If I have to watch one more women’s synchronized dive, I may just lose it (though I was not complaining when Stephanie Rice was in the pool). In two weeks we will be tailgating, debating, gambling, winning (fingers-crossed!), and enjoying life.

And since we have nothing better to do in the meantime, we are going to do a countdown to kickoff by honoring former Wildcat greats of that number. Yeah, we should have started this 99 days ago, but we didn’t. Deal with it…

So here you go, number 14: Tedy Bruschi.

Okay it is a rough start to our countdown because we could not think of any former great Wildcats holding the number 14. But check this out, Bruschi was #68, and 6 + 8 = 14! So that is what we are going to go with.

Tedy Bruschi was the general of the Desert Swarm during his years at Arizona in the early ’90s. Playing at defensive end, he was a force to be reckoned with and in his senior year he tied the NCAA sack record of 52 (which still stands today). In his senior year, he was also award the Morris Trophy for most outstanding Pac-10 defensive lineman. Bruschi was then drafted in the third round by the New England Patriots, where he was moved to linebacker. And after 12 years with the Pats, Tedy has 3 Super Bowl rings, 1 Pro Bowl appearance, and 1 NFL Comeback Player of the Year (after suffering a stroke and returning to dominate). Bruschi gave Arizona a dominating Fiesta Bowl win, and continues on the great name of the University to this day.

Today we honor 6+8… 14 days until Arizona kicks off vs. Idaho! Words can’t express the excitement.

Honorable Mention for #14:

• #89 Ricky Hunley. (Math: The square root of (89+107)=14!) If Bruschi wasn’t history’s top defensive Wildcat, linebacker Ricky Hunley could’ve been. In his time with the ‘Cats, Hunley was a two-time All-American and was the 7th pick of the 1984 draft. He is also is the schools career tackle leader with 566.

Really wish we started this 89 days ago…