UA not looking past Indians

Aaron Wickenden Arizona Daily Wildcat Junior quarterback Keith Smith (12) warms up his arm before the game against UCLA Oct. 10 at Arizona Stadium. The Wildcats play Northeast Louisiana Saturday at 7 p.m.

The Indians are not the type of team usually scheduled by the Wildcats.

But when a home-and-home series with Virginia fell through, the UA coaches had to search high and low for someone to play.

They found only Northeast Louisiana, a team that jumped to Division I in 1994.

NLU (2-4 overall), though, is not the pushover that some might assume. It will test its mettle against UA tomorrow night at 7 at Arizona Stadium.

"We're playing another team that's had a bye (week), and we desperately need to improve in several areas," UA head coach Dick Tomey said. "This game is of equal significance with the Iowa game."

No. 14 Arizona (6-1) comes into the game off a solid performance at Oregon State, a 28-7 victory that saw the Wildcats rush for a season-high 228 yards and gave up only 21 yards to the Beaver running attack.

The Indians enter the game with two losses to nationally ranked teams, a 62-7 loss to No. 4 Kansas State that was close for the first half, and a 42-10 loss to No. 5 Florida.

UA junior quarterback Keith Smith spent much of the week studying tapes of the team Arizona has never faced.

"On tape they're very, very athletic," he said. "Like Coach Tomey says, they've got a lot of athletes down there that are really good. We definitely have to be ready to play."

NLU has had problems stopping the run this year, having been outrushed 1,013-421 so far. Junior defensive end Jonathan Foster has been the anchor of the line, racking up 19 tackles and three sacks.

The Indians also have a solid group of linebackers led by senior Sirl Wright and junior Nate Jones, who have 50 and 41 unassisted tackles, respectively.

Their job will be to stop a resurgent Arizona ground game led by junior Trung Canidate (403 yards, 3 TD), senior Kelvin Eafon (295 yards, 10 TD) and sophomore Leon Callen (244 yards, 1 TD).

Junior right guard Yusuf Scott said the line did nothing different last week in helping the running game get back on its feet.

"I truly believe in the performance we had and that we can do it again," he said. "Trung and Leon and Kelvin each did an exceptional job."

As for the Indians' secondary, Smith said they play 75 percent zone, and it's up to him and sophomore quarterback Ortege Jenkins to "find some holes" and get the ball to the UA's receiving corps.

Tomey said that NLU sophomore cornerback Pat Dennis "is as good a back as we play against this year."

Dennis has 35 tackles, one sack, four interceptions and nine passes broken up on the year.

"They like to do a lot of different coverages," Smith said. "We have to be prepared."

The Indians also have a pair of solid safeties in seniors Brian Taylor (team-high 58 tackles, 2 interceptions) and Dee Jefferson (48 tackles, 8 passes broken up).

They will have to contend with what is possibly the best receiving duo in UA history in senior Jeremy McDaniel (573 yards, 7 TD) and junior Dennis Northcutt (688 yards, 4 TD).

On the opposite side of the ball, NLU has one receiver whose stats compare favorably to Arizona's wide-outs.

Six-foot senior Marty Booker has amassed 666 yards with 42 receptions, five for touchdowns.

"They've got a really big receiver," said UA junior inside linebacker Scooter Sprotte (24 tackles, 3 INT). "So we'll have to put Chris (McAlister) on him."

Sprotte said that the Indians "run every possible offensive formation you can think of," so Arizona's defense will have to be on its toes.

Redshirt freshman Andre Vige (81 for 176, 1,115 yards, 8 INT, 7 TD) took over the starting quarterback job for NLU, but will have his hands full against Wildcats like senior cornerback McAlister (16 tackles, 2 INT, 10 passes broken up) and junior inside linebacker Marcus Bell (team-high 44 tackles, 3 sacks).

One thing that hasn't worked for the Indians so far is their running game, though it did show some signs of life recently. Junior Richard Love (185 yards, 1 TD) and senior fullback Alan Ricard (122 yards, 4 TD) have done the bulk of the carrying.

"If we just shut down that receiver (Booker) and their running game we'll be set," Sprotte said.

Chris Jackson can be reached via e-mail at Chris.Jakcson@wildcat.arizona.edu.