The Gronks are in, but Antonio Pierce is out.  After 9 impressive seasons in the league and a super bowl ring to show for it, Pierce will now turn to the studios of ESPN, joining forces with the legend that is Tedy Bruschi.  His play will be missed, but it will be pretty sweet watching Gronk touchdown highlights analyzed by Bruschi and Pierce next year.  The more reppin’ of Wildcats the better, hence why Lance Briggs is so awesome.

Man, football cannot come quick enough.

How exciting is it to see a freshman from the Bronx appreciate the Arizona-ASU rivalry from day one?

“ASWho ?!?!? I’m From Tha Bronx New York .. No Easy Buckets !!!”  -K. Parrom

Having internet issues, but not having issues with sweet freshman. Sean Miller 2-0!!!

Coming off a bye week, Arizona is now looking to maintain their undefeated conference record with a trip to Washington.  Things looked good for the ‘Cats this weekend as Central Michigan, NAU, Iowa, and Oregon State (smashing ASU in Tempe…party) all pulled off victories.  Also it seems that most of the injured ‘Cats (Grigs, Keola, Brooks Reed, Mike Diaz, Vaughn Dotsy, and Dela Dean) are expected to play this week.  Things do not look as good for the Huskies who are coming off a heart breaker against Notre Dame, and will be playing the ‘Cats while pretty banged up. From Ted Miller’s ESPN Pac-10 blog:

• “Safety Justin Glenn is lost for the season with a broken leg. He also suffered ligament damage. Receiver D’Andre Goodwin and safety Nate Williams suffered concussions at Notre Dame. They are questionable for Arizona’s visit. Receiver Devin Aguilar (knee) and linebacker E.J. Savannah (foot) didn’t play at Notre Dame and are questionable”

Still this is going to be a tough game for the ‘Cats, as Washington has proven they are not even close to a pushover, and have been quite successful at home.  Also Locker has been a nightmare for the ‘Cats in the past, and only looks to be better this year.  Notre Dame exposed some weakness in the secondary of the Huskies, and Nick Foles has an opportunity to increase his destiny this weekend.  If him and his flowing hair can play like they did in Corvallis, the legend of Foles may grow like that of Sean Miller’s.  Let’s also hope that the former two-headed and now three-headed dog at running back of Grigs, Keola, and Nwoko dominates.

Bear Down and Beat the Huskies!!

Everyday it seems Sean Miller does the impossible.  And with rumors flying around, it is getting harder to tell what’s real and what’s not.

• Did he really gather a top 25 recruiting class between April and June?? (Yes)
• Is he the greatest ball handler of all time?? (Pretty much)
• Is he really the biggest thing to hit Tucson since Eegee’s?? (Definitely)
• Did he create Nick Foles hair from scratch?? (Wouldn’t surprise us)
• Did he make ASU quit on a recruit that was considered to be a lock as a Sun Devil?? (Looks like it)

That’s right, Arizona looks to be in prime condition to grab star shooting guard Daniel Bejarano, a four star from Phoenix.  Bejarano just recently decommitted from the University of Texas, and seemed intent on committing to ASU, until Sean Miller entered his home.  Did he produce lightning bolts with his fingertips??  Who knows?  All that is known, is the Sun Devils quit after their coaching staff spent a whole night with the Bejarano’s on a in-home visit…. very interesting.  They send their whole staff to talk with a player they don’t want all of a sudden.  Now let’s just hope Coach Miller can seal the deal, and bring in the next Salim?

(Photo: Daniel Bejarano/Rivals.com)

After the game at Iowa, RauRaur optimism hit a career low (not counting the John Mackovic era).  Then on came Nick Foles and his locks of greatness.  Him and his flowing hair picked apart the Beaver secondary, and fully took advantage of Arizona’s depth at receiver.  Nine different receivers caught the ball, and Arizona’s offense continued flowing, even after losing two offensive lineman and the top two running backs to injury.  Going on the road and winning at Oregon State with a new quarterback, a plethora of injuries, refs giving team points when they did not get them (that two-point conversion was ridiculous), and showing that we have USC-like depth at running back is a great start to the Pac-10 season.  Add Arizona’s gorgeous victory to Iowa’s at Penn State and ASU losing a heartbreaker, and you have yourself a phenomenal football weekend.  Now we can look forward to recovering from injury during our bye week before we head out to play another tough away game at Washington.

PS… Rumor has it Nick Foles hair smells like roses.

(Photo: Nick Foles/AZ Star)

The Matt Scott experiment has been paused for now.  The former “quarterback of the future” will now be second string, giving Michigan State transfer Nick Foles his first shot at leading the offense. Scott was definitely in above his head last week, and going into our first conference game, our offense needs a change of pace.  With Foles’ ability to throw the ball and make quick decisions, maybe Arizona’s run game can be opened up and hopefully our offense will flow smoother.  Or else we might have to face another ugly Saturday.

Stoops did say that Scott will also play, so it looks like we are going to the two quarterback offense… Can Foles be the Keith Smith to Scott’s Ortege Jenkins? Woah we do play at Washington again this year.  Leap at the Lake Part 2??  Would be sweet, but I’d rather have Keith Smith at quarterback instead, he was sweet.  It was also be nice to have Tedy Bruschi, Antonio Pierce, Lance Briggs, Spencer Larsen, and Antoine Cason to try and stop the Rodgers brothers.

Bear Down and Beat the Beavers.

Very rough weekend.  Looking as bad as we did against Iowa and then hearing the official word that Gronk is out for the year (2010 Heisman!!!!) really hurts.  Going into our first conference game against a very good Oregon State team on the road is terrifying.  Then again, it was Matt Scott’s first time on the road, we played about as bad as we possibly could (… hopefully), and we still only lost by ten to a very good Iowa team.  We have some major issues at quarterback and also for some reason forgot how to tackle, but we still are undefeated in conference play (0-0!).  Our national championship hopes might have been hurt a little, but Arizona’s first Rose Bowl victory/appearance might be even sweeter.  A win at Oregon State next weekend is way more important than a win at Iowa.  So let’s hope we got out all of the ugly last weekend and we bring in the awesomeness this weekend.  Meaning Grigs must get more than 11 carries (3-4 in the 2nd half!?!?!?!??!?!) and Keola needs much more than 1 … seriously one bleepin’ carry!!??!

(AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

“Robbie’s out for Saturday,” Stoops said. “We’ll make some kind of decision here on what to do next over the next couple of days but he won’t play Saturday against Iowa.”

The glorious return has been cancelled, and after that quote, it might be cancelled for a long while.  Gronk adds a superior presence in a game, and it cannot be described how much it hurts the ‘Cats not to have him in there.  But Arizona still has an arsenal of weapons that they can and will use this Saturday.  We still have the nation’s #5 rushing offense, a defense that is beyond fast, very talented receivers (especially with the emergence of Juron Criner) and a quarterback(s?) that is getting better with each snap.  This should all come together quite nicely in Iowa City and Ted Miller of ESPN.com has already made his choice…24-21, Wildcats.

Bear Down and Beat the Hawkeyes!!

Congratulations to former Wildcat Amanda Beard who had her first baby yesterday. We are always big fans of when a baby Arizona fan is born, especially when it is from a good looking Olympic athlete. The baby boy has been named Blaise Ray Brown and when as a five star he commits to Coach Sean Miller and the Wildcats, just know you heard it here first. Or maybe he will follow his mom’s footsteps and keep up Arizona’s dominant swim tradition, maybe he will be an astronaut, or maybe a RauRaur blogger. Just as long as he bleeds red and blue. Congrats Amanda.

Speaking of Arizona babies… When are Wilbur and Wilma going to have their first kid?? Can you imagine their offspring!?!? I’m envisioning their baby as a mixture of Sean Elliott, Mike Bibby, Chuck Levy, Tedy Bruschi, and Kenny Lofton. Awesome.