Mike Stoops has taken heaps of abuse from fans and media during his tenure as head coach of the Arizona football program. A lot of it has been warranted; a lot hasn’t been.

Yet, nobody is really talking about Arizona’s curious use of timeouts in the last 90 seconds of a 19-17 loss to Oregon State in Tucson on Saturday.

Oregon State had burned its final timeout with 2:17 left, trailing 17-16. After that timeout, U of A faced a 3rd down and 8 from their own 38-yard line. Keola Antolin carried the ball for 6 yards to the Wildcat 44-yard line, bringing up a 4th down and 2. Arizona let the play clock nearly expire, before calling their first timeout with 1:27 left, avoiding a 5-yard delay of game penalty. Keenyn Crier punted 56 yards into the end zone for a touchback, giving Oregon State the ball back on their own 20-yard line with 1:19 left. That’s definitely the safe play, but if you wanted to nitpick that timeout you can. A punter like Crier with a cannon for a leg could have used the extra five yards. But really we’re only talking about one or two seconds on the clock, and the delay of game flag would have stopped the clock anyway.

After Oregon State took over on their own 20, they quickly gained 20 yards on a pass from quarterback Sean Canfield to Jeremy Francis. Then Canfield again found Francis, who lateraled to James Rodgers, who was able to get out of bounds with :58 left after a total gain of 6 yards. On second down and 4 from the Beavers’ 46-yard line, Canfield threw deep to a wide open Sammie Stroughter, who beat Devin Ross, for a 47-yard gain down to the Arizona 7. With Oregon State scrambling to get to the line of scrimmage, Arizona calls a timeout with :39 left. Huh?

It gets worse. On first down, OSU tailback Ryan McCants carries to the Arizona 3-yard line, staying in bounds, meaning the clock is running. Arizona calls another timeout, its last one, with :31 left. Why do you want to stop the clock to allow your opponent to get settled and organized when they are scrambling around, and more importantly, have no timeouts left?

Following the timeout, OSU’s Canfield ran to the middle of the field, and took a knee, setting up kicker Justin Kahut for a chip-shot field goal to win the game. OSU still had to hustle to get to the line of scrimmage so that Canfield could spike the football to kill the clock, which he did with :04 left. Kahut came on, and nailed the field goal, keeping Oregon State’s Rose Bowl hopes alive.

After the game, most of the criticism went to the defense, and namely defensive back Devin Ross, who allowed Stroughter, one of the most explosive players in the conference to get behind him for a long pass that ultimately decided the game. And yes, that was the biggest play of the game.

One could make the argument that Stoops knew that Oregon State would score to take the lead, and that he was using the timeouts in an effort to preserve some time for his offense if they were able to get the ball back. But obviously, that wouldn’t (and didn’t) work out time-wise. But let’s face it–nothing is a given in college football. Kahut had earlier missed an extra-point that would have tied the game. Who’s to say even a short field goal is a gimme? All stopping the clock did was allow Kahut and Oregon State to better organize Arizona’s demise.

Let’s say you’re engaged in a fight to the death. In the struggle, your opponent, who is trying to kill you, loses his sword. Would you stop struggling, pick it up, and hand it to him so he could finish the job? No!

By stopping the clock, Stoops basically picked up a sword, and handed it to Mike Riley and Oregon State. The Beavers then finished the job.

November 24th, 2008 3:39 PM

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