Arizona football head coach Rich Rodriguez said he is optimistic that senior linebacker Jake Fischer, the leader of the defense, is getting better after suffering an ankle injury in Seattle.

“I think he’s getting better every day. I don’t know if he’ll practice [Wednesday] or Thursday, but we’re optimistic he should be OK,” Rodriguez said.

Mini break

Arizona doesn’t play this week but it is not a full bye.

“Frankly, I would rather have an open date toward the end there, in October, instead of having to play seven straight,” Rodriguez said.

Arizona has this bye week, after having one two weeks ago, because of the Pac-12’s 10-day window system, to give the team more time before a Thursday game.

“It doesn’t bother me to play Saturday and then Thursday, as long as it is the same five day window for the next team but it ain’t like we all of a sudden knew the schedule right now, the schedule’s been out for months,” Rodriguez said.

After USC, the Wildcats won’t have anymore bye weeks in the regular season.

“Sunday will be a Tuesday practice, Monday will be a Wednesday and so on. So they get kind of a day and a half off,” Rodriguez said laughing.

Trojan horse?

After USC’s embarrassing loss at ASU, Southern California fired head coach Lane Kiffin, making its bye week more interesting.

Defensive line coach Ed Orgeron will serve as the Trojans’ interim head coach.

Rodriguez said he and his staff are not yet sure how to game plan for a new coaching staff.

“I think defensively we have an idea. They’re going to keep the same defensive coordinator and he’s hard to prepare for anyway, because he does a lot of things,” Rodriguez said.

Orgeron said their offense won’t change a lot, but Rodriguez said he isn’t so sure.

“It may not change a whole lot, because it is just 10 days, but at the same time, they could change everything,” Rodriguez said.

In 2011, when Arizona fired Mike Stoops, interim head coach Tim Kish led Arizona to a 48-12 win over UCLA on a Thursday to snap a 10-game losing streak to FBS teams after a 10 day break.

— Follow James Kelley @JamesKelley520