The Alamo Bowl is faced with a choice: take Arizona, on a four-game skid, or Washington, coming in hot and boasting a three-game winning streak. The Arizona Wildcats dropped the Washington Huskies back on Oct. 23, 44-14. Since then, the two teams have headed in different directions.
With their backs against the wall, the Washington Huskies have shines, pulling-out wins against UCLA, California and Washington State, in the Apple Cup. Against Cal, with a chance to tie with a field goal as time expired, Washington head coach Steve Sarkisian elected to go for the touchdown and win in regulation. With the season on the line, Chris Polk found the end zone.
Arizona, on the other hand, started the season hot and slowly cooled off as the year progressed. The Wildcats haven’t won a game since Oct. 30, when they traveled to the Rose Bowl to defeat the UCLA Bruins, 29-21. Since becoming bowl eligible, Stanford, USC, Oregon and Arizona State have all handled the Wildcats. Arizona has, essentially, backed into the bowl picture.
As the top non-BCS bowl tie-in the Pac-10 has, the Alamo Bowl faces a choice on Sunday. Do they take the team that’s coming in firing or the team that’s crawling to a bowl game? The Washington Huskies may just get the nod because of the way they closed the season.