Sumlin figuring out which buttons to push
College football coaches can tend to lean on cliches a little too much at times, but Arizona head coach Kevin Sumlin has found one for his team that has helped lead to a couple wins.
An 0-2 start prompted the first-year Wildcats coach to start searching for something that would help turn things around in Tucson. He mentioned that he wanted his team to start focusing more on what it was doing wrong and what it could change to start bringing some better results.
Players started to talk about the team in that same way saying things like “we have to worry about us” … and, wouldn’t you know it, the Wildcats (2-2, 1-0 Pac-12) earned their first win of the season. Keeping things simple helped Arizona earned its second win of the season last week with a 35-14 victory over Oregon State.
As his team gets ready to square off against USC (2-2, 1-1) this Saturday, Sumlin has fully bought into his idea of prioritizing the things about the team that are within its own control over anything it has to worry about with its opponent.
“We’ve done better with the approach, not so much about the opponent, but about us,” Sumlin said.
“Worrying more about us than the opponent, and putting together schemes that give us a chance with the players that are in those positions to make plays instead of a cookie-cutter style. … I think our team has responded the last couple weeks with that approach.”
The talent on the other side of the field will improve this week as Arizona’s two wins have come against teams that have combined for a 1-7 record this year. USC will present some different challenges for the Wildcats, but the inward reflection that Sumlin has been preaching of late has trickled down to his players.
“We got the outcome that we wanted, but there’s always room for improvement,” Arizona quarterback Khalil Tate said after last week’s win. “We have USC this week so it’s really going to be big that we come out and set the tone.”