Arizona coach Rich Rodriguez not worried about preseason ranking

BURBANK, Calif. -- Arizona, the defending Pac-12 South champion, was picked to finish fourth in the division in the recently released Pac-12 media poll. It's a sign of the progress of the conference, as well as the depth of the South, but Arizona coach Rich Rodriguez said he pays no attention to those rankings.

"Is that what we were picked last year? Well, good. That's a good sign," Rodriguez said.

In the 2014 preseason poll, the Wildcats finished more than 100 points behind UCLA, the team that was picked to win the Pac-12 South. USCand Arizona Statealso finished ahead of Arizona.

At the conclusion of the 2014 regular season, Arizona was the Pac-12 South champion, followed by Arizona State, UCLA and USC.

But Rodriguez then got a bit theatrical, going on to say that someone told him about one poll that said there was a 2 percent chance of Arizona winning the Pac-12.

"It's like that 'Dumb and Dumber' thing, 'What's the chances [of] a guy like me getting with a girl like you? One in one hundred? More like one in a million. So you're telling me there's a chance,' " Rodriguez said. "Two percent? Better than one in a million, right?"

And it sounds like Rodriguez's players are taking that approach as well, paying no heed to the fourth-place ranking in the preseason polls.

"It's football, that division is tough," safety Will Parks said. "We'll use it as motivation to do great, that's all."

Echoed wide receiver David Richards echoed: "I'm not surprised; we're always the underdog at Arizona. We only can control what we can control, and that's going out there and playing football."