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Coming to life


[Picture]

Wildcat File Photo
Arizona Daily Wildcat

Dan Rosen


By Dan Rosen
Arizona Daily Wildcat, September 8, 1999

It took them six quarters, but the University of Arizona football team finally found that spark they possessed for all of the 1998 season.

After a 29-minute rain delay, the Wildcats ran onto the field and proceeded to do everything wrong in the first 30 minutes of the game.

Leo Mills fumbled the opening kick and then thought he was in the end zone so he downed it. Well, he obviously was not, and it resulted in a safety one play later.

From then on the Wildcats were just plain bad. They fumbled some more, threw interceptions, got sacked, didn't open any holes and worst of all, they let a running back beat them on defense.

LaDainian Tomlinson is a good running back, but the way he was running over the UA defense was eerily reminiscent of last week's debacle in Happy Valley. Except this time, it was a running back finding all the holes and skipping around a lazy defense, instead of a wide receiver.

To make matters even worse, the camera angles were horrible. We only got to look at the game from a blimp view, and the camera operators couldn't keep up with the play.

It was not a pretty sight and the chant of "overrated" echoed through the living rooms of all Wildcat fans. Who was this team? Why are they playing so bad? Where is that fire? Are they last year's version of ASU?

The Wildcats went into the locker room down 23-7, questioning whether or not they let the preseason hype go to their heads.

We don't know what was said in the dungeon of a locker room during those 15 minutes, but somebody must have said something right. Somebody decided to take the time to speak his mind. Somebody got pissed off and was not ready to go down 0-2 and risk losing the season for good.

Who that somebody was, we may never know, but it worked.

The Wildcats came out with that fire in the second half. They showed why they are a preseason favorite to win the Pac-10, and they showed that they were not going to go quietly into the cloudy Texas night.

Despite giving up a safety in the first three minutes of the third quarter, there was something different on the sidelines. UA got the ball back, down 25-7 now, and started what could be the biggest four minutes of the 1999 season.

Ortege Jenkins hooked up with Dennis Northcutt twice and Brandon Manumaleuna once for 21 points in a span of 3 minutes and 46 seconds to put the Wildcats up 28-25.

They were excited, the fans were excited, and in a sense, they finally brought the game that they had advertised all preseason.

The fourth quarter was a little slow to start and after giving up two field goals, the Wildcats again found themselves in the hole.

This, though, was a hole they finally had confidence that they could dig themselves out of. Keith Smith came in, and one minute and 31 seconds later, Northcutt was again dancing in the end zone, a scene the Wildcats became very familiar with on Sunday.

The Wildcats had one more obstacle, stop TCU one last time. They did, and the team that had been under turmoil from a few newcomers deciding to steal a few bucks to a devastating loss at Penn State in front of the country, finally had reason to celebrate.

They may not have won in convincing style, but they did it in front of tremendous adversity. They were not about to throw away the season, and they didn't.


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