ARIZONA FOOTBALL

Arizona coach Rodriguez encouraged by his team’s play

Oct 3, 2012, 4:29 PM | Updated: 6:10 pm

The Arizona Wildcats were ranked as high as 22nd in the nation just a few weeks ago, but now find themselves with a 3-2 record and a two-game losing streak.

The view in the Old Pueblo is certainly less sunny now than it was before, and with a schedule that still has No. 18 Stanford, No. 23 Washington, No. 13 USC and No. 25 UCLA on it, there’s a decent chance the team’s struggles are not yet over.

Still, as of right now, Arizona head coach Rich Rodriguez says his team’s current situation is really nothing to be discouraged about.

“Probably, the big picture I’m more encouraged because the attitude has been good,” Rodriguez told Arizona Sports 620’s Doug and Wolf Tuesday. “Now when that starts to waver I’ll start to get discouraged.”

Rodriguez talked about how his team rallied back from a 17-0 deficit Saturday against Oregon State, only to fall 38-35 after the Beavers scored a late touchdown.

“We fought back, had a chance to win late in the game and didn’t make the play to happen win it so we lost,” he said. “We could be sitting 4-1 and feeling a lot better, but at the same time, the guys, every time we have a meeting, every time we have a practice — I have to get on them once in a while, here and there — we had a 6:00 a.m. practice [Tuesday] morning and at 5:30 everybody’s there ready to go.

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