The Arizona Wildcats first football game of the season is in the books! Arizona’s record is now 1-0. It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t as wide a spread as predicted, but it was a win.
— Arizona Football (@ArizonaFBall) September 4, 2015
Highlights:
UTSA ran a no huddle offense in the first half, something Arizona wasn’t expecting. A lot of folks predicted that the Wildcats would obliterate the Roadrunners, but they looked really good, scored 32 point against our defense! I predicted that Arizona would not beat the point spread of 30 some odd points, why? Because you cannot count out a coach with 34 years coaching in the NCAA under his belt and not have paid attention to the game we played against them last year.
Read more about last years game: Arizona Football Season Opener: Arizona vs UTSA
Game started out with exciting Anthony Lopez interception at the 23 yard line and ran the ball in for a defensive touchdown, got the crowd going.
On the return, the roadrunners ran the ball all the way to the end zone, but there was a flag on the play and the ball was called back, ball moved back to the Roadrunner 10 yard line.
Sammy Morrison and DeVonte’ Neal made key tackles as we all gladly expected.
At some point during first quarter, Scooby Wright got hurt. He sat on the bench with ice on his knee, talked to his parents in the stands, went in at half time, showered and changed into street clothes, and then finally came out limping and using a cane.
He didn’t look very happy at all. He tried to get back into the game, but no go, you could tell he wanted back in. He’s going to get an MRI tonight and we all hope he will be back in a couple of weeks at the most, Rich Rod said he didn’t know how long he would be out. We hope he heals fast!
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Senior Johnny Jackson racked up 8 catches for 101 yards and one touchdown in the game. Jackson replaced Samajie Grant as a starter in the line-up. Samjie along with two other players did not suit up for the game. According to Daniel Berk, “Receiver Samajie Grant, safety Tellas Jones and defensive lineman Anthony Fotu have all been suspended for the game for a violation of team rules. A UA spokesman said coach Rich Rodriguez would further address the situation after the game.”
Anu Solomon threw four touch down passes to four different wide receivers: Johnny Jackson, Cayleb Jones, Dave Richards, and Nate Phillips. Solomon was 22-36 for 229 yards, four touch downs and no interceptions. He passed successfully to seven different players including the one TE, Josh Kern, his longest pass was for 35 yards to Jackson. He had some fancy footwork in one play worth showing you.
He's always fleet of foot! Anu Solomon's fancy footwork earned him the #UTSAvsAZ #12Best moment. http://t.co/nE1tv3iUyv
— Pac-12 Network (@Pac12Network) September 4, 2015
Casey Skowron was a perfect six for six on extra points. Great news!
Arizona’s running game was almost missing averaging 2.6 yards per carry in the first half. Nick Wilson fumbled early in the game, then sat it out, pondering his mistake. In the second half, things picked up for the running backs. In the second half, Wilson made up for it by running 97 yards on 22 attempts. Think about how many yards he would have had if he would have played the whole game.
Arizona’s Defense scored two out of the six touchdowns: Jamar Allah and Anthony Lopez
In the first half the broadcast booth had its first false fire alarm, Steve Rivera joked around about how the alarm goes off when it’s cold.
@ZonaZealots can't remember it ever happening in years... Nothing hot about tonight.. Guess it happens when it's 50 degrees in the press box
— Steve Rivera (@SteveRivera95) September 4, 2015
Josh Kern was the first TE to catch a pass in over a year, no TE caught a pass all of last season. Kern ended up catching two passes, YES TWO PASSES for 12 total yards, one for 11 yards, the other for one yard. Can’t wait for Jamie Nunley to join the team.
Six minutes into the third Quarter, Jamar Allah scooped up a fumble by UTSA’s Adam Grubb, returned the ball for a 23 yard touchdown.
Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles made his first tackle in two years.
Turning point: Blocked field Goal by DeVonte’ Neal in the fourth quarter with 13:49 left on the clock; score would have been 35 – 42, one touchdown difference late in the fourth
Offensive MVP: Johnny Jackson, the senior came through with flying colors
Defensive MVP: DeVonte’ Neal – Blocked kick and more
Surprise of the Game: Scooby Wright III getting hurt, surprised us all including Scooby
Offensive Play of the Game: 9:19 left in the second quarter, Anu Solomon passes 21 yards to Johnny Jackson
Defensive Play of the Game: Anthony Lopez pick six interception for a touchdown got the stadium rocking early in the first quarter
Next up: Arizona at Nevada, Saturday September 12, 2015 at 4:oo pm
Next: 2015 Arizona Wildcats Football Predictions