game, asking fans to wear as much red as possible. UA first tried this tactic for men's basketball against Stanford last year. It is a variant of the Phoenix Coyotes' popular "white-outs" used during the NHL Playoffs last year. Chris Jackson can be reached via e-mail at Chris.Jackson@wildcat.arizona.edu.
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