The Mailbag: Aug. 21

Thanks to some of my curious readers, it is time for another installment of my mailbag. This week, attention was on travel, road games and uniforms for Saturday’s game.

I will look forward to any and all questions, comments and observations you have once we all get to see the Wildcats in action Saturday night!

Send them my way via email bwillis@dryheatsportsaz or on Twitter (@BlairWillisUA) and I can answer or share next week.

Let’s jump into this week’s topics:

L. Spalding writes: Can you walk us fans through a football road trip? When does the team leave? What do they do when they get to the destination? What do they do the day of the game?

This is one of a couple road trip related questions I received.

The trip to Hawai’i is not a normal road trip for the team. It actually is a semi-bowl trip. Because classes have yet to start and because it is a non-conference game, Arizona was able to depart on Wednesday. That gives the team plenty of time to rest from the travel, adjust to the time change and get acclimated to the climate before Saturday. Included will be a couple practices, meetings, meals, treatments and even some time to relax.

A normal road trip is much shorter and more standardized.

Coach Sumlin has the travel squad practice on campus Friday mornings before getting ready to head out of town. This was a departure from Rich Rodriguez’s routine, which had the team typically conduct a walk-thru at the stadium upon arrival to the destination. Sumlin instead prefers to practice, and it is an up-tempo practice, not a walk-thru.

Once the practice is over, players shower and pack up. Then they board busses outside the Lowell-Stevens Football Facility and head to Tucson International Airport to board the team charter.

The team charter flies direct into the destination city (usually), landing late afternoon. From there, everyone boards busses again and head to the team hotel usually in the 4-6 p.m. range. At the hotel, chapel, team meal and meetings take place before the team heads out to a movie. After the movie, it’s back to the hotel for snack, quick meeting and bed typically.

Game day wake up and breakfast will depend on game time. For night games, it is a very long day. Most players rest and relax as much as possible, before it is time for treatments, taping and final meetings. The team will then board busses and plan to arrive at the stadium between two to two-and-half hours prior to kick.

At that point, it’s business as usual.

From Twitter, @Scott_Terrell asked: What are some of the behind-the-scenes challenges of a road trip that make winning difficult?

This question can be approached a couple ways, but first and foremost winning any football – home, away or neutral – is hard. Every play, there are 11 guys that have to know and execute their assignment better than the 11 guys on the other side of the ball. That is why the most talented teams don’t always win. It is truly a team game.

However, most acknowledge that winning on the road is harder than winning at home. Often times we wonder why a certain team struggles on the road, but it’s also important to keep the other team in mind and ask: does our team not play well on the road or do other teams simply play their best at home?

The best answer is probably that it is a combination of these factors. Most teams will consistently play better at home, while road teams will be less likely to perform at their best.

So why is that?

The familiarity of a home game combined with the energy and excitement of a supportive crowd makes it easier to go out and perform instead of battling negative pressures. At home, everything is familiar and positive. There is so much excitement and build-up that becomes palpable on campus for a home game. People wish players and coaches good luck, they wear the colors, they talk about being at the game to cheer them on, etc. The entire team – and support staff – is able to be around the team and people aren’t left behind like they are for a road game. Therefore it is easy to be relaxed at home and not feel rushed into preparation or forced into isolation as the enemy.

When a team goes on the road, it knows it must play at a high level because the home team will likely play well. The road team knows tens of thousands of fans are going to be booing and rooting against it. And the road team struggles to get comfortable with long travel on Fridays, possible time zone changes, different weather conditions, unfamiliar hotels, small locker rooms and all the challenges that come during the game itself.

In-game challenges for a road team are often communication-based, such as hearing play calls and making adjustments in real time. But other obstacles present themselves, like a long trek to and from the locker room just to get to the field. Sometimes it is difficult for assistant coaches to get from the press box to the locker room at halftime to communicate their adjustments. And in the case of equipment breaking or a player needing to go inside for medical attention, it can also take longer to remedy. In short, nothing is as efficient as it as at home.

With all of this said, what any coaching staff tries to do for road games is make everything as similar to a home game as possible. This includes the timeline of meals, meetings, treatments and other activities the night before the game. Whether in Tucson or Eugene, the Friday night is going to be pretty similar for the Wildcats. Same with the game day routine from waking up to arriving at the stadium and going through warmups. There will be very little, if any, deviation in the itineraries from a home game to a road game.

Still, when a team hits the road, it is going to be very different from a home game for reasons I outlined above. Good teams embrace that challenge, increase their focus and elevate their performance to the situation. That often takes maturity and leadership, which is not always easy to come by when facing adversity in hostile environments.

Yet winning on the road, especially in a tough environment, is one of the best feelings in sports.

Let’s hope maturity and leadership take over for the Wildcats on this trip to Hawai’i, and they set the tone early. It’s a long flight home either way, might as well sing the fight song and sleep peacefully.

On Twiter, @palpalife wrote: Should be the whole uni, not just the helmet. poor decision.

While this was a reply and not a direct question, it seemed appropriate to address regarding the Wildcats wearing the USS Arizona tributehelmet this Saturday, but not the full uniform that was worn in 2016 also against Hawai’i.

The @ArizonaFBall team announced it will wear the USS Arizona tribute helmets that it also wore against Hawai’i in 2016. The rest of the uniform will be the regular road whites.

Here’s a look back at the details of the special edition 2016 uniform.#BackTheA 🅰️ pic.twitter.com/CNt2Lj9KhS

— Blair Willis (@BlairWillisUA) August 21, 2019

The reasons here are primarily cost and the fact gray is not a road uniform color. The uniforms worn in 2016 included a special gray jersey, but otherwise the white helmet and red pants were a part of Arizona’s regular uniform set. The helmet was modified with special decals, including the “A” that was inspired by the design on the jerseys seen in a team photo from the USS Arizona’s football team. Otherwise, the gray jersey was a special order and design for that specific game, and players were allowed to keep them. Those jerseys have not been an option to wear since. In this case, UA would likely have had to seek a waiver to use a gray uniform in a road game (white is the requirement for road jersey).

Certainly Arizona could have re-ordered those jerseys or similar ones, but there is a cost involved in that. And Arizona is already spending much more on this road trip than it does for any regular season road trip. There is also a special uniform that will be worn later this season. There’s plenty of rumors swirling around about that, and I’ll leave it at that.

Getting back to the uniforms for this Saturday, I feel the helmets are the appropriate remembrance and symbol of this school’s unique connection to the USS Arizona and bombing of Pearl Harbor. The “A” from the old football sweaters, the “At ‘Em Arizona” rally cry of the ship, the USS Arizona Bell and the date of the attack are all clearly recognized on decals for the helmet. Plus, there is a “DT” to honor the late Coach Dick Tomey.

The rest of the uniform this week will be the standard road white jersey and white pants. The jersey will have the “150” patch which teams will be wearing all season as part of college football’s 150^th anniversary.

To wrap things up, it is worth every fan’s time to watch this tribute to Coach Tomey put together by Hawai’i Football.

The Aloha Spirit will always live with coach Dick Tomey’s legacy. He’s won many games during his time on the sidelines but his impact on the hundreds of young men can never be measured. Former players share memories of Coach. Join us at Sat.’s 🏈 game as we honor Coach. #HawaiiFB pic.twitter.com/VHRT21iJ1q

— Hawaii Football (@HawaiiFootball) August 22, 2019

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