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The Rose King
by: Barrett Baffert
You know that part of your brain where you store state flowers, names of girls you met after last call, and the amount you actually spent on video games in the last five years? Well, for whatever reason, that’s where I tend to keep my doubts in the Arizona football program. I admit these doubts exist – just as I admit to having spent sixteen hazy minutes of my life trying to convince what’s-her-name that I’m an up-and-coming left fielder in the Colorado Rockies farm system. I just choose not to remember these things voluntarily, that’s all.
For this reason, the pre-season is especially dangerous for me—I tend to replace every doubt with a best-case scenario that usually results in my immense disappointment months later. Understand that you’re talking to the guy who considered Jason Johnson a dark horse Heisman candidate. Seriously.
So what do I make of this year’s biggest question mark—Willie Tuitama’s ability to lead this team to a bowl game?
(Don’t say Heisman Trophy… Don’t say Heisman Trophy… )
Ok, I’ll admit, it’s humanly impossible not to have doubts in Tui for 2007. Saying he’s coming off a sophomore slump is an understatement and expecting him to run the new offense without some degree of growing pains is ridiculous. And then there’s the injuries…
Thoughts like these can only make me wonder why Willie was ever deemed the “savior” of this program in the first place. Why on earth would a school that doesn’t even know what a star quarterback looks like, suddenly think that they’ve come across the next big thing in college football?
Homecoming 2005, that’s why.
Fox Sports Arizona has been running this triumph over UCLA a lot lately (part of their ten year anniversary, top ten broadcasts promotion) and it’s easy to see where all the Throwin’ Samoan hype came from. Against the Bruins, Tuitama was accurate, mobile, and confident. When the ball was in his hands, everyone seemed to just breathe easier. And remember, this was only his second collegiate start. Sure, it didn’t hurt that his running backs rushed for a nautical mile against the UCLA defense. But sandwich this game with his solid output against Oregon State and his pre-injury performance against ASU and it’s no wonder why Tui-mania ran so rampant.
The savior talk may have been premature but the excitement he brought to the program was not undeserved.
So what are we to expect from Tuitama in 2007? We won’t really know until September 1st, I suppose. And when the BYU game finally does arrive, I’ll probably just be finishing up filing away all doubts in that dusty mental file cabinet, already brimming with state flowers and GamerDork.com receipts. Visions of Wonder-Tui, leading us to a land unlike any we’ve ever seen, will entertain my every-passage between consciousnesses and sleep. The flowers that fall at Tuitama’s feet will represent, not a state, but a dream. In this legendary season, the Rose King will accomplish what those before him never could and the world will lament the day they doubted a savior. Pasadena will be ours…
Like I said, the preseason is dangerous.
Bear Down and be realistic…
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