UofA v. ASU 2009: A Lucky Bounce, Finally

In a season of catastrophic late game collapses and unlucky plays, the Cats finally got a bounce to go their way when ASU's only offensive threat inexplicably muffed a punt return into the waiting arms of an Arizona defender.

This unfortunately did not seal the game as it became apparent that the coaching staff was going to trust the game winning play to their shaky kicker, Zendejas (aka Double Ice). When the kick sailed inside the right upright Cats across the diaspora were all able to stop holding our collective breath and accept our bowl bid.

What a relief! It is amazing how a rivalry game can turn a mismatch into a nail-biter. In the first quarter the Cats looked like they were going to run away with it. They seemed to move the ball where ever they wanted and their defense, after giving up one bomb, was dominate (.

Then they missed a field goal. Failed to get a short first down. Started going 3 and out. And I started to get nervous. Why did we let them hang around for so long?

Jeremy and I were struck by all of the weird Stoops' timeouts throughout the games. Stoops' tendency to call timeouts before big plays is one of his most infuriating coaching "strategies." It always seems that he calls them and breaks the momentum of the offense or allows the opposing offense to collect itself and make a play. Not only that but using them in these situations takes them away from the team at the end of the game, when they are useful for clock management.

Last night I went through the box scores from all the meaningful games the Cats have played this year (excluding NAU and Central Michigan). Before the ASU game, Stoops had called 8 "motivational timeouts" before big plays (this excludes timeouts for clock management). On those plays the Cats had a positive result 6 of those 8 times. That is a lot higher percentage than I would have thought. Against ASU he called 4 "motivational timeouts" (Half as many as he had the whole year. You think maybe he was feeling the pressure) and had three negative results. So for the season so far he has called 12 "motivational timeouts" and has a record of 7-5. Better than I thought but still troubling.

This points out that he doesn't trust his leaders on the field and that he has a tendency to overthink big plays. It also takes away timeouts for the end of the game. Against ASU this nearly cost us, particularly on two plays; after the Cats came out of timeout and ran a dive play on 3rd down that got stuffed and when they came out of a timeout only to give up a touchdown pass. What were they talking about in those timeouts?

In basketball you can often judge the talents of a coach by observing the efficiency of his offense after a timeout. Ben Howland and Lute Olson have ridiculously high efficiency ratings coming out of timeouts. I don't know if this evaluation criteria should translate to the grid-iron but it is something to think about.

Perhaps as Foles matures Stoops will not be so eager to call these timeouts, we can only hope.