It's been almost three weeks since Mike Stoops' firing, and the high of playing through an emotional time is likely wearing off for the Arizona Wildcats.
I mean, the throttling of UCLA last Thursday also had to do with the Bruins being really bad. It's hard to gauge where the Wildcats are at this point, but it's clear they played their most complete half of football in the first half of that game.
Where they are now, though, a magical football elf probably couldn't tell you. Nor a magical Jackalope, which bugs Dodger at UW Dawg Pound says is the reason Arizona will never go to a Rose Bowl (a funny read if it doesn't depress you).
As the Wildcats get ready to face the Washington Huskies today, we probably get our first look at how good this team really is; they play a team that, finally, they're equally matched against, as Mike Schmitz wrote for the Daily Wildcat. As Schmitz writes in his final sentence of his game preview column ...
"Are they as bad as their record suggests? Are they a product of a rough schedule and inexperience in key areas? This Halloween weekend, the costumes come off and we find out who the Wildcats really are."
Biggest question mark in this one: Will Arizona be able to keep Chris Polk from a career-setting day?
Running backs have made the Wildcats look silly all season, and it should come with a heavy dose of concern that Polk just might be the most difficult to handle. LaMichael James is great and all, but Polk has size, break-away speed and the consistency to rock Arizona should the Wildcats not be able to wrap up, writes Ryan Finley of the Daily Star.
Look at these ridiculous numbers on the season for Polk:
| 2011 GAME LOG | RUSHING | RECEIVING | ||||||||||
| DATE | OPP | RESULT | ATT | YDS | AVG | LNG | TD | REC | YDS | AVG | LNG | TD |
| 9/3 | Eastern Washington | W 30-27 | 23 | 125 | 5.4 | 26 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 |
| 9/10 | Hawaii | W 40-32 | 22 | 107 | 4.9 | 15 | 1 | 1 | 11 | 11.0 | 11 | 0 |
| 9/17 | @Nebraska | L 51-38 | 22 | 130 | 5.9 | 25 | 1 | 2 | 16 | 8.0 | 9 | 0 |
| 9/24 | California | W 31-23 | 20 | 60 | 3.0 | 14 | 1 | 4 | 85 | 21.3 | 70 | 1 |
| 10/1 | @Utah | W 31-14 | 29 | 189 | 6.5 | 49 | 0 | 3 | 16 | 5.3 | 7 | 0 |
| 10/15 | Colorado | W 52-24 | 18 | 117 | 6.5 | 28 | 0 | 1 | 14 | 14.0 | 14 | 1 |
| 10/22 | @Stanford | L 65-21 | 15 | 144 | 9.6 | 61 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 2.3 | 5 | 0 |
And then of course, they Wildcats will have to work against quarterback Keith Price, who some are saying is playing better than Jake Locker of last season.
As for other notes, check out what Anthony Gimono says about the game in his answering of five questions posed by Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times. Speaking of which, here's Condotta's massive round-up ofWashington-perspective links.
Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic, on football duty thanks to the NBA lockout, writes that Arizona still has bowl hopes.