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Mike Stoops is the Pac-10's only head football coach who looks like he could still dig in on the goal line, deliver a hit and come back for more.

At 46, the former Iowa Hawkeye couldn't be more than a few pounds over his 1980s playing weight, and Lord knows, his intensity has grown since he was an All-Big Ten safety.

During training camp, when fans and players are allowed to watch the UA practice, Stoops is often the best show on the field. He is almost always in the middle of action, offense and defense, working up a sweat, loud, demanding and indelicate.

Stoops' critics sometimes insist that he coaches too much and doesn't pay enough attention to the big picture. After four years on the job, it is probably more accurate to say that reviving Arizona's football program has taken all the coaching Stoops can give, and then some.

Subtly, things have begun to change.

When UA athletic director Jim Livengood and two of his front office lieutenants arrived at Camp Huachuca on Friday morning, they found Stoops in an altogether unfamiliar place: on the sidelines.

For about 25 minutes, Stoops stood far from the action and talked quietly with Livengood and others in his traveling group. This rare hand's-off glimpse of the head coach is indicative of the growth of Arizona's football organization.

The crop has been planted. For the first time, Stoops doesn't insist on being on the field.

Thursday, in the cool of a Cochise County evening, Stoops capped a two-hour workout session with a thoughtful speech to his team and his coaches. He spoke quietly about the progress he sees. He talked about how encouraged he is. He did not torch someone for a dropped ball or a missed tackle.

It made you think that this is how it must sometimes be at Cal and Oregon.

In perhaps the first time since the Dick Tomey years, Arizona has enough continuity and skilled personnel to permit its head coach to deploy positive reinforcement, rather than to shriek "you guys (fill in the blank)!''

Arizona hasn't won a game yet. Its work has just begun. But the mentality has changed.

For example, in most post-Tomey years, the Wildcats would have great difficulty replacing departed linebacker Spencer Larsen and the right tackle slot vacated by standout Eben Britton, who has been moved to left tackle.

If you're a bad football program, you punch up a redshirt freshman and worry.

But this year, the Wildcats are deep enough to put juniors at each spot. This is the fourth year Xavier Kelley, a linebacker, and Adam Grant, a right tackle, have been in Stoops' system.

"We just have more good players," offensive coordinator Sonny Dykes says. "More quality depth."

Both Kelley and Grant chose to play at Arizona, in part, because of their initial impressions of Stoops from his Oklahoma days.

"When I was being recruited, my dad (Steve) told me: 'Hey, one of the Stoops brothers is at Arizona; do you know anything about him?' " Grant says now. "Sure. I had heard about him at Oklahoma. I liked the idea of playing for him immediately."

Grant initially made a commitment to play at nearby Washington, about 50 miles north of his home in Puyallup, Wash. He jumped on the Stoops bandwagon in its early phase.

Kelley was a Texas 5A all-state player from Denton who was offered a scholarship by Nebraska. He chose Arizona, he says, because he was impressed by what Stoops did at OU.

After three bumpy seasons, Kelley and Grant are now expected to play a big part in making the journey a bit less turbulent. Much like their head coach, you can say they have paid their dues.

"I was stacked up behind the guy (Larsen) who led the Pac-10 in tackles and was a team leader," Kelley says. "I had countless conversations with my teammates and my family about how frustrating it was being in that position. But I decided to suck up my pride and wait my turn. It is paying off."

Grant has gone through two awful knee surgeries, keeping him idle in 2006 and 2007. A year ago, he underwent an unusual knee reconstruction in which a part of the healthy patella tendon in his left knee was grafted onto his damaged right knee.

And now he's starting at right tackle on what appears to be Arizona's best offensive line since 2000.

"I've had some pretty bad days, some of them in which I kinda broke down a little,'' Grant recalls. "But this team stuck with me and that support made me eager to get back on the horse and keep going."

Opening night is still two weeks away. But for now, the Wildcats are whole. Under Stoops, they've never had better direction.