For those of you who get to bed at a reasonable hour, the Odyssey hopes that you taped last night’s North Dakota State-Arizona contest. The Bison thundered into Tucson with their horde of fans and 7 FCS championships since 2011. Their intent was to bludgeon Arizona to death with a power running game behind a big, talented offensive line.
The recipe almost worked to the tune of 283 yards rushing. How often does an FCS team look to be superior in the trenches to a quality FBS team? What ensued was a back-and-forth affair with Arizona winning 31-28 on a 77-yard TD drive with less than 5 minutes to go.
NDSU’s unquestioned excellence in the trenches could not fully compensate for the excellence of Wildcat QB Jayden De Laura. The Washington State transfer was the difference, using both his arm and his elusive scrambling ability to keep UA afloat. De Laura’s excellence made the Odyssey wonder about the number of quality QB’s who prep in Hawaii. During the last decade, if you took a ratio of excellent college QBs to that state’s land mass, we have little doubt that the Aloha State would come out as #1.
Fourth down conversions figured prominently in the affair. Midway in the fourth quarter, clinging to a 28-24 lead, the Bison elected to go for it on a 4th and 2 from the UA 22. Stopped. The Wildcats took over and mounted the game-winning TD drive, converting their own 4th and 1 in the process. DeLaura hooked up with another insta-portal transfer, former UTEP wide receiver Jacob Cowing, for the 22-yard game winner.
NDSU might ruefully look back to a sequence of plays in the 2nd quarter. Arizona surprisingly refused to punt on 4th and 2 from its own 33. Stuffed! The Bison quickly marched down to the Wildcat 5, 2nd and goal. The Bison QB, Cam Miller, not nearly as mobile as De Laura, went back to pass and scrambled to his right and was strip sacked. Arizona gratefully covered the loose ball.
Arizona is a prime candidate as the most improved team in 2021. The Wildcats have morphed from a 1-win team to a dangerous out. For those who want to call NDSU a very good FCS team, PLEASE! Drop the FCS qualifier. The Bison is a very good and very well coached squad.
For the Odyssey, we could not help but be nostalgic. Our last visit to Tucson to watch the Wildcats play was in the Chuck Cecil era in 1986. An undefeated Arizona State team arrived in town with the coveted Rose Bowl invite already secured. In the 4th quarter, with ASU threatening to score in a taut affair, Cecil picked off a throw from Jeff Van Raaphorst, 5 yards deep in his end zone. 105 yards later, Cecil’s heroics sent the hometown fans into the highest degree of ecstasy that the Odyssey had never seen before or since. The Wildcat upset over their bitter rival was punctuated by some Sun Devil players getting pelted with roses and rose petals as they left the field.
The Odyssey is deeply thankful to the Arizona athletic department having the courage to schedule North Dakota State. NDSU had been dodged like the plague since 2016 by FBS squads (although the Bison did have a 2020 game at Oregon that was a COVID scrape). No wonder as North Dakota State had won its last 6 games against FBS squads, its last FBS loss coming in 2009 at Iowa State.
So, one more round of deeply profound thanks to UA for hosting a fantastic game on a perfect desert night.