[tps_title]Tomey was not afraid to schedule tough non-conference road games[/tps_title]
Dick Tomey and Tony Mason are the only Arizona coaches to face a schedule that had more than one non-conference road game in a season since the Wildcats joined the Pac-10 in 1978.
Twice in his 14-year tenure in Tucson from 1987 to 2000, Tomey scheduled two games on the road against non-conference opponents in the same season.
That happened in 1998 at Hawaii and San Diego State, both victories for Arizona. The road games against Penn State and TCU were in the following season.
Mason took on a schedule already made in 1978 in his first season when the Wildcats played at Texas Tech and No. 3 Michigan, both losses.
Tomey was 0-5 against Top 25 non-conference teams on the road, playing the likes of Penn State, Oklahoma, Ohio State (twice) and top-ranked Miami (Fla.).
Larry Smith, with Arizona from 1980 to 1986, coached the Wildcats in only three non-conference road games in the regular season. He went 2-1, achieving the most significant regular-season non-conference victory, a 16-13 win at No. 9 Notre Dame in 1982. His team lost at No. 12 LSU two years later but came close with the score 27-26.
John Mackovic took over a Tomey-generated schedule in his short tenure from 2001 to 2004 and was 0-2 on the road against ranked teams — No. 22 Wisconsin in 2002 and No. 25 Purdue in 2003.
The coach with the toughest luck in non-conference road games was Mike Stoops, who was a woeful 1-6. Two of those games were against Top 10 teams — No. 8 LSU (45-3 loss in 2006) and No. 9 Oklahoma State (37-14 defeat in 2011).
The Wildcats are 1-11 on the road against ranked non-conference opponents in the regular season since the inception of the Pac-10 in 1978. They have lost 10 straight since the upset win over the Fighting Irish.
ARIZONA COACHES IN REGULAR SEASON NON-CONFERENCE ROAD GAMES
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