Rich Rodriguez enters his 3rd season at Arizona in off back to back 8-5 campaigns and a 2013 season that saw his Wildcats knock off #5 Oregon and blow out Boston College in the AdvoCare Bowl. As he continues to put his stamp on this team, hopes are high that the win totals will continue to rise. No easy task for sure.
On the bright side for Rodriguez and the Wildcats heading into 2014 is that of their 5 losses a year ago, only two of those were by more than a touchdown, losing 31-13 to Washington and 58-21 to Arizona State. Their losses by a TD or less came to USC, UCLA and Washington State. Typically, you’d look at close losses from a year ago and hope to turn them into wins this year. Hopefully turning 8 wins into 10 wins or so.
The problem though, for Rodriguez and company, is that the Wildcats return just 12 starters, losing 6 starters on each side of the ball and have a huge question mark at the QB position with at least 4 QB’s in contention as of the spring, for the 2014 starting job. QB Jesse SCroggins saw the most action with the starting offense in the Spring Game. Arizona’s 12 returning starters places them among the bottom of the PAC 12 in that category.
Speaking of the Spring Game, it was won by the offense 57-38. What does that tells us? Probably not much. Only that the offense is ahead of the defense at this early juncture, as expected. Though Alabama also had their spring Game recently and that was a 17-13 final. Read into that what you will. Alabama also had 73,000 fans at their Game, while Arizona had just 7000. Whoa.
5 dimes sportsbook currently lists Arizona at 100 to 1 odds to win the National Championship. It might as well be a million to 1, as Arizona winning the National Championship in 2014-2015, simply isn’t gong to happen. Not even with the benefit of having the new 4 team playoff system, which will increase the chances of a long shot winning it all. Unless you’re plucking a few sheckles down on your Alma Mater, it’s probably best to stay away from Arizona from a futures betting standpoint. We see the Wildcats in the 8 win range once again, give or take a Game either way. More than likely, it will be 8 wins or less.
2014 Arizona Wildcats Football Schedule
Aug. 30 UNLV
Sept. 6 at UTSA
Sept. 13 Nevada
Sept. 20 Cal
Sept. 27 Bye week
Oct. 2 (Thursday) at Oregon
Oct. 11 USC
Oct. 18 Bye week
Oct. 25 at Washington State
Nov. 1 at UCLA
Nov. 8 Colorado
Nov. 15 Washington
Nov. 22 at Utah
Nov. 28 (Friday) ASU