New Mexico State coach Jerry Hines has the dubious distinction of being the coach with the longest losing streak to Arizona (1933 New Mexico State photo)
EDITOR NOTE: This story takes into account the fair assessment of Arizona vs. teams that are classified at the same level as the Wildcats. NAU coach Jerome Souers is 0-8 against Arizona dating to 1999, but that is not fair to include him in this story because he is at a disadvantage before the game started. Therefore, his name is not included in this story. It only involves Division I or FBS coaches, as it should.
Arizona just lost for the fifth consecutive time to UCLA coach Jim Mora, who I determined through my research, became the seventh coach to compile at least a five-game winning streak against the Wildcats.
Frank Kush is Nemesis No. 1 for Arizona with the longest winning stretch of nine games against the Wildcats from 1965-73.
This week, Arizona is going from being the frustrated against Mora to being frustrating to Utah coach Kyle Whittingham. The Utes’ coach has a four-game losing streak to Rich Rodriguez and Arizona, which means he is one of 14 coaches who have endured a losing stretch that long against the Wildcats in the history of the program.
The coach with the most consecutive losses to Arizona? Mr. Cat Litter? That is Jerry Hines of New Mexico State. He lost six straight to the Wildcats from 1932-37, the last five of those against coach G.A. “Tex” Oliver. Hines’ Aggies, known as New Mexico A&M back then, finally beat the Wildcats in 1938 by a 7-6 score in front of 10,000 stunned fans in the season opener at University Stadium (now Arizona Stadium).
That was the first time since 1915 the Aggies achieved a win over the Wildcats.
The only other coach with more than four straight losses to Arizona is Joe Avezzano of Oregon State from 1980 to 1984, a stretch of five games, all against Larry Smith. If the Wildcats upset the No. 24 Utes on Saturday at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City, Whittingham will join Avezzano as the conference coach with the most consecutive losses to Arizona.
Whittingham is the eighth coach from a Pac-12 school to lose at least four straight to the Wildcats since Arizona joined the conference from the WAC in 1978. The most recent was Rick Neuheisel, who lost four straight to Arizona while at UCLA from 2008 to 2011. That was before Mora turned the tables on the Wildcats.
Photo note: Joe Avezzano has the longest losing streak of a Pac-12 coach against Arizona at five games while at Oregon State (1980-84)
Here is a list of the 14 coaches who have lost at least four straight against Arizona in the history of the program (researched by yours truly):
[table “” not found /]Here is a list of coaches who have defeated Arizona at least five times consecutively:
[table “” not found /]
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