2014 Arizona Wildcat Football

[Brian in Mesa]

UA kicker gets Twitter death threats after failed field goal

http://www.azcentral.com/story/spor...er-death-threats-missing-field-goal/17257169/

A University of Arizona football player who missed a kick in Saturday night's game is being threatened and taunted on social media, including a tweet wishing cancer on his family.

The threats came after UA kicker Casey Skowron missed a field-goal attempt with 17 seconds left in Saturday's game against USC. The Wildcats lost 28-26.

One woman tweeted, according to Fox 10 news: "@cskowron11 i hope your entire family dies of cancer you (expletive)."

Another added: "This just in: University of Arizona kicker found hanging in the locker room."

Fans, and even USC supporters, are jumping to his defense and urging others to support the player. Some of the offending tweets have since been removed.

UA Athletic Director Greg Byrne tweeted, "Proud of Casey Skowron ... great kid and glad he's an Arizona Wildcat. #BearDown."

The Trojans' site, @ReignofTroy, condemned the poor sportsmanship.

"Anyone tweeting Casey Skowron anything remotely degrading is despicable. Arizona fan OR USC fan. This is football. We're all human."

 

[Absolute Zero]

That is so lame, but pretty awesome how everyone has his back. Sometimes us crazy sports fans forget that these are just college kids playing a game.

 

[AZ Native]

Unfortunately, those type of "fans" are around everywhere. It could have been any team.

 

[TJ]

I understand the frustration from Arizona fans since we've had such a pathetic bunch of kickers for the past several years, but death threats?

Twitter is great in that it gives us more access to players than we've ever had, but it also gives too much access

 

[Absolute Zero]

Do you all have a football game on Saturday, or has the season been cancelled to allow a shift in focus to basketball?

 

[Iceman]

Yeah. This is ridiculous. The poor kid already feels the lowest one could feel playing a sport, then you have idiots making it worse for him to get over it. Hope he hits a game winner this weekend or has a perfect day to put that game behind him.

 

[Lefty]

Yeah. This is ridiculous. The poor kid already feels the lowest one could feel playing a sport, then you have idiots making it worse for him to get over it. Hope he hits a game winner this weekend or has a perfect day to put that game behind him.

Every team has your idiot fans and those that said all that crap after the loss are morons and not true fans. Being a kicker has to be one of the worst positions in football. They are on the field for a few minutes a game and many times it comes down to kicking a field goal. Just ask Gary Anderson when he did not miss a field goal or extra point in the 1998 season for the Vikings until he missed a 37-yard field goal that would of sealed the win and put the Vikings into the Super Bowl. All you ever hear about is Anderson's missed field goal, rarely about the incredible season he had.

 

[TJ]

Do you all have a football game on Saturday, or has the season been cancelled to allow a shift in focus to basketball?

Sorry, it's overwhelming having so many highly ranked teams to root for

 

[Chaplin]

Ray Finkle sympathizes.

 

[Absolute Zero]

What do you guys think of the Rich Rod to Florida rumors?

 

[TJ]

What do you guys think of the Rich Rod to Florida rumors?

Dan Mullen is first on florida's list before anyone else.

I think reports of RichRod's standing on their wish list are over exaggerated. Florida wants to win right now. Muschamp set that team back many years. RichRod has a history of taking his time developing winning teams. It would be Michigan v.2.0. Plus, his family is settled there. His son is the starting QB at one of the high schools and his daughter is on Arizona's cheer squad.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

It's always funny that ASU fans (90% of which will insist Rich Rod sucks) will also go on and on about how's he going to leave for a top 10 program like Florida. Sorry but since the Michigan debacle he's only won the New Mexico and Independence Bowls. Barring a highly unlikely run to the playoff Florida ain't touching RichRod.

I mean wouldn't it make more sense for Florida and their blank checks and fertile recruiting grounds to go after Todd Graham since he's allegedly such a superior coach and all?

 

[HooverDam]

It's always funny that ASU fans (90% of which will insist Rich Rod sucks) will also go on and on about how's he going to leave for a top 10 program like Florida. Sorry but since the Michigan debacle he's only won the New Mexico and Independence Bowls. Barring a highly unlikely run to the playoff Florida ain't touching RichRod.

I mean wouldn't it make more sense for Florida and their blank checks and fertile recruiting grounds to go after Todd Graham since he's allegedly such a superior coach and all?

Thats an interesting narrative you're trying to weave. I don't think any ASU fan that's being honest thinks Rich Rod "sucks." In fact I think he's easily the best hire UA has made since Tomey and I think if he sticks around he can get UA back to where Tomey had them (which is likely their ceiling outside of them finding the Lute Olsen of football). I think if ASU fans are being reasonable, they'd agree.

I do think Rich Rod would leave UA if he got the chance, but probably not yet. He certainly hasn't done anything to merit the job at a place like Florida. I imagine he'd listen if WVU called, but Holgorsen seems like he's now get them going in the right direction.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

I just enjoy the irony of ASU fans suggesting that a guy they think is so inferior to their own coach is at the same time a candidate for a top 10 job like UF. For that to be true inevitably that would mean Graham would also be in those exact same coaching searches although I doubt you'd ever see an ASU fan admit to that.

That being said even if UF hires Florida that would mean Rodriguez won ten games here so I would thank him for his time and let him move on. Then I'd realize that our AD's last two football coaching hires had turned two languishing football programs into top 10 teams. We'd be fine even if Rodriguez left as long as Byrne is in Tucson.

 

[gmabel830]

Another nice win!

 

[TJ]

Another nice win!

Just about anyone with a microphone picked us to lose.

But yeah, anytime you can go on the road and win in the PAC it's a good thing

 

[Phrazbit]

I don't think THESMEL would be a fan of Washington State's offense.

 

[TJ]

That is unquestionably the worst offensive execution I've ever seen from this team since the Oregon debacle in 2012. Line didn't block for ****, receivers dropped at least 10 balls, and running game was non-existent.

Credit to the D, though. They came to play. Only allowing 17 points while being on the field for 40+ min is a silver lining.

 

[Absolute Zero]

That's ok, we don't mind. And look at the brightside, don't you get Colorado next week?

 

[TJ]

That's ok, we don't mind. And look at the brightside, don't you get Colorado next week?

Ucla is back in the running for the PAC south and owns the tie breaker on ASU. Wouldn't get too comfy.

Yes we have Colorado then Washington at home.

 

[Russ Smith]

That is unquestionably the worst offensive execution I've ever seen from this team since the Oregon debacle in 2012. Line didn't block for ****, receivers dropped at least 10 balls, and running game was non-existent.

Credit to the D, though. They came to play. Only allowing 17 points while being on the field for 40+ min is a silver lining.

It is funny how fans see the same game differently. All the UCLA fans are talking about how good the defense was and how bad the offense was with all the penalties and the incredible reliance on the swing pass. Essentially it seemed like if the first guy wasn't open Hundley either ran or threw to the outlet guy. The refs were fixated on calling penalties on the swing passes and UCLA's play callers never adjusted.But all those short passes had the impact of bringing the safeties up and eventually UCLA went over the top for about the easiest TD throw I've seen all year.

I htink Gilmore was 100% right on Solomon, way too flighty in the pocket any pressure at all and he starts moving his feet and stops looking downfield, they needed to roll him out he clearly wasn't comfortable in the pocket at all.

I thought the hit on Hill should have been a penalty.

 

[Absolute Zero]

Ucla is back in the running for the PAC south and owns the tie breaker on ASU. Wouldn't get too comfy.

Yes we have Colorado then Washington at home.

No kidding, this has been a crazy PAC 12 South season so far.

ASU is ahead, but that could easily evaporate. I expect UofA will win their next 2. Your Utah game will be tough, then anything goes in the Territorial Cup. This will be a wild ride!!

 

[Russ Smith]

FWIW, some talk on UCLA boards that the UCLA coaches were calling out the Arizona plays by formation. Not sure if they just mean pass or run, or plays as in where the ball was supposed to go, but apparently they saw some clear tendencies on tape and that's why the defense was so effective.

 

[Absolute Zero]

FWIW, some talk on UCLA boards that the UCLA coaches were calling out the Arizona plays by formation. Not sure if they just mean pass or run, or plays as in where the ball was supposed to go, but apparently they saw some clear tendencies on tape and that's why the defense was so effective.

Hmmmm..... Not sure if this is a New England Patriot type deal from what you are saying.

I didn't see the game, but I am surprised that UCLA held Arizona to 7 points. From the box score, it looks like UCLA shut down the run game and forced Solomon to put up a lot of passes--48. Did they just load up the box or what? It seems weird that the passing game wasn't more effective because I know Solomon has put up some pretty big numbers in other games this year.

 

[Russ Smith]

Hmmmm..... Not sure if this is a New England Patriot type deal from what you are saying.

I didn't see the game, but I am surprised that UCLA held Arizona to 7 points. From the box score, it looks like UCLA shut down the run game and forced Solomon to put up a lot of passes--48. Did they just load up the box or what? It seems weird that the passing game wasn't more effective because I know Solomon has put up some pretty big numbers in other games this year.

Nobody is saying they had secret tape just that apparently UCLA's coaches saw obvious tendencies on film and the players used those tendencies to essentially call out plays from formation. Who knows, you hear stuff like that now and then there has been lots of criticism of Ulbrich the UCLA DC this year so maybe he leaked the story to try and make himself look good who knows.

But the part I saw it sure was surprising how well UCLA played defense, Arizona had 255 total yards, Oregon put up nearly 500 on UCLA and Cal nearly had 400 on them. Seems like there may have been some truth to the rumors UCLA had some tells on what UA was going to do they saw on tape.