Arizona not scared of Autzen
■ Defense will be the key to
victory for the Arizona
Wildcats, who hope to stay in
the run for the roses
By Adam Jude
Oregon Daily Emerald
Arizona head coach Dick Tomey
said it’s not Autzen Stadium that
makes the Oregon football team so
good — it’s the Oregon football
team itself.
“Oregon’s home streak [of 18
games] is unbelievable,” said
Tomey, who ranks eighth all-time
in Pacific-10 Conference wins, but
has never won at Autzen Stadium.
“But the problem with playing up
there is Oregon’s team. There’s a lot
of noise that takes some time to ad
just to, but the team is the main
problem.”
Tomey insists that if you put a
less talented team in Autzen, the
wins wouldn’t come as easily.
“If you take a look at the confer
ence stats, they are number one in
a lot of categories,” Tomey said. “If
they had a bad team, and the crowd
was so loud that you couldn’t hear,
that wouldn’t be much of a chal
lenge.”
There’s too much at stake for the
21 st-ranked Wildcats (5-1, 3-0) in
this game, so don’t expect them to
look too far ahead.
“We can’t let uncontrollable, ex
ternal circumstances get in our
way,” said Tomey, who has led the
Wildcats to the best Pac-10 record
(59-30) over the last seven years.
Arizona’s fifth-year quarterback
Ortege Jenkins, who did not play in
the Wildcats’ last visit to Autzen in
1997, told the Arizona Daily Wild
cat that he is not intimidated by
Oregon’s rowdy fans.
“We understand that there are
some problems, and we know what
we have to do to make it happen,”
Jenkins said. “It’s a football stadi
um. It’s not like a dungeon where
they put poison in our food. It’s a
stadium; you play the game. It’s be
tween the lines that the game is
on.”
Perhaps Jenkins will change his
mind Saturday.
Nonetheless, the one thing that
the Wildcats know for sure, despite
all of the hype about Autzen, is that
their defense will have to stop the
Pac-lO’s top offense if they wish to
stay in Rose Bowl contention.
While Arizona’s rushing defense
Can you see Oregon quarterback
Joey Harrington’s mouth watering?
“I think we’ve proved we’re not a
great defense,” said Tomey, after his
team narrowly defeated Washing
ton State 53-47 in triple overtime
last weekend.
In that game, the Cougars’ Jason
Gesser threw for 378 yards and six
touchdowns.One positive for the
Wildcats’ defense is cornerback
Michael Jolivette. The redshirt
freshman is third in the nation with
five interceptions.
“Michael has shown maturity far
beyond his days this year,” Tomey
said. “It’s just incredible what he’s
done so far.’’Arizona’s offense has
also had its struggles. Jenkins is
barely completing 50 percent of his
passes, while his touchdown-to-in
terception ratio is just 7-to-5.
Overall, the Wildcats have the
worst offense in the Pac-10, averag
ing 310 yards per contest.
Both teams know the implica
tions that come in this matchup of
undefeated league teams. The
Wildcats are not letting the thought
of roses get to their heads, though.
CC It's a football stadium.
It's not like a dungeon
where they put poison in
our food. It's a stadium;
you play the game. ..This
game will be a big-time
game. If 11 test our
character; going up there
where people say you can’t
win.
Ortege Jenkins
Arizona quarterback
“We’ve done a good job of han
dling the fact that we were under
rated,” Tomey said. “Now we need
to handle the fact that we are get
ting a little recognition.”
The Wildcats are also not looking
past the Ducks.
“I'm not thinking Rose Bowl. I’m
thinking Oregon Ducks,” Jenkins
told USA Today. “This game will be
a big-time game. It'll test our char
acter, going up there where people
say you can't win.”
While there are four more confer
ence games after this weekend, the
championship trophy may likely be
decided Saturday in Eugene.
“[The champion] will be the
team that gets better from here on
out,” Tomey said. “You have to as
sume that every game you play in
the conference is for the champi
onship. It's going to be a wild fin
ish.”
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