1998 Arizona Wildcats football team

The 1998 Arizona Wildcats football team represented University of Arizona during the 1998 NCAA Division I-A football season. It was the first 11-win season in school history and the best conference record to date. Had UCLA not lost its last regular season game to Miami, Arizona would have likely made its first ever appearance in the Rose Bowl this year, since a UCLA win would have secured them a top 2 finish in the BCS standings and a berth in the BCS National Championship Game, and Arizona would have likely been selected as an at-large team by the Rose Bowl. Instead, the Wildcats settled for a berth in the Holiday Bowl, defeating Nebraska.

1998 Arizona Wildcats football
Holiday Bowl champion
Holiday Bowl, W 23–20 vs. Nebraska
Conference	Pacific-10 Conference
Ranking
Coaches	No. 4
AP	No. 4
1998 record	12–1 (7–1 Pac-10)
Head coach	Dick Tomey (12th season)
Offensive coordinator	Dino Babers (1st season)
Defensive coordinator	Rich Ellerson (2nd season)
Home stadium	Arizona Stadium (Capacity: 57,803)

1998 Pacific-10 Conference football standings
	Conf							Overall
Team		W		L					W		L
No. 8 UCLA $		8	–	0					10	–	2
No. 4 Arizona		7	–	1					12	–	1
Oregon		5	–	3					8	–	4
USC		5	–	3					8	–	5
Washington		4	–	4					6	–	6
Arizona State		4	–	4					5	–	6
California		3	–	5					5	–	6
Oregon State		2	–	6					5	–	6
Stanford		2	–	6					3	–	8
Washington State		0	–	8					3	–	8
$ – BCS representative as conference champion Rankings from AP Poll

Schedule

Date	Time	Opponent	Rank	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
September 3	8:00 p.m.	at Hawaii*	No. 24	Aloha Stadium Honolulu, HI	ESPN2	W 27–6	38,745
September 12	12:30 p.m.	at Stanford	No. 21	Stanford Stadium Stanford, California	KTTU	W 31–14	30,096
September 19	7:00 p.m.	Iowa*	No. 16	Arizona Stadium Tucson, Arizona	FSN	W 35–11	52,634
September 24	5:00 p.m.	at San Diego State*	No. 16	Qualcomm Stadium San Diego	ESPN	W 35–16	23,811
October 3	7:00 p.m.	at No. 20 Washington	No. 14	Husky Stadium Seattle	FSN	W 31–28	71,469
October 10	7:15 p.m.	No. 3 UCLA	No. 10	Arizona Stadium Tucson, Arizona	FSN	L 28–52	58,738
October 17	1:00 p.m.	at Oregon State	No. 16	Parker Stadium Corvallis, Oregon		W 38–15	30,231
October 24	7:00 p.m.	Northeast Louisiana*	No. 14	Arizona Stadium Tucson, Arizona	KTTU	W 45–7	39,218
October 31	4:30 p.m.	No. 12 Oregon	No. 13	Arizona Stadium Tucson, Arizona	FSN	W 38–3	44,931
November 7	7:00 p.m.	Washington State	No. 10	Arizona Stadium Tucson, Arizona	FSNAZ	W 37–27	47,761
November 14	4:30 p.m.	at California	No. 9	California Memorial Stadium Berkeley, California	KTTU	W 27–23	36,500
November 27	4:30 p.m.	Arizona State	No. 7	Arizona Stadium Tucson, Arizona (Territorial Cup)	FSN	W 50–42	57,953
December 30	6:00 p.m.	vs. No. 14 Nebraska*	No. 5	Qualcomm Stadium San Diego (Holiday Bowl)	ESPN	W 23–20	65,354
*Non-conference game Homecoming Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game All times are in Mountain time

Rankings

See also: 1998 NCAA Division I-A football rankings

Ranking movements
Legend: ██ Increase in ranking. ██ Decrease in ranking.
NR = Not ranked. RV = Received votes. т = Tied with team above or below. ( ) = First place votes.

	Week
Poll	Pre	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	Final
AP	24	21	16	16	14	10	16	14	13	10	9	8	7	6	5	4
Coaches Poll	25	21	17	16	14	11	17	16	15	11	10	8	7	6	6	4
BCS	Not released								14	10	10	8	7	6	7	Not released

Game summaries

Iowa

See also: 1998 Iowa Hawkeyes football team

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
5–5	1996	L 20–21

UCLA

See also: 1998 UCLA Bruins football team

UCLA at. Arizona

1 2 3 4 Total • No. 3 Bruins 7 14 10 21 52 No. 10 Wildcats 14 7 7 0 28 Date: October 10, 1998 Location: Arizona Stadium Tucson, Arizona Game attendance: 58,738 Television network: ABC

Arizona State

Arizona State at #7 Arizona

1 2 3 4 Total Sun Devils 15 7 6 14 42 • No. 7 Wildcats 7 19 17 7 50 Date: November 27 Location: Arizona Stadium, Tucson, Arizona Game attendance: 57,953 Source: USA Today

Scoring summary 1 11:14 ASU Stephen Baker 26-yard field goal ASU 3-0 1 10:56 ARIZ Brad Brennan 72-yard pass from Keith Smith (Mark McDonald kick) ARIZ 7-3 1 6:59 ASU Jeff Paulk 1-yard run (kick failed) ASU 9-7 1 3:22 ASU Craig Spann 14-yard pass from Ryan Kealy (two-point failed) ASU 15-7 2 10:47 ARIZ Jim Wendler 1-yard run (two-point failed) ASU 15-13 2 4:11 ARIZ Scooter Sprotte 12-yard fumble return (two-point failed) ARIZ 19-15 2 1:50 ASU J.R. Redmond 2-yard run (Stephen Baker kick) ASU 22-19 2 1:37 ARIZ Trung Canidate 80-yard run (Mark McDonald kick) ARIZ 26-22 3 11:38 ARIZ Ortege Jenkins 13-yard run (Mark McDonald kick) ARIZ 33-22 3 9:23 ASU Todd Heap 23-yard pass from Ryan Kealy (two-point failed) ARIZ 33-28 3 4:58 ARIZ Mark McDonald 21-yard field goal ARIZ 36-28 3 1:35 ARIZ Trung Canidate 66-yard run (Mark McDonald kick) ARIZ 43-28 4 5:55 ASU Todd Heap 17-yard pass from Ryan Kealy (Stephen Baker kick) ARIZ 43-35 4 4:02 ARIZ Trung Canidate 48-yard run (Mark McDonald kick) ARIZ 50-35 4 1:52 ASU Lenzie Jackson 23-yard pass from Ryan Kealy (Stephen Baker kick) ARIZ 50-42

Arizona's Trung Canidate rushes for a school record 288 yards.

Nebraska (Holiday Bowl)

Nebraska vs Arizona

1 2 3 4 Total No. 14 Cornhuskers 0 13 0 7 20 • No. 5 Wildcats 6 3 0 14 23 Date: December 30 Location: Qualcomm Stadium, San Diego Game attendance: 65,354

Main article: 1998 Holiday Bowl

See also: 1998 Nebraska Cornhuskers football team

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
0–0–1	1961	T 14–14

Team players drafted into the NFL

Player	Position	Round	Pick	NFL Club
Chris McAlister	Cornerback	1	10	Baltimore Ravens
Edwin Mulitalo	Guard	4	129	Baltimore Ravens
Ronnie Smith	Defensive back	5	168	Arizona Cardinals
Mike Lucky	Tight end	7	229	Dallas Cowboys

[1]

References

1. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/draft/1999.htm