The Arizona Daily Star, Tucson, Greg Hansen column

Sept. 04--The lightning stopped about 5 Thursday afternoon, the rain ceased at 7 and Arizona's pulse disappeared with 1:55 remaining in the first quarter.

That's when Scooby Wright moved toward UTSA's line of scrimmage, stutter-stepping, stacked up behind Roadrunner tight end David Morgan and Arizona tackle Luca Bruno.

It was simple off-tackle play. If you run it 100 times in a season, nobody gets hurt and nobody remembers who ran the ball or who made the tackle.

It's the kind of play made for Scooby Wright III, a play that he stops for a 2-yard gain, a play that helped make him America's best college linebacker in 2014.

But on that first down from Arizona's 21-yard line, just as Morgan and Bruno got in a tangle and tailback Jarveon Williams cut to the outside, Scooby either snagged his foot beneath Bruno, or, as happens too often in sports, something just popped.

The people in the insurance business call it a no-fault wreck.

Scooby began limping immediately, hopping to the sideline, tapping at his helmet seven or eight times, which is football code for "man down."

When Arizona returned for the second half, Scooby had removed his uniform and had to use a cane to get to his team's bench. How's that for a season opener?

Arizona won 42-32 but it was as if the rain resumed and the Wildcats had been struck by lightning.

"Now I won't sleep at all," UA coach Rich Rodriguez said when asked about the team's long list of injuries. "Now I'm going to be miserable."

Then he half-laughed. It came off as a good acting job.

We all scoffed at the UA's featherweight nonconference schedule, as if nothing could go wrong. But at halftime, with Arizona outgained 328-202 yards and leading 21-20, the Roadrunners might as well have been the Buckeyes or the Crimson Tide. That's how tough it was.

Whatever could go wrong, did go wrong.

The image of Scooby and a cane became the story of the game.

Suddenly, next week's road trip to play Nevada appears ominous.

Long before halftime, the Wildcats were using players that only a recruiting coordinator would know without checking the roster: tackle Layth Friekh, linebacker Haden Gregory, safety Carter Hehr, linebacker R.J. Morgan and receiver Nae Nae.

OK, the last one, Nae Nae, is a dance, not a football player. Not that anyone was in the mood to dance.

The UA's franchise offensive tackle, Freddie Tagaloa, was withheld with an injury. The club's most elusive receiver, Samajie Grant was suspended again. Cornerback Cam Denson was injured. So was his replacement, Sammy Morrison. Starting safety Tellas Jones was suspended, too.

Moments before the Wildcats left their locker room for the opening kickoff, Rodriguez allowed the Pac-12 Networks to broadcast his give-em-hell speech. This time he wasn't in the mood to dance.

"When you play Arizona," he shouted, "you're gonna know you played Arizona!"

His team went nuts.

And then, inexplicably, it went south.

"I wasn't happy with anything on defense," said RichRod.

Against a team like UTSA, the Wildcats can (and did) outscore their mistakes. But if Scooby can't return, or is limited, the bold projections of another 10-win season, and the hope to contend for another Pac-12 South title, are irreparably damaged.

Gregory, a fifth-year senior linebacker from Long Beach City College, took most of the snaps that would've gone to Scooby. Gregory entered the game with one career tackle.

UA spent its linebacker insurance last month in training camp when Cody Ippolito tore an ACL and was ruled out until 2016.

Now UA defensive coordinator Jeff Casteel, who literally used a shuttle system all night, sometimes replacing five or six players at a time, will have to scheme like a baseball manager, going deep into the bullpen game after game.

With 11 minutes remaining Thursday, leading 42-26, the game still in doubt, Casteel's three safeties were Hehr, a walk-on, true freshmen Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles and Anthony Lopez, who had made one career start in three seasons.

At game's end, the UA players walked to the south end zone and sang "Bear Down, Arizona" with the band. Rather than join his team, RichRod walked to the end zone with his head trainer, Randy Cohen.

When Cohen and RichRod reached the locker room and went their separate ways, they neither smiled nor tapped knuckles the way you see winning teams do it.

On opening night, the Wildcats won. But at what price?

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