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Arizona Football: Who Will Lead the Wildcats to Victory?

By Shereen Rayan

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The Arizona football team has been involved in a whirlwind of injuries, rumors, and controversy. Can they pull off a miracle and beat the Trojans this weekend?

Wildcats fans are hoping for a miracle this weekend as most are struggling to figure out what happened last weekend other than the obvious. There is nothing wrong with faith.

On paper, it’s not looking good, and it seems the Wildcats will need to indeed pull off a Miracle to win.

Or not.

Oct 31, 2015; Seattle, WA, USA; Arizona Wildcats

The game of football is not only about what’s on paper, but it’s also about heart, it’s about pride for the team, for the school, and for the players themselves. After all, it’s not you and me that are out on that practice field every day pushing our bodies past the point of exhaustion.

It’s unfathomable how anyone can say that the team doesn’t want to win, that they have lost their will. Who doesn’t want to win?

There is a twist in this game that wasn’t so much a twist in all the other games. A majority of Wildcats come from California and were not courted by USC. They will have something to prove this weekend. A win would be more than just a win. A win might mean USC could kick themselves for not recruiting our Wildcats.

Zack Rosenblatt, Tucson.com, broke down the sixteen players not given offers by the USC Trojans:

As an added bonus, a win would mean the naysayers may shut up. Wouldn’t that be nice.

This might help:

If they can step up and show the heart we know they have, with a little luck, maybe the Cats have a chance. Maybe USC is thinking beating the Wildcats will be an easy win like Utah thought when they played USC. We all know how that turned out.

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As the Sports Guys point out, it just might be a down season and that last season was a lucky season. Or this season could just be a season of ‘bad stuff’ as Anthony Gimino suggests. They also pointed out that going into the season, the Wildcats had at least four top players. Anu Solomon, who seems to be still playing timid, Scooby Wright III, who is out probably for the season, Nick Wilson, also probably out for the season, and Cayleb Jones, who has made some incredible plays, but struggled in the last game to get open.

That would shake up any team.

Add to all that, no Derrick Turituri to back up Scooby, no Jacob Alsadek, and Freddie Tagaloa to protect Anu and to help the running game, and several other injuries.

It doesn’t help that these top players were the leaders for this football team going into the season. So, then, what happens when the leaders are not playing? The team seems to be searching for a new identity each game. Maybe different leaders will emerge. Maybe Anu Solomon will step out of his comfort zone and pump up his team.

Sep 19, 2015; Tucson, AZ, USA; Arizona Wildcats head coach Rich Rodriguez talks to quarterback Anu Solomon (12) during the first quarter against the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks at Arizona Stadium. Arizona won 77-13. Mandatory Credit: Casey Sapio-USA TODAY Sports

Who will it be on Defense? Will Parks and Paul Magloire? Sione Tuihalamaka (Haka)? Davonte’ Neal? Jeff Worthy? Maybe they can all get together and lead as a group.

Having leaders trolling the sidelines and pumping up the players on the field can help a team win a football game, especially when your team is an underdog.

What the team has left to play for is dignity. If somehow someone in the locker room can step up and be the leader for this team, pump up the troops, maybe, just maybe the Trojans are beatable.

Mostly if the Trojans are favored by 20 points at this time, maybe they are looking ahead at the next games and counting Arizona out as almost everyone has thus far.

RELATED STORY –> Arizona Football: Everything You Need to Know About the USC Game

Other ideas..how about doing the Haka in the locker room? Maybe they can just jump up and down on the sidelines and intimidate the Trojans. Didn’t the Trojans try that a couple seasons ago, and it worked. Sports is a mind game.

Maybe the Wildcats can run out onto the field at the same time as the Trojans? It worked for UCLA.

Next: Arizona Football: Will Rich Rodriguez Leave?

Put all that aside. The big question is, can this Arizona Wildcats football team find some common goal to pull out a win or even a close game?

Why not, anything is possible if you believe and anything can happen in the Pac-12.

A win or even a close game would be grand, and some would say it would be a miracle if it happened. Call us crazy, and we are sure you do, but there is always a chance on any given Saturday for the Wildcats to win.

Beardown Arizona! Beardown Wildcats!

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