After loss to Cal, Wildcats prepare for Oregon

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP)—With three games to go in the regular season, Arizona has reached a crossroads.

The Wildcats have a chance to make history—or repeat it.

Three wins would clinch Arizona’s first Rose Bowl berth. Three losses would evoke memories of 2000, when the Wildcats fell from the rankings in midseason and finished on a five-game losing streak.

Arizona kicks off the stretch run with its biggest game in years—a duel with No. 11 Oregon in Arizona Stadium on Saturday. The Wildcats (6-3, 4-2 Pac-10) and Ducks (8-2, 6-1) are the only teams that control their own destinies in the jumbled Pac-10 race.

“We know we’ve got to win to stay in the big picture,” Arizona coach Mike Stoops said Monday at his weekly campus news conference. “There’s a lot of football to be played, but pretty much it’ll be over if we don’t win on Saturday.”

The Wildcats have no margin for error after a 24-16 loss at California last weekend, which bounced Arizona out of The Associated Press Top 25 after a three-week stay. The Wildcats took a 16-15 lead early in the fourth quarter but couldn’t hold off the Bears, who took the lead on a field goal and extended their margin on a 61-yard run by Jahvid Best’s backup, Shane Vereen, with 1:21 to play.

“It put us in a pretty desperate mode right now,” Stoops said.

The loss stung, but it didn’t end Arizona’s chances to reach Pasadena. The Wildcats will be in the Rose Bowl if they beat the Ducks, then win at rival Arizona State and at No. 22 Southern California.

“These last three games, there’s no bigger stage,” receiver David Douglas said.

The Wildcats, who joined the Pac-10 in 1978, are the only team in the conference that has not played in the Rose Bowl game. They’ve shared the Pac-10 title once, in 1993.

That’s not the sort of history the Wildcats want to think about this week.

“As players, you can’t talk about that stuff,” Douglas said. “That’s not something that needs to be in your head.”

When Stoops arrived after a 2-10 2003 season, the Rose Bowl seemed a far-fetched possibility on a campus known more for its powerful men’s basketball and softball programs. Even meaningful November games had been scarce for a football team with one postseason appearance in this decade—a trip to the Las Vegas Bowl last December.

Now, though, the Wildcats have given themselves a chance to contend as Thanksgiving approaches. But the loss to Cal raised some alarms for an Arizona team unaccustomed to the national spotlight.

Arizona’s 16 points were its fewest this season, and barely more than half of its average, 30.4 points per game. That’s not a good sign with the freewheeling Ducks on their way to the desert.

Behind quarterback Jeremiah Masoli’s deft fakes, elusive runs and pinpoint passes, the Ducks are putting up 37.1 points per game, ninth in the nation. They’ve scored 43, 47, 42 and 44 points in the last four games.

A year ago, the Ducks dropped 55 points on Arizona, the most allowed by the Wildcats in Stoops’ six seasons. The Wildcats have to find a way to slow the Ducks or they’ll likely spend another New Year’s Day watching the Rose Bowl on television.

“If we want to stay in this thing, we’ve got to win, or our visions of a championship are over,” Stoops said. “And you’d better compete and understand what it’s going to take to win a game like this. I look for our kids to take on that challenge and respond in a positive way.”