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Key seniors, captains say farewell

As the Arizona football team limped off the field in Tempe on Saturday, the UA seniors knew it was all over.

That didn't make taking off their uniforms after the game any easier.

"I don't even know if I'm taking it off," senior linebacker Marcus Bell said. "I've had some great times here, I'm glad I came. It's a stepping stone to life. Sometimes you go out on top and sometimes you got out in second place. But I mean you've got to learn from this and keep going. I just hope these young guys learn from this and step it up next year. We've got a bunch of great people on this team and I just hope they learn from this and don't ever feel like this again."

Five seniors, Bell, fellow linebacker DaShon Polk, quarterback Keith Smith, wide receiver Dennis Northcutt and running back Trung Canidate, leave among the best to ever play at Arizona.

The final stats on the season and for their careers were impressive for all five:

Canidate finished with 1,602 yards on the season, leading the Pac-10 for the second straight year, and with 3,824 yards in his career, No. 1 all-time at Arizona.

Northcutt finished with 1,422 receiving yards and 88 receptions on the season, the best-ever in a season in both categories in UA history. He also set the record for career receptions (220) and career receiving yards (3,252).

Smith was 131-of-228 on the year for 1,903 yards, 10 touchdowns and eight interceptions, plus 151 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns. For his career, he was 434-for-726 for 5,972 yards (third all-time), 42 touchdowns, 27 interceptions, 1,077 rushing yards and 15 touchdowns rushing. He is second all-time in total offense with 7,049 yards.

Bell finished with a Pac-10-leading 124 tackles on the season and 405 in his career, including 43 for a loss over his four seasons at Arizona.

Polk had 70 tackles including 13 for a loss and three sacks. He had 182 tackles in his career, 38 of which were for a loss and 11 sacks.

"To me you have to give a message to the guys that are seniors," UA head coach Dick Tomey said after the ASU game. "You have to let them know much you appreciate how much they've done for this program and not to let them continue to beat themselves up over this defeat. Marcus Bell had 20 tackles and he's everywhere. We had so many guys that gave heroic performances, but as a team we're 6-6. As I said, that's where we are. We can't say we were so-and-so a year ago, we're 6-6, that's exactly what we were."