Fans making a difference

"Homecoming, man - it is just a good thing for us, I guess," said UA wide receiver Mike Thomas. "For some reason we always come out on top during Homecoming. I guess the environment really helps us out."

Mike Thomas was onto something with his statement after the University of Arizona Wildcats continued their Homecoming tradition of upsetting a California based opponent on Homecoming. It's time to dig in and look at why this is happening every year. And I think it can be brought down on the Zona Zoo and specifically the recent crops of Freshman at the U of A. It has nothing to do with the fact that it's homecoming. It has nothing to do with being amped up because they're a dog a home. It has nothing to do with earlier start time or national TV coverage. It has to do with the fans. Homecoming is a big game and people make it to that game who haven't made it to others. They're in town and these are the people who were here during the Desert Swarm years, or at least watched the Desert Swarm years. But here's the problem. We're all gone now and these new Freshman were still in diapers when we were running through Miami in the Fiesta Bowl (29-0, 1993). They look at football games as something to do for an hour, and usually leave at half, even if we're winning. If we're losing the student section is empty by the 3rd quarter. How is a team gonna make a rally when their home fans don't think they can pull it off? Losing games are when the stands should be at their loudest and trying to bring the team back into the game. I was sitting with a few friends on Saturday's game (a couple other alumni and a couple of Tucson natives who are taking a long break from the U of A). All we could discuss was the lack of fire in the Zona Zoo on Saturday, and it was the best I've seen it all year. Some of us can't afford to go to every game and don't get the benefit of the cheap student pass to the games. But for those who do get the pass, why aren't you using it?

Students I implore you go to the game against Oregon next Thursday, fill the stands an hour before kick-off don't stop making noise until the final buzzer sounds. Show these teams that Arizona is a pushover no longer, Macovick is gone and it's time to pull off a couple of surprise wins over top 10 teams, and we've got the chance to do it, and in the National Spotlight. If we go 6-6 we're bowl eligible and with a couple high profile wins (Oregon and @ ASU) that might do well in picking up one of those at-large bids floating around. Let's see some support next week, and get something special started for next season. It's up to you Cats fans it 'aint basketball season until the football season's over. Aren't you sick of telling your friends, "wait until basketball season" the folks in Florida and UCLA and USC and now UCONN don't have to do that. Wouldn't it be nice to be ranked in both sports polls, especially with the recent propensity of the basketball team to lose in March. The fans can make things change, can turn around the losing atmosphere and environment found at Arizona Stadium earlier in the year. Let's just hope we aren't a couple years away from telling our friends, "Oh yeah, just wait till Softball season"

Go Cats.
More after the jump...

A rare double dip

Apparently the self proclaimed “TheBearDown Blogs Biggest Fan” was unappreciative of my, as he put it “sincere and heartfelt” post because he wanted the cynicism that made me famous (in my own eyes) so first here is a list of new rules to live by and thrown in will be random thoughts of the past running list of rules in the world of sports:

1) When returning the opening kick off, go out at the 1, do not score a touchdown, your team will lose, don’t believe me” ask Devin Hester and Tedy Ginn Jr.
2) Whichever team one of us (This applies mostly to myself and his 4Realness) is rooting for in the post-season will lose
3) If your team hasn’t won a championship in over 50 years, it’s cursed (whether it be by Goat, Babe Ruth, or Rocky Colavito)
4) There is no “too far” when dressing to support your team, head-dress for tribe games in your living room – perfect, face-paint and bull-horns for Bulls games at the local pizza place – expected, Buckeye hat, buckeye beads, and a OSU jersey from about 25 years ago that’s 3…well now it’s 2 sizes too big – fantastic, suit and tie of team’s colors for Bears games – excellent.

Interlude #1: (Now Navy Seal) Morgan, a good buddy of ours, had this to say a few years back, “you can’t spell Stud without STD, and you can’t spell Ridiculously Handsome without Gonorrhea”

5) Research on the game at hand and the other team, not just limited to stats and records. How much? At least twice as much time should be spent on this research than on actual time doing work or school work. And you can do this research at work or at school.
6) When none of your teams can get it done turn it into a city argument, your city is always better than someone else’s city. Of course this is easy for me since I rep the teams from Chicago which is the greatest city of all time. The architecture, the food, we got a beach, we get snow, best franchises in the history of sports, and very much responsible for the history of sports (charter member of the NFL and NHL, and professional baseball before the MLB existed.)
7) Invariably, when someone who writes for your home-town news paper thinks that your team isn’t perfect in everyway, they are wrong, but if they write glowing articles about your team that are undeserved, they are a homer. This will never change, sports fans are always right, and sports reporters are usually wrong, unless they agree with us.

Interlude #2: An actual online exchange between myself and 4Real while I was at the courthouse in Phoenix for Jury Duty (DUI Not Guilty in case you were wondering):

Dom: Kill me please, it's 7:45 AM and I’m in a courthouse in Phoenix stuck watching Good Morning Arizona (cheesy morning show) I’m running on 3 and a half hours of sleep and it's almost 100 degrees already

4Real: Umm well that sounds terrible, I on the other hand was up ‘til 5 in the morning drinking with Andy and writing songs for our boy band...I really need to stop drinking

8) Tailgating has nothing to do with where it is, and in fact trucks and SUVs do not need to be there, the only thing necessary for a tailgate is lots of beer, maybe some mixed drinks, some sort of noise on (TV or Radio), someone needs to be noticeably more drunk than everyone else, it needs to be leading up to an event (not even necessarily sports), and it needs to be outside. Possible alternatives to known tailgating

a. Before your buddies last final of his college career
. i. Hopefully he isn’t the one that is more drunk than everyone else
b. Before Graduation
c. Before a Christening
d. Before a Baptism
e. Before a wedding
f. Before a funeral
g. Before a work function
h. Before and after softball or bowling
i. Before getting on a flight to (Vegas, Bachelor party, Guy’s weekend, etc)
j. Before your baby is born

9) Referring to any one as a “young _______” or “next _______” in sports is over, and done with. No more “young Michael Jordan’s” there will never be another Jordan, as we saw with Harold “Baby Jordan” Minor, there is a LeBron James and a Kobe Bryant they are not the “young” or “next” Jordan. The only exception to this is Brian Urlacher referring to Brett Favre as an “Old Tony Romo”, classic on so many levels.
10) Screw the AP, the BCS, the USA Today, and the ESPN polls. Get rid of all of them and go to the Las Vegas oddsmakers poll. These guys don’t have fans to suck up to, no East Coast or West Coast Bias as with the other polls. Records don’t mean anything, it’s about how good the team is, and until we have a playoff system it’s the best thing out there. These guys aren’t placing their vote for their own team or division teams to beef up their points (coaches, BCS) these guys vote based on what they know about the teams which is significantly more than the guys at ESPN. The guys at ESPN make their money reporting about these teams, it doesn’t matter if they’re right or wrong. The guys in Vegas make their money handicapping these teams and it makes a HUGE difference if they’re right or wrong.
a. Here’s their top 25 with the AP ranking to the right:
1. LSU (5)2. Oklahoma (4)3. Ohio State (1)4. Southern California (13)5. West Virginia (9)6. Florida (14)7. Oregon (7)8. California (10)9. Boston College (3)10. Arizona State (12)11. South Florida (2)12. South Carolina (6)13. Missouri (15t)14. texas (19)15. Virginia Tech (11)16. Michigan (24)17. Kentucky (8)18. Penn State (26)19. Auburn (18)20. Kansas (15t)21. Texas Tech (22)22. Tennessee (20)23. Brigham Young (39)24. Georgia (21)25. Hawaii (17)

That’s it for right now.
More after the jump...