Arizona defeats Nevada in New Mexico Bowl
http://espn.go.com/blog/ncfnation/post/_/id/74066/instant-analysis-ariz…
This was an exciting game...congrats Coach Rodriguez and the Wildcats.
December 15th, 2012 at 5:34 PM ^
December 15th, 2012 at 5:42 PM ^
December 15th, 2012 at 5:35 PM ^
December 15th, 2012 at 5:37 PM ^
He runs the spread option with a mobile quarterback. How cool would it be if Michigan had a mobile quarterback?!?! Michigan should give him a call!
December 15th, 2012 at 5:36 PM ^
December 15th, 2012 at 5:40 PM ^
I figured a decent number of MGoBloggers would like the news in it's own thread. I didn't see another topic about the win.
December 15th, 2012 at 5:50 PM ^
December 15th, 2012 at 5:36 PM ^
December 15th, 2012 at 5:39 PM ^
I've heard RR called a lot of things, but that's a new one.
December 15th, 2012 at 5:47 PM ^
I always had him pegged as a hillbilly tits man.
December 15th, 2012 at 6:51 PM ^
everyone else can put their mices down.
December 15th, 2012 at 5:38 PM ^
Exciting ending, terrible game, unwatchable defense (shock). AZ got a Neb/MSU style PI call to give them a chance and they capitalized. The 12 people in attendance were excited.
December 16th, 2012 at 11:48 AM ^
and wish him well, but yo, I am definitely not going to miss watching our defense play like that.
December 15th, 2012 at 5:38 PM ^
It was a pretty exciting finish. Epic meltdown by Nevada and laughable defense by both sides.
December 15th, 2012 at 5:40 PM ^
49-48? Sounds about right.
December 15th, 2012 at 5:48 PM ^
Yep. That sounds like a typical RichRod score.
December 15th, 2012 at 5:55 PM ^
Sounds a little low to me.
December 16th, 2012 at 11:34 AM ^
If it can't plausibly be confused with a basketball score, then it's at the low end.
December 15th, 2012 at 5:41 PM ^
Another great defense performance by a Rich Rod team...go Cats!
December 15th, 2012 at 5:48 PM ^
Did anyone happen to see the fight that broke out between the Arizona players on the sidelines in the second quarter? Apparently there was some heated discussion before one of the d-lineman (Hood?) threw a punch at one of the linebackers who then returned with punches before the two were broken up. The linebacker was escorted to the locker room, but the lineman continued to play for a while before he was eventually sent back too. I hate to see that amongst teammates.
EDIT: link to gif
http://www.usatoday.com/story/gameon/2012/12/15/arizona-teammates-fight…
December 15th, 2012 at 5:49 PM ^
December 16th, 2012 at 12:13 AM ^
DT: "I deserve to get GERGS (or whover mediocre DC they have) beaver to the face."
LB: "Shut the front door!" "Did you see me on that play, I was turrible and deserve the beaver."
DT: "What the freak man, there is no way that you were more turrible than I was, I have been letting guys right past me and that is why I get the honors of having beaver in my face."
LB: "I had beaver in my face and it was your girl friends... last night."
DT: "I got two beavers for you, why don't you say hello!" (Proceeded to punch LB in the face)
December 15th, 2012 at 5:54 PM ^
Unwatchable defense. Check.
Lack of overall discipline (2 az players got into a fistfight on the sideline). Check.
Sounds about right.
December 15th, 2012 at 8:03 PM ^
But I thought his defense was supposed to become average to pretty good when he was ruinited with his better half Jeff Casteel.
December 15th, 2012 at 5:55 PM ^
December 15th, 2012 at 6:00 PM ^
Must have been a crazy ending, i changed the chanel when Arazona fumbled and a guy picked it up and got out of bounds to stop the clock down 13 with about a minute and a half to go at about their own 30.
Changed back and they were on the 2 going infor the tie. Im guessing a long bomb and an onside kick? Good for RR but Arizona looked pretty bad tbh. Should be interesting once he gets some of his own players in there.
December 15th, 2012 at 7:09 PM ^
December 15th, 2012 at 6:00 PM ^
Typical RichRod game. Just imagine if he had a halfway serviceable defense (I remember saying the exact same thing while he was still here).
December 15th, 2012 at 8:21 PM ^
he will never have a serviceable defense because he pays no attention to it.
December 15th, 2012 at 6:02 PM ^
December 15th, 2012 at 6:22 PM ^
Nice idea, but RichRod didn't understand the OSU and MSU rivalries. He appeared to have a good grasp of the ND rivalry, though.
December 15th, 2012 at 6:16 PM ^
December 15th, 2012 at 6:33 PM ^
and not the typical 3-8.
December 15th, 2012 at 6:33 PM ^
December 15th, 2012 at 6:51 PM ^
December 15th, 2012 at 6:58 PM ^
Jeff Casteel is Arizona's DC, and a lot of people here seem to believe that he's Greg Mattison but good at coaching defense. I'm interested to see what happens over the next few years, but here are the points surrendered by Arizona this year during the Pac-12 schedule (and bowl):
Oregon - 49
Oregon State - 38
Stanford - 54 (OT)
Washington - 17
USC - 36
UCLA - 66
Colorado - 31
Utah - 24
Arizona State - 41
Nevada - 48
December 15th, 2012 at 7:03 PM ^
how bad were the Huskies this year?
December 15th, 2012 at 11:24 PM ^
Not too shabby. I think they beat Stanford IIRC. CU was god awful.
December 15th, 2012 at 7:13 PM ^
I would probably give Casteel a little more time before putting him in the GERG category.
December 15th, 2012 at 7:21 PM ^
Agreed. In fact, even with a few more shaky years, I don't think he can acquire that status. I'm just a little skeptical of the narrative that everything would have been fine had we hired Casteel as DC a few years ago.
December 15th, 2012 at 7:39 PM ^
Three years of a competent defensive coordinator running his own defense would have certainly worked better than what we actually saw. It would almost certainly have resulted in some additional wins.
Having said that, I don't know that it would have been enough to save Rodriguez.
December 15th, 2012 at 7:27 PM ^
No one here -- even the RR defenders -- has said Casteel is "Mattison but good at coaching defense." Casteel had a pretty good track record at WVU This is his first year at Arizona, and they apparently were starting five walk-ons on defense at times this year.
Everyone here, including the RR defenders, loves Mattison.
What many folks don't love, however, is that we have gotten a WCO re-tread who has a history of regressing offenses at each of his stops. (Yes, we hired Gerry DiNardo's OC. Glad we saved that money and kept our Manball philosophy alive.) This was the first time in over forty years we had three games in which we didn't score a touchdown, if I remember correctly. And that was with a senior Denard Robinson, who holds many of the all-time leading Michigan offensive records.
Look at what RR's first year Arizona team did offensively, and then look at our slide in all offensive categories from 2010 to 2011 to 2012. If you do not understand why some of us still wish we had a RR offense (or a Sonny Dykes or Kliff Kingsbury or Chip Kelly, etc. offense), instead of Big Al's, I don't know what to tell you. By what metric is Al Borges doing well here and showing progression? By what metrics did he show progression at Auburn, Cal, Indiana?
Since you appear to like numbers, here are a few:
National Rank in Total Offense (Michigan)
2010: 8
2011: 42
2012: 81
National Rank in First Downs/Game (Michigan)
2010: 22
2011: 50
2012: 99
It appears we are sacrificing a lot just for a few quips at post-game press conferences. I suppose it all depends on what you value more.
December 15th, 2012 at 8:37 PM ^
December 15th, 2012 at 10:14 PM ^
I guess some people just decide to say what's important instead of sitting in their mother's basement all day posting whatever nonsense comes to mind.
December 15th, 2012 at 11:43 PM ^
I think it's kind of amusing that he decided to post it on this particular thread, since the implication of his post is that maximizing your team's advantage in first downs is a primary goal of a coordinator and Arizona broke the all-time bowl record today by giving up 40 first downs.