Washington, Arizona again play pivotal Pac-10 game

More miles separate Washington and Arizona — roughly 1,200 — than any other Pac-10 schools.

But whenever the Huskies hit a turning point in their program they seem to run into the Wildcats, as they do again tonight when Arizona comes to town for a 7:15 p.m. game.

In 1992, it was Arizona that snapped UW's 21-game winning streak, the beginning of the end of the Don James era. In 1998, it was Arizona winning a miraculous game on Ortege Jenkins' "Leap by the Lake" that helped doom Jim Lambright. In 2000, in the first game after the injury to Curtis Williams, it was Arizona that was the opponent, a game that proved to the Huskies it was all right to still play football and led the way to a Rose Bowl berth.

Losses to Arizona in 2003 in Tucson and 2007 in Seattle were pivotal in derailing those seasons and, ultimately, the tenures of Keith Gilbertson and Tyrone Willingham.

And today, as a new era of Huskies football hits the halfway point of its first season, Arizona again stands in the way, a game that figures to go a long way toward determining if UW can be a contender for a bowl game in coach Steve Sarkisian's first season — something that to many seemed unfathomable two months ago.

Washington is 2-3 after a heart-wrenching 37-30 overtime loss at Notre Dame last week. Win today and the Huskies get even with six games left. Lose, and UW would need four wins in its last six games to get to 6-6, the minimum record needed to get to a bowl game.

Sarkisian doesn't know much about the history with Arizona, but he does understand the stakes of the game.

"Our guys realize that this is an opportunity in our conference to get to 2-1," he said. "It's a big game for us."

While many recent UW-Arizona games have proved defining, many have also proved surprising. The underdog has won five of the last six. That's a history that today would favor the Huskies, who are 3 ½-point underdogs.

"I don't think either program has been very consistent the past five years or so, so that's probably the cause of that as much as anything," said Arizona coach Mike Stoops.

Arizona, though, is starting to find consistency under Stoops. Since winning here in 2007, when the Wildcats rallied from a 15-point fourth-quarter deficit for a 48-41 victory, Arizona is 14-7 overall and 9-5 in Pac-10. The overall total includes a 31-21 Las Vegas Bowl win over Brigham Young last year.

"After last year it definitely took a lot of stress off our backs because we hadn't been to a bowl game in 10 years," said left tackle Adam Grant, a graduate of Puyallup High School who committed to UW in 2004 when Gilbertson was still coach before switching when it became apparent a coaching change might be made.

The Wildcats have turned it around embracing elements of the Texas Tech spread passing game with a power running attack that leads the Pac-10 at 223.2 yards per game. With UW ranking ninth in the conference in rushing defense, that could be the defining matchup of this defining game.

Arizona, though, may be tempted to try to take advantage of a UW secondary that is likely without its regular starting safeties — Justin Glenn and Nate Williams.

That could again put the onus on UW quarterback Jake Locker and the Huskies offense.