Candidate for most crud-awful season in football this year: the Arizona Wildcats. Started 3-0, including handsome win over Oklahoma State team to get expectations buzzing. The Associated Press ranked the Cats for the first time since 2010. Next came a 56-0 paste job of South Carolina State. Oats were being felt.


Then: The Ducks blew out the Cats 49-0. (Of note: That 105-point swing against Arizona in the spreads of those two games.) The next week against Oregon State, Arizona fell behind 17-0, came all the way back, traded scores late and lost 38-35. Today against Stanford, quarterback Matt Scott set Arizona school records with 45 completions and 69 pass attempts. He led Arizona to a 14-point lead with less than 7 minutes left. Then the Cats coughed the whole thing up, losing by a touchdown in overtime, 54-48.

Thus completes the triumvirate of wrenching losses: Blowout/shutout, thwarted comeback and blown late lead (with bonus futile record-setting performance). The next three weeks have Washington and USC coming to Tucson, and the Wildcats at UCLA. Barring some calamitous on-field injury, the next three games cannot possibly be worse than its past three, howsoever Arizona decides to lose them.



No. 18 Stanford rallies, stuns Arizona in overtime [CBS Sports]