Sure, beat ASU, but what else
1. Some decent start times. I get that I live on the east coast so I am going to suffer no matter what in start times, but the late night start times on the Pac-12 network itself are awful. I don't think the conference can do much about times on ESPN and Fox, but I would love to see the dollar trade off that the schools make in lost attendance and concession revenue with late kickoffs vs. what they get back from the conference's (pretty meager) TV revenue sharing from the Pac-12 network.
2. Minimal injuries. Everyone deals with injuries during the year, EVERYONE, but they tend to become excuses for bad teams, coaches of bad teams, and fans of bad teams. Has Arizona had some bad injury luck? Sure, but the injuries haven't kept Arizona down as much as people would have you believe. Other than Scooby Wright it isn't like the injuries are keeping first or second team Pac-12 players off the field. Nick Wilson and J.J. Taylor are both fine players, better than Pac-12 average, but neither of them are Kadeem Carey. Anu Solomon is a nice QB, but in no danger of being in the same sentence as Luke Falk, Sam Darnold, and Jake Browning. I want to see Arizona have minimal injuries so that at the end of the season we can all agree that Arizona gave the season it's best shot.
3. Rhett Rodriguez doesn't see the field. If we are being frank, and we are my friends, Arizona isn't likely to be very good this season. My model projects them at 4-7 against FBS teams. If that is the case then I really want to avoid a Cody Hawkins situation where fans turn on coach and coach's son alike. I don't know that Colorado fans, who are generally really nice folks, ever really cleaned all the mud off after how ugly the end of the Dan Hawkins era got in Boulder.
4. Defensive and Special Teams progression. Arizona was completely awful last season with both these units. New coach or not in 2018, Arizona needs to show some signs of life on the defensive side of the ball and some return to competence on special teams to feel decent about 2018. The cupboard for the defensive front seven looks really bare; I am not one of those people that gets excited about recruits or quotes about practice about players we have never seen play. Arizona has too many walk-ons on the two deep, too few young players who saw good time last season, and too few Pac-12 level recruits on the roster here. If there are not signs of progress in 2017, then it could be years before Arizona crawls out of the recruiting hole Rich Rod and Co. created.
5. A decisive record. I really don't want anything between 4 and 8 wins. Some of you are saying, "Wait can't Rodriguez save his job with 6 wins and a bowl game?" That is what I am afraid of. I want enough wins to generate some momentum for the program going forward or enough losses so Rich Rod getting fired is fait accompli. The worst situation for Arizona is 2-7 or 3-6 Pac-12 record where Rich Rod keeps his job, but doesn't settle anything beyond being a little less on the 2018 hot seat. That doesn't help recruiting, it doesn't help hiring better assistants, and it doesn't put Arizona fans in the bleachers to get the program on more solid financial footing.
Comments
Post a Comment