With Arizona Up to 18, a Look at Each Pac-12 Team's Worst Losing Streak
The University of Washington football team arrived in Tucson for Friday night's game against Arizona, and found a Pac-12 town full of fans reluctant to leave their homes.
No, it's not the pandemic. A searing heat wave. Or a desert dust storm.
The Wildcats' losing streak — 18 games and counting, and the longest in the nation — has people in hiding, embarrassed, frustrated, drowning their sorrows in tequila.
The UW, coming in with its own 2-game losing spell, should fully understood what's going on here.
After all, the Huskies got this mess started way back on their previous visit in 2019.
And before this incurable losing happened to this quaint little town amid the saguaros that loves its basketball, the UW shared the conference's worst football losing streak at 15 with Oregon State among all conference football teams.
With this Friday Night Lights game on ESPN2, this is Dillon playing East Dillon High.
Where are coach Eric Taylor, quarterback Vince Howard and running back Luke Cafferty when you most need them?
Arizona seemingly has no chance.
Again, that's 18 consecutive losses.
That's a season and a half of a normal college football schedule.
In this case, with the pandemic shortening the 2020 campaign, the Arizona futility covers three different seasons now.
It began with Kevin Sumlin as coach and now Jedd Fisch is responsible.
Nine losses at home, nine on the road.
Twelve different opponents, no one beating the Wildcats more than twice, but beating them soundly.
Arizona has been outscored 603-308 in that time.
The Wildcats have been plundered as badly as 70-7 by Arizona State two years ago.
They've had just six close games, when you consider an 11-point margin or closer.
It's been two years and 17 days since they last won a college football game, or 25 months.
That final thrill of victory, which has been followed by the endless agony of a dozen and a half defeats, came on October 5, 2019, when the Wildcats pulled out a 35-30 victory at Colorado.
It happened in a game with nine lead changes.
It was decided on Arizona running back Nathan Tilford's 5-yard touchdown scamper with 6:51 left to play.
Tilford?
He hit the transfer portal in April
The California native now suits up for the University of Texas Permian Basin Falcons in Odessa, Texas.
The home of the real Friday Night Lights setting.
The Wildcats haven't won at home since September 28, 2019, when they beat UCLA 20-17.
Their ugly streak of hopeless outcomes began on October 12, 2019, when the Jacob Eason-quarterbacked Huskies put a 51-27 beatdown on Arizona after the Wildcats led 17-13 at halftime.
There's been no looking back as the Arizona football program has come apart at the seams. Suffered a nonstop hangover. Has the sunburn that never quits.
The UW knows all too well about this sort of despair. It lost 15 consecutive games with Tyrone Willingham and Steve Sarkisian as the Husky coaches in 2007 through 2009, with Willingham turning in that truly unforgettable 0-12 season in 2008.
Oregon State knows even more about this kind of football disaster. The Beavers twice have dropped 15 in a row, doing it between 1990 and 1996. That's a lot of losing in the Willamette Valley.
We researched out all of the worst losing streaks among Pac-12 football teams below. Note that USC, well over a century of playing the game, has never dropped more than six games in a row.
Yes, Arizona puts everyone else's shame ... to shame.
PAC-12 LONGEST LOSING STREAKS
Arizona — 18 games, 2019-to date
Arizona State — 7 games, 1915-1922 (no seasons in 1917, 1918, 1920, 1921)
California — 10 games, 2013 (*14, counting 4 forfeits in 1998-1999)
Colorado — 10 games (twice), 1973-1974 and 1985-1986
Oregon — 14 games, 1974-1975
Oregon State — 15 games (twice), 1990-1991 and 1995-1996
Stanford — 11 games (twice), 1959-1960 and 2005-2006
UCLA — 13 games, 1919-1921
USC — 6 games, 1991
Utah — 9 games, 1973-1974 and 1985-1986
Washington — 15 games, 2007-2009
Washington State — 11 games, 1970-1971
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