The 2006 Arizona football team was head coach Mike Stoops' first season with a non-losing record. OK, finishing 6-6 would get Stoops fired today, but on the bright side, it wasn't the John Mackovic era.
Some credit had to be given to newfound starter Chris Henry, most recently of the Seattle Seahawks, who had sat as third-string back behind current Cleveland Browns running back Mike Bell and also Gilbert Harris. But in 2006, he took over the starting job. Sort of.
Amid struggling to be productive, Henry's shining moment as a Wildcat came in a 191-yard outburst in a 37-10 victory in Oregon. But after that, he was pretty much gone.
The Oregon game alone was more yardage than Henry had amassed in either of his first two seasons at Arizona. He ended his junior campaign with 581 yards -- his career total turned out to be just 859 yards and only nine touchdowns.
So what'd he do? He bounced for the NFL, citing slim playing time as the cause. He was fighting with Chris Jennings, a JUCO transfer, along with Tucson-raised Xavier Smith at the time. But apparently, winning over the top spot again wasn't in Henry's plans.
And he made his decision in December, right after the season ended. Most people thought it was silly, considering his lack of gaudy numbers.
Still, at 5-foot-11 and around 230 pounds, NFL teams were salivating.
"When it comes to Henry, you can just go ahead and throw his college stats out the window, because they don't accurately tell the tale," said draft website NFLdraftblitz.com.
What happened thereafter? Henry ran a 4.40 in the 40-yard dash at the predraft combine, and with his build impressed in the bench press, repping the 225 pounds 26 times.
In the 2007 NFL Draft, the Tennessee Titans took him in the second round, 50th overall. He produced 119 yards on the ground and took 13 kick returns for 272 yards, but following his rookie year, he's been in anonymity.
He spent another year with the Titans, bounced around to the Houston Texans then the Seattle Seahawks.
So on Day 2 and beyond of the NFL Draft, will any Wildcats be picked out of place? Will teams take a risk on a pure athlete or will Arizona players drop to the end of the draft and become diamonds in the rough? Only time will tell.