It's been an up and down year for the emotions of Husky fans, from the frustration of coming up just short in game one at Boise, to a big game by Jake Browning in the win over Utah State, to the disappointment of too many turnovers vs. Cal, to the major statement with the tough win over USC, to the bitterness of losing a winnable game vs. Oregon and then getting flattened by Stanford. Nerves were frayed, frustration with the offense was boiling over and bowl hopes were fading.
Into this stew stepped an Arizona team leading the Pac-12 in scoring but struggling on defense and missing key players such as Scooby Wright, Nick Wilson and Derrick Turituri and facing a growing QB controversy between Anu Solomon and Jerrard Randall.