Willie Tuitama is putting the ‘air’ in Arizona this season – 314 yards worth of air per-game, to be exact.
Leading the Pacific-10 Conference in many passing categories, including touchdowns, total yards, yards per-game and completions, the junior from California is the key to the Wildcats having a shot against the No. 2 Oregon Ducks Thursday night. Arizona is looking to send its seniors out on top in their final home game of the season, continue its success at the spoiling role against the Ducks, and keep a streak alive for coach Mike Stoops.
“We don’t have anything to lose,” Stoops said during his weekly press conference Monday. “That is how we look at it. We are going to go out and play hard and play loose and do what we have to do.”
And it all rotates around Tuitama. With 3,145 yards through 10 games already, Tuitama has blown past the yardage totals set in his first two seasons in Tucson – 1,105 yards in five games his freshman year and 1,335 yards in 10 games in 2006. Tuitama has also destroyed his personal season-high touchdown pass marks – after passing for just 16 touchdowns in 15 games his first two seasons, he now has 24 in 10 in 2007.
Stoops promised a new style of offense coming into the season, and his quarterback and receiving corps have reaped the benefits. Compared with the offensive attack last year – which was either ineffective or ground-based – the Wildcats have made a 180-degree turn. The pass attack tops the conference, but Arizona has just 821 yards on the ground through 10 games – last in the Pac-10. Freshman running back Nicolas Grigsby has accounted for 629 of those yards, but that places him just ninth in the conference.
Thursday night is the Arizona seniors’ last chance to play at Arizona Stadium, and Stoops hopes the graduating class can steal another win over a ranked opponent in one of the two remaining games (Arizona plays Arizona State in Tempe on Dec. 1). Stoops has a home victory over a ranked opponent in each of his first three years in the desert, but unless the Wildcats provide the next upset of a No. 2-ranked team this season, that streak will end.
“They have always played through some tough spots,” Stoops said. “You look at all the ranked teams we have beaten in the last two years. There are some big wins. They can be very proud.”
The Wildcats will need all of their weapons out to spring a trap on Oregon.
“Playing Oregon, where they are at, it gives you a big stage,” Stoops said.
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