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Revenge is oh so sweet

Saturday night, a few students stood in the front row of the north corner Rose Bowl end zone screaming, "Mrs. Northcutt!" as she was interviewed by Fox Sports. The Arizona Wildcats played perhaps the best 60 minutes of football since Dec. 30, 1998 when they defeated Nebraska 23-20.

Everything was running on all cylinders for the Wildcats as the names that will soon be enshrined on Hall of Fame row at Arizona Stadium were playing for their lives.

Dennis Northcutt, Keith Smith, Trung Canidate, Bruce Wiggins, Joe Tafoya, Marcus Bell and, yes, Sean Keel, were the reasons the Wildcats exacted their revenge on the UCLA Bruins, a team that cost them the Rose Bowl not once, but twice a year ago.

The Bruins beat the UA in a horrible loss on Family Weekend, and then lost to Miami as Edgerrin James, now with the Indianapolis Colts, ran over, around and through them, costing the Bruins a shot at the national championship and the Wildcats their first-ever Rose Bowl berth.

Not only were the Wildcats on a mission of revenge, it was also a return home for many players, but no one had the homecoming welcome that Northcutt had. His aforementioned mother had bought almost 100 tickets for the game, and his family, friends and faithful admirers were out in full-force, watching the man who is having one of the best seasons any UA player has ever had.

"I have no idea what the people in the nation think, but there is not one person in the country that is having a better year than Dennis Northcutt," UA head coach Dick Tomey said. "Anyone that has watched him play has to be so impressed."

Northcutt didn't score any points for the UA on this night, but he did get his yards, 168 of them to be exact. More importantly, though, they got a needed victory in grand ol' style.

It was over a year ago, Oct. 10, that the Wildcats were playing evenly with a Bruin team, that was much better than the team that Bob Toledo threw out onto the field on Saturday. But, at the end of the third quarter, with UCLA leading 31-28, the Bruins ruined the Wildcats' Rose Bowl hopes for the first time in just over a minute, scoring three touchdowns.

That was last year; two different teams with each team's leaders now in the NFL, but the Wildcats couldn't let that happen again. Arizona went into halftime with a 20-7 lead and the game in control, but they knew that it wasn't over.

The offensive line, though, came out in the second half and made sure it was over. They pushed, scratched, clawed and fought their way to 243 rushing yards on 32 attempts, sealing a victory and, once again, keeping the Pac-10 race wide open.

"It was very important for us to establish a running game, with a lead like we had it was important to take some time off the clock so the game didn't last forever," Tomey said.

Next up is Washington, a team that just knocked off the stalwart Stanford Cardinal and the game should be picked up by ABC. It's Homecoming, and UA is playing for second place in the conference and a possible three-way tie for first.

It is Arizona's toughest challenge of the season, this is the game that makes or breaks football players. So, let's wait to see what happens, but for right now, UA coaches, players and fans should enjoy this one, because revenge is oh so sweet in Southern California.