This weekend’s most intriguing game in the Pacific-10 Conference is No. 17 Utah’s match with the Arizona Wildcats that will giveing Arizona’s Mike Stoops his first real test as a head coach.
The Utes of Utah are coming off an impressive 41-21 win over Texas A&M, and second-year coach Urban Meyer’s spread offense thrashed the Aggies for 582 yards of total offense.
Stoops was the co-defensive coordinator for the Oklahoma Sooners for the previous four seasons under older brother Bob Stoops, including their national championship season in 2000.
Stoops’ troops are fresh off a 21-3 victory over Division I-AA Northern Arizona. While they allowed NAU only 280 yards on offense, the Wildcats amassed only 307.
“I dislike how we stepped on ourselves offensively,” Stoops said.
One bright spot for Arizona was the rushing of tailback Mike Bell. He rushed the ball a career-high 31 times for 118 yards and two touchdowns and added three receptions for 17 more yards.
But the key for Arizona in this game is slowing down the Utah offense and its explosive quarterback Alex Smith. The junior ravaged Texas A&M’s defense for 435 yards of offense, including a career-high 359 passing yards (topping his 340-yard passing performance against Oregon last year).
Smith also ran 13 times for 76 yards, and accounted for all five Utah touchdowns.
For his performance Smith was named The Sporting News Magazine and Radio College Football Player of the Week to go along with being selected as the Mountain West Conference Offensive Player of the Week.
Smith’s favorite weapon in the game was Oregon transfer Paris Warren. Warren caught seven passes for 116 yards.
Stoops could only hope to have the success that Meyer had in his first season at Utah in 2003. Meyer led the Utes to a 10-2 season in 2003, including an upset over then No. 19 Oregon and a win over Southern Miss in the Liberty Bowl. The Utes finished the season ranked No. 21, marking the first time Utah finished in the top 25 in 10 years.
The defensive star for the Wildcats was freshman cornerback Antoine Cason. Cason recorded his first collegiate interception while forcing two fumbles and tallied 13 tackles, including one for a loss. He was named the Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Week.
But it’s the offense that hopes to shine more for Arizona, and according to Stoops, they haven’t opened up their offense as much as they are capable of.
“We have a multiple of things, shifts, movements that we can go to and we will have a variety this week,” Stoops said to the Tucson Citizen. “We will move our people and make Utah think about what we are doing and not just let them line up and play against us.”

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