The Wildcats were taking on more than the UCLA Bruins Saturday afternoon in Pasadena. They also were taking on history.
Arizona’s 31-10 victory over the Bruins came in the face of everything history would have had you believed would happen.
The Wildcats had only won 2 games in the Rose Bowl in the program’s history prior to Saturday (1990, 1999). Mike Stoops had never won a Pac-10 opener. He was 0-4 until the victory over UCLA. Bruins’ head coach Rick Neuheisel had never lost to the University of Arizona as a coach.
None of those things hold true anymore. Mike Stoops’ team took care of business. In a game that would have been easy to lose after last week’s disappointment in New Mexico the Cats bounced back. Yet another thing that recent history said probably wouldn’t happen.
Look back at 2001 and 2002. A 3-1 start means nothing if you don’t finish strong. UCLA may not be that good, but Arizona didn’t play down to its opponent. They rewrote a little bit of history on Saturday. If you are a Wildcat fan, it’s time to start looking at re-writing the losing history that has plagued this team over the last ten seasons. If you are Mike Stoops and the players, it’s time to continue to play hard and take it one game at a time so Mike Stoops job isn’t history.
