Cats ranked No. 22 in first BCS poll

When the season’s first BCS poll was released on Sunday, Wildcat football fans were in for a surprise. They had never seen their team’s name listed in the rankings — until now.

Thanks to a 4-2 overall record and a surprising strength of schedule (rated third by Jeff Sagarin’s USA Today computer rankings), the Wildcats open the BCS poll ranked No. 22 — the first time the school has been in the top-25 since the BCS’ creation in 1998.

“It’s a big positive for our program,” said head coach Mike Stoops. “We take a lot of pride in it and we’ll hopefully use it as motivation going forward. It shows that people out there have a respect for the schedule we’ve played.”

Arizona opened the 2009 season with two big wins over Central Michigan and Northern Arizona, but the strength of schedule took a huge leap forward when the squad took on Iowa on Sept. 19. Despite losing 27-17, the Hawkeyes have run their record to 7-0 and find themselves ranked No. 6 in the BCS poll with a legitimate chance to run the table this season.

The Wildcats’ other loss, 36-33 at Washington on Oct. 10, didn’t hurt them in the computer rankings, either, given the Huskies’ 16-13 win over No. 7 USC earlier this season.

In addition, quarterback Nick Foles was named the Pac-10 Offensive Player of the Week after throwing for 415 yards and three touchdowns in Arizona’s exciting 43-38 comeback win over Stanford on Saturday.

Since taking over the starting quarterback job from Matt Scott on Sept. 26, Foles has a quarterback rating of 151.9 — tops in the Pac-10. The sophomore transfer from Michigan State is completing nearly 74 percent of his passes — tops in all of college football.

“A lot of things need to go right in order to complete 70 percent of your passes,” Stoops said. “He has terrific instincts and the game seems to come naturally to him.”

For more Arizona football coverage, check Wednesday’s edition of the Green Valley News.

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