Here’s what has happened since an Arizona QB last passed in the NFL

Is one pass from Nick Foles on Sunday too much to ask? Photo by Howard Smith-US PRESSWIRE

It was a near freezing afternoon, Nov. 11, 1973, when the New York Jets played the New England Patriots in Shea Stadium.

At some point in the fourth quarter, quarterback Bill Demory, a 22-year-old undrafted rookie from Arizona, helping to sub for an injured Joe Namath, threw a pass for the Jets.

Demory never threw another pass in the NFL.

And neither has any other quarterback from the University of Arizona.

“Really?” said first-year Arizona coach Rich Rodriguez.

“Wow,” added quarterbacks coach Rod Smith. “That is shocking. It is. That’s very shocking.”

Yes, it is an incredible, thoroughly unimaginable, drought.

In the nearly four decades since Demory’s last pass, the Wildcats often have had passers who couldn’t run, runners who couldn’t pass, talented quarterbacks who were too short, tall quarterbacks who were too untalented, and offenses that lacked pizzazz and pro-style preparation.

Making matters worse by comparison, Arizona spent most of this span in the Conference of Quarterbacks, joining the Pac-8 along with Arizona State in 1978. The league expanded to 12 in 2011, adding Colorado and Utah.

For now, let’s just consider the other nine members of what was the Pac-10. That was UA’s main competition through this NFL quarterback wasteland.

Here goes: Since 1974, the other nine schools in the Pac-10 had 98 quarterbacks attempt a pass in the NFL.

Those 98 quarterbacks started 3,659 NFL games. They completed 65,023 of 114,730 pass attempts for 785,236 yards. They threw for 4,525 touchdowns.

Meanwhile, the Wildcats’ quarterback odometer was stuck at zero.

The nightmare could soon be over.

Third-round draft pick Nick Foles wowed the Philadelphia Eagles in the preseason and enters Sunday’s opener at Cleveland as the No. 2 quarterback behind oft-injured Michael Vick. It’s only a matter of time for Foles, right?

“He’s a good player, so he’ll get a chance to throw,” Rodriguez said. “I hope Matt will be the next one.”

Perhaps the Cats can produce back-to-back NFL quarterbacks. Matt Scott, a fifth-year senior, will make his case this season.

“He’s definitely got a shot,” Smith said.

“He’s got good enough size (6-3, 196). His arm is strong enough; he can make all the throws. He has a quick delivery. As long as he keeps making sound decisions, everything fits into what they are looking for. He’ll have a shot.

“He can fit into a lot of systems and do a lot of stuff because he’s accurate.”

Smith said the difference between Michigan’s Denard Robinson and some of those other guys he and Rodriguez have coached (such as West Virginia’s Pat White) is that “Matt is more of a polished thrower.”

“And he has the added benefit that he can move. A lot of guys don’t move as well as he does.”

After Scott, who knows?

But just having Foles in the NFL is a start.

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Here is a look at the quarterback totals from Pac-10 schools since the start of the 1974 season (ranked by passing yards), followed by a breakdown of each team:

(Source: pro-football-reference.com. Some quarterbacks played for more than one school in college and did not necessarily complete their eligibility with a Pac-10 team. Some quarterbacks have only partial career stats on this list, because anything before 1974 was eliminated.)

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