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Overwhelming the Trojans
Arizona struggled to maintain its offense in the second half but persevered for the win PAGE 9
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Almost there... monday, december ,
Fitting finale COMMENTARY By Bobby Stover sports writer
tucson, arizona
dailywildcat.com
ABOR Holiday Bowl bound praises campus research No. 22 Arizona 21, USC 17
LOS ANGELES — Mike Stoops’ smile said it all Saturday. As the Arizona head coach joyfully made his way off the field at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Saturday evening, Wildcat boosters — the same ones he struggled to impress after first taking the Arizona job — were waiting to greet him with praise and congratulations. All the while, Stoops wore a smile as large as the mountain he climbed to reach the very moment he now basked in. During postgame interviews, Mike’s brother and Arizona defensive coordinator Mark Stoops walked away from reporters, overcome with emotion, upon being asked where Arizona’s 2117 win over the Trojans ranked in his career. The win did far more for the Wildcats than simply secure their second-place position in the Pacific 10 Conference or land them in a more prestigious bowl game. Saturday’s victory marked the first time Mike Stoops beat USC as Arizona’s head coach,
By Will Ferguson ARIZONA DAILY WILDCAT
STOVER, page 3
Livengood quiet on UNLV rumors
Multiple media outlets are reporting that Arizona Athletic Director Jim Livengood’s name has been rumored for the opening at the same position at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The Arizona Daily Star, Las Vegas Sun and Las Vegas ReviewJournal have reported interest by UNLV, while the two Nevada papers have also said that UNLV President Neal Smatresk has denied a hire. At Arizona’s football game against USC at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on Saturday, Livengood was asked whether he had visited LasVegas and if there was any truth to him possibly joining UNLV’s athletic department. “I can’t say anything,”Livengood said. The athletic director’s contract has yet to be extended through the Arizona Board of Regents, and there was no mention of such an extension at this week’s ABOR meeting. — Arizona Daily Wildcat
Alan Walsh/Arizona Daily Wildcat
Offensive tackle Adam Grant and wide receiver Juron Criner celebrate after Criner’s game-winning touchdown. The game-winning score gave the Wildcats the 21-17 lead before Arizona shut down USC’s desperate offense in the final three minutes of the game.
Wildcats to hook up with Huskers in San Diego By Brian Kimball ARIZONA DAILY WILDCAT It’s official: the Arizona football team will square off against Nebraska on Dec. 30 at the Holiday Bowl in San Diego, Calif. The game will be a rematch of sorts of the 1998 meeting between the two teams, a game the Wildcats won 23-20. However, the contest also features another interesting story line, as Arizona’s Stoops brothers will face off against childhood friends in Nebraska’s Pelini brothers. “Obviously Bo (Pelini) is a close friend of mine and our family and certainly Carl (Pelini) — in the same position that Mark (Stoops) holds — so it’s going to be different,”said UA head coach Mike Stoops.“Re-
ally, in football or in any competition, once the game starts you really kind of block all that out and concentrate on all the things you need to to win a football game, but it’ll be fun competing against Bo.” No. 22 Arizona was selected for the Holiday Bowl thanks to its 21-17 win against USC Saturday at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, while the No. 20 Huskers were selected after a 13-12 loss to Texas in the Big 12 Title Game. Nebraska lost on a last-second field goal to the Longhorns, but Bo Pelini doesn’t expect his team to experience any lingering effects. “It’s not like we’ve got to turn around and do this in three days,”Pelini said.“It’s a bowl game, it’s the last game of the year and we’re going to want to send our seniors out
as winners. And on top of that, we’ve got a great challenge against a really good program and a tremendous coaching staff.” Regardless of the circumstances that brought each team to the game, Stoops said his squad is looking forward to playing in an upper-tier bowl game against a strong opponent. “I think playing a quality program, a top-10 program like Nebraska will be very exciting to our players. Being in a bigger game, growing as a program, I think it’s very exciting for all of us and I think for our fans,” Stoops said. “I think this is going to be a big-time event for them and exciting to play in a big game. We haven’t done it in a long time, so it’s very exciting to all of us.”
The Arizona Board of Regents meeting on Friday focused on promoting collective creativity, the addition of a modern streetcar route through the UA and an increase in allowable transfer credits from the community college level. Many items on the agenda were either postponed or not mentioned during the meeting. These included graduation trends, enrollment statistics and plans for enrollment increases and financial aid reports. President Robert Shelton opened the meeting with a lengthy discussion on the merits of interdisciplinary research conducted by faculty at the UA. He mentioned several highprofile areas of research at the UA as examples, including the Phoenix Mars Lander, the study of second languages and advances in medical research. “Creativity, discovery and innovation are trademarks of the UA,” Shelton said. One of the examples of innovative research presented by Leslie Tolbert, vice president of research at the UA, was the development of a national foreign language research center at the UA, one of 15 such institutions in the world. The mission of the language center will be to provide better foreign language education at the K-12 and collegiate levels, Tolbert said. Joel Valdez, vice president of business affairs at the UA, presented the UA 2009 Comprehensive Campus plan update, which focused on the need for increased campus density and an increase in growth opportunities, including the creation of a $35 million modern streetcar route. The streetcar will run from the UA Health Sciences Center to downtown and will improve and enhance relations between the university and the community, Valdez said. The board of regents approved an exception to transfer credit limits that will allow Arizona community college students to transfer up to 75 credits toward the completion of a Bachelor of Applied Science degree at the BOARD, page 8
Aid worker to face second hearing for littering charges By Jennifer Koehmstedt ARIZONA DAILY WILDCAT
What is trash? To the government, water jugs. To Walt Staton, it’s being criminally convicted for humanitarian work. UA alumnus and former Daily Wildcat employee Walt Staton faces jail time for refusing to complete community service hours for a littering conviction, insisting that placing water jugs along migrant trails is not littering. On Aug. 11, Staton was convicted in federal court of “knowingly littering” after leaving unopened jugs of water along migrant trails in the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge. He was sentenced to 300 hours of picking up trash and one year unsupervised probation. At Staton’s resentencing hearing on
Friday, Magistrate Jennifer Guerin denied his motion to modify or suspend his sentence, and scheduled a probation violation hearing for Dec. 21. Staton could serve up to 25 days in prison, or two hours for every community service hour not completed. Staton is a volunteer for the group No More Deaths, which supports humanitarian work along the border. In a Nov. 2 letter, Staton told Guerin that he would not be completing the hours of community service. “I do not believe the federal statute regarding littering is unjust, and I do not wish to challenge or change that law,” Staton said in the letter. “(M)y decision to place sealed gallon jugs of water along trails used by migrants to cross remote areas of the Sonoran desert should
be understood as an attempt on my part to uphold international human rights law, specifically the right to life.” While in court, Staton told Judge Guerin that by not completing the community service, he was taking a stand for human rights workers everywhere. “In order for humanitarian workers to do the work that they do, we cannot have fear of punishments from the government,” he said. Defense attorney Bill Walker said Staton, a seminary student at Claremont School of Theology, did not object to the 300 hours of community service, but rather what they represented. “It would be an admission on his part that he has done something wrong,” TRIAL, page 8
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Graphic courtesy of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Serive
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