A quiet optimism

It’s hard to describe the feeling of UA football fans when it comes to the state of the current Arizona team.

The best I can do is describe the U of A fan base as a young woman who has had her heart broken several times and finally thinks they found the one they love, but is so scared to get hurt again that she can’t fully embrace her new man.

Arizona fans so badly want a winning football team but have been burned so many times that you wonder how many wins it would take for people to let their shields down and be happy with the current team.

It’s definitely understandable for the “yeah, but” that surrounds Arizona’s first two wins. It seems that half the fan base is excited about the team, but the other half is saying, “yeah, that’s cool, but look who we just played.”

You can’t blame anyone for feeling that way. The question, though, is how many wins will it take to convert that side of the fan base into believers.

If Arizona beats New Mexico and UCLA, will those fans let their guard down and embrace this team? Or will it take something more, like 6-0, for those fans to believe that they finally have what they’ve long been waiting for: a legit football team.

The UA fan base has found reasons to be optimistic each of the first four years of the Mike Stoops era, and it’s almost always come crashing down at the end. Why should anyone believe this year is different?

Right now, there isn’t reason to be fully confident about it, but at least there’s a reason to be confident at all, and over the past four years, two games in and people haven’t been able to feel that way in the past.

This team may not end up being a world-beater, but there is every reason to expect it to be competitive, at the least.

Or, these guys could figure out that Stoops is still their coach and crash and burn.

Who knows? But if nothing else, at least the 2-0 Wildcats have your attention, and that’s definitely progress.