The Arizona Wildcats are far from the most storied college football team in Division I, and they don't often produce players who are selected early in the NFL Draft, but every once in a while, a player comes along who dons the red and blue, wears a block A on his helmet and is nationally recognized for his greatness.
Six Arizona football players were unanimously selected to the All-American First Team, split into the three groups already covered (linebackers, cornerbacks, and defensive linemen). Next, we'll look at the 12 players who were unanimously selected as All-Americans. In this series, we'll take a look at players' careers at Arizona, position by position.
In an effort to pay tribute to the experts, the first non-unanimous All-American we'll look at in this series is kicker Steve McLaughlin. As of this writing, McLaughlin has 50 career field goals made, which puts him second all-time on the Arizona leaderboard behind Max Zendejas (79) and just ahead of third-place Tyler Loup (49).
The Wildcats struggled to find a consistent kicking option after Zendejas left for the NFL after the 1985 season. McLaughlin's predecessor, Gary Coston, was the near-automatic PAT kicker but was an inconsistent field goal kicker after missing an extended period in 1988-1989. McLaughlin, while not as reliable at field goals, had the skill set he most valued: availability.
McLaughlin, a Tucson native and Saguaro High School graduate, played a total of 42 games for Arizona from 1991 to 1994. In 1991, he started well as a freshman before finishing with the “worst” season of his Arizona career, making 29 of 32 PATs and just 3 of 6 field goal attempts.
As a sophomore, McLaughlin began to find his rhythm. In 1992, he made all 26 of his PAT attempts and improved his field goal kicking. Arizona required McLaughlin to make 20 field goals, and he made 11 of them for a 55% success rate. McLaughlin's 26 PATs in a perfect season were the ninth-most in a single season in Arizona history, a record he would later repeat.
McLaughlin was knocking on the door of greatness in 1993. While he wasn't able to repeat his perfect PAT season, he did improve to 27 total successes out of 29 attempts. His fourth-down kicks also improved again, hitting 13 of 20 attempts for a 65% success rate.
In 1994, it all clicked for McLaughlin as he got back on track on the PAT and became a field goal machine. McLaughlin was again perfect on 26 extra point attempts and sent down 29 field goal attempts. His 23 field goals still stand as an Arizona single-season record, an increase of 10 in just one year. If you include his two successful kicks in the Freedom Bowl, McLaughlin's number becomes even more staggering at 25.
He led the nation in field goals made in 1994 and was a consensus All-American. He was a consensus First Team All-American, won the 1994 Lou Groza Award given to the nation's best kicker, and (naturally) was selected First Team All-Pac-10. That 1994 season was one of the best in Arizona history and he is worthy of induction into the Arizona Hall of Fame and the honor of having his jersey retired by the Wildcats.
Arizona Football All-American. DL. D-linemen Rob Waldrop and Tedy Bruschi. Dark
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