Why Arizona fans should be surprised about a no-bowl season

The facts, the opinions and the understated reasons why Arizona fans should be shocked we didn’t make a bowl game in 2018.

There are some hard pills to swallow in life sometimes, one of those ‘pills’ is that Arizona is not a football school, nor were we ever or may ever be one. For Arizona fans, that’s a hard reality to cope with.

Heading into 2018, the hype was there. Arizona returned one of the best quarterbacks in college football, we had a new “big name” head coach, and we were featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated, perhaps it was our chance to finally turn the corner, right? Wrong!

Arizona Wildcats

The Wildcats stumbled out of the gates, falling to 0-2 to start the year. Despite surprising wins over Oregon and a couple well-played games versus Colorado and Cal, the Wildcats faltered down the stretch, finishing 5-7 in 2018.

As to be expected in most head coaches first seasons, a lot of teams go through growing pains early on. For reference, look at Scott Frost in Nebraska, the Cornhuskers went 4-8, Willie Taggart went 5-7 at Florida State, Chip Kelly went 3-9 at UCLA and Chad Morris went 2-10 at Arkansas.

But no, not making a bowl was ‘not surprising’ as Arizona Daily Star’s Greg Hansen suggested.

Despite the odds, many anticipated big things from the Cats, making the postseason was the bare minimum. Heck, with as many bowl games as there are, there was almost no excuse for us not to make one. The only thing that’s not surprising is that Arizona was unable to win when it mattered, something that has plagued this program for as long as I can remember.

For those in need of a little refresher, here are some of the facts regarding Arizona Football… Since 1999, the program is 114-132. In those 20 seasons, the Wildcats have made a bowl game in eight of them.

That ranks them No. 57 out 65 Power Five Conference schools. Even worse, is how we are compared to the other ‘bottom-feeders’ in bowl appearances in that same time span:
3 — Indiana
4 — Kansas
6 — Duke, Vanderbilt, Illinois
7 — Colorado, Minnesota, Syracuse
8 — Arizona

While Hansen is right there, here is where he went wrong, the data is skewed. Since 2008, Arizona had a combined 75-66 record, with three losing seasons. Those eight bowl games that the Wildcats have made since 1999 as Greg cited, were all made in the last 11 seasons.

I don’t know the math here, but I’d care to guess that making eight bowl games in 11 years is not bottom of the barrel as he suggests.

If anything, our worst stretch was from 1999-2007, where we finished 39-65, posted zero winning seasons and made no bowl appearances.

Here is where Greg also was wrong, “Once upon a time, Arizona was a football school.”

No Greg, the lucrative stretch that the Wildcats endured from 1982-1995 didn’t put us in the upper echelon of College Football programs, and more importantly, we didn’t play in the elusive Rose Bowl during that time. An accomplishment that still haunts the program to this day.

Additionally, the most wins we had in a single season was 10, the Wildcats did that just once. Arizona also won 10 games in 2014.

During that span, we finished first in the conference just once, and we played in seven bowl games. All in an era of college football where there was less parity in the sport, and the overall talent pool doesn’t come close to what it is today.

So again, no Greg, following the 2018 season is not time to recognize that UA football has now hit the bottom of a very dark period. We’re way past it, or did you forget about the 2003 season where the Wildcats finished 2-10 and had an open revolt against their head coach?

While I’m not standing up for what has been slightly better than average results, I also don’t think this is the worst era of Arizona Football, not even close.

My concerns are of continued development and putting together a decent product that can win more than they lose with the occasional great year.

I still have high hopes for coach Kevin Sumlin, but for now I will remain patient and cheer for my Wildcats just as I always do. Bear Down, Arizona!