2008 Arizona Wildcats
Written June 6, 2008 by Jason Lowry
With the NCAA football season closing in on us, its time to take a look at Jason Lowry’s 2008 Arizona Wildcats predictions. The Wildcats are coming off a disappointing season where they finished 6th in the Pac 10 at 4-5 and just 5-7 overall. The team did manage to put together a strong finish as they won 3 of their last 4, including wins over UCLA and Oregon at home. Head coach Mike Stoops hopes to get this team to its first bowl game in a decade, and with 15 returning starters there is hope that it just might happen this year. Before we go predicting a bowl game lets take a look at the offense and defensive side of things for the 2008 season.
Offense:
For the first time in years the offense will likely be the strength of this team as they return all but their starting left tackle from a year ago. Quarterback Willie Tuitama loves the team’s move to a pass happy offense as he led the league last season with 28 touchdowns and was 2nd with 3,683 yards. Expect his numbers to get even better in 2008, as he has Mike Thomas looks to cause havoc on Pac 10 defenses once again as he put away 83 catches last season and 11 touchdowns. The team also has solid experience and talent at receiver with Terrell Turner, Delashaun Dean, and Terrell Reese. That’s not even mentioning one of the best tight ends in the country sophomore Rob Gronkowski, who we think will have a break out year. Sophomore Nic Grigsby who had 704 rushing yards for a team that doesn’t run that often will hold down the running game. The line should be solid as well, as they have 3 guys who have been starting for two or more years now.
Defense:
While the offense is likely going to put up some solid numbers, the defense is going to give up its fair share as well. Only 3 starters return to a defense that ranked 53rd a year ago. This team’s front 7 isn’t that strong and could have trouble stopping the run, but might be able to use its speed to get after the opposing team’s quarterback. Former fullback Earl Mitchell will make an attempt at moving to defensive tackle, but is only 265lbs. Ronnie Palmer is the only returning linebacker who had 83 tackles last season, but will need to play a much bigger role this year. It looks like D’Aundre Reed and Adrian McCovy will be the other starters here. Even with the loss of corners Antoine Carson and Wilrey Fontenot the team isn’t going to worry just yet. They really think junior Devin Ross can be a big time player and they got a freshman in Robert Golden who could make a run at taking the other corner spot from senior Marquis Hundley. The team does return both starting safeties in Cam Nelson and Nate Ness, with Ness being the guy who could end up being special as he had 5 interceptions last season, and didn’t even start till halfway through the season.
Prediction: Tie for 6th in the Pac 10
While we already got UCLA picked 6th, this is not the 7th worst team in the Pac 10. We really think that this team has what it takes to win 6 games and finally get to a bowl game. They have an easy non-conference schedule, and showed they can beat some of the bigger schools in the Pac 10 last season. We are thinking 6-6 and hopefully they get rewarded with a bowl game.
If you are looking to get a head start on the NCAA Football season, be sure to head over to Bodoglife.com and get an account up and going. Also be sure to check back as professional handicapper Jason Lowry will continue to roll through his team-by-team 2008 NCAA football predictions. As always feel free to leave any comments in our comment box.
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