Arizona Football: Everything You Need to Know About College Gameday

Nov 1, 2014; Pasadena, CA, USA; UCLA Bruins quarterback Brett Hundley (17) dives to the 2 yard line as Arizona Wildcats linebacker Scooby Wright III (33) brings him down during the second quarter at Rose Bowl. Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

College GameDay is upon us; that means the fans, students, and the University of Arizona needs to get prepared for Arizona football and a big day against UCLA.

The hype began the minute it was announced that ESPN College GameDay was coming to Tucson. We included the hour by hour calendar of festivities at the end of this article so you won’t miss a thing!

UPDATE RELATED–> UCLA Miles Jack out for the year.

The Teams

No. 16 Arizona (3-0) is coming off a huge win over unranked NAU, 77-13. Arizona is now ranked behind No. 9 UCLA and No.13 Oregon, and ranked over No. 18 Utah, No. 19 USC, No. 21 Stanford. Arizona State dropped out of the AP Top-25 for now. A lot can change in a matter of weeks in NCAA College Football. Word is still out on Scooby Wright playing this weekend, Arizona already lost Carter Wood, Trevor Wood and Antonio Parks this season.

No. 9 UCLA (3-0) is coming off a win over No .19 BYU 24-23, they had to come from behind to win, but Rosen and crew pulled it off. We just got word today that the Bruins lost one of their key linebackers, Miles Jack, to a season-ending knee injury. UCLA previously lost defensive lineman Eddie Vanderdoes and cornerback Fabian Moreau.

The Match-Up

Wildcats fans are talking on social media about the upcoming UCLA game. They are talking about how they feel about the Bruins defense and what they perceive as trash talking and chippy-ness towards their team. I wanted to know how Arizona’s coaching staff prepares for this type of game, so I asked the head honcho.

“Well I think It’s certainly there’s an intense rivalry there, you’re right a lot of players know each other, and a lot of them compete against each other in high school, and I think just the intenseness of the game itself probably leads to a little bit more emotions.” You can say that again coach!

He continued, “But I think it’s been a relatively clean game the last couple of years. We haven’t played well, but I think both teams are going to play really hard and there’s going to be a lot of emotions. And I know, our guys, and I’m sure their guys too will make sure that they don’t take it overboard and cost their team with silly penalties or anything like that.” I’m glad they are ready.

Comparison of Totals on Offense this season by team:

UCLA:

• Quarterback Josh Rosen (Jerry Neuheisel) Total of 710 yards passing. 57% pass completion to 15 different receivers
• Kicker Ka’imi Fairbairn, 11/11 made PAT, 6/7 made Field Goals (Longest 46 yards)
• No. 1 Running Back Paul Perkins 58 for 429 total yards and three touchdowns (total for team= Rushing 721 yards)
• No. 1 Wide Receiver Jordan Payton 12 for 183 yards, two touchdowns.

Arizona:

• Quarterback Anu Solomon (Jerrard Randall) Total of 791 yards passing, 67% pass completion to 12 different receivers
• Kicker Casey Skowron 21/22 made PAT, 1/2 made Field Goals (Longest 46 yards)
• No. 1 Running Back Nick Wilson 62 for 434 total yards and five touchdowns (total for team= 963 yards rushing)
• No. 1 Wide Receiver David Richards 14 for 203 yards, three touchdowns.

Looking at these statistics, on paper the Bruins and the Wildcats are evenly matched. What stands out here is that Arizona has not attempted only two field goals and they were both long and scored in the same game.

As far as wide receivers go, it looks even, but if you dig further you see that there are three other receivers on Arizona’s team who have caught 11 or more passes; Cayleb Jones, Johnny Jackson, and Nate Phillips. UCLA has more weapons, but Arizona has four primary weapons in the Wildcats receiving corps.

Sep 19, 2015; Pasadena, CA, USA; UCLA Bruins quarterback Josh Rosen (3) sets to pass in the second quarter of the game against the Brigham Young Cougars at the Rose Bowl. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

On the rushing side of the fence, Arizona’s Nick Wilson and reserve quarterback Jerrard Randall make up for 67% of the rushing yards. In comparison UCLA’s Paul Perkins and Nate Starks make up for 76% of the Bruins rushing yards.

In addition, Rosen has only run the ball one time for four yards, Solomon has run 15 times for 43 yards, so Rosen doesn’t run much. Thus the Wildcats can capitalize on Rosen’s immobility if their defense can put pressure on him. They have plenty of BYU film to watch to see how that was accomplished in the Bruins last game.

“They are fundamentally sound, and they have great athletes..they don’t really try to trick ya,” said Coach Mora today on the Pac-12 Coaches Conference Call, “Rich Rod has an amazing feel for his talent and how to use his talent. We have great great respect for them, what they do and what they’ve done, and we have to prepare for them for Saturday its’ going to be a great game.”

Bottom Line: Arizona’s defense has to be stellar, and Arizona’s offense needs to be relentless and not rest on last weeks laurels. Both defenses have lost major players for the season which will most likely even things up more.

Next: The Last College GameDay in Tucson

Dec 5, 2014; Santa Clara, CA, USA; Oregon Ducks receiver Devon Allen (5) celebrates with teammates Charles Nelson (6) and lineman Andre Yruetagoyena (72) after scoring on a 4-yard touchdown reception in the third quarter as Arizona Wildcats cornerback Jarvis McCall Jr. (29) reacts in the Pac-12 Championship at Levi

The Last College GameDay in Tucson

The last time College GameDay came to Tucson was in 2009 for that game against Oregon, which the Wildcats almost won if not for the students, storming the field early in anticipation of a win.

My daughter was in the stands that night, it was her first year as a Wildcat, and she told me a lot of students were out of their minds. She felt the students blew it, and if they could have controlled themselves, Arizona would have come out of there with a win. Thus the wall was built; you can see it in front of the ZonaZoo where the students can barely see over it but somehow manage to get on TV by hanging on to it.

Zack Rosenblatt of Tucson.com reminded us of the final score, ‘It’s the first time “GameDay” had visited Tucson since 2009 when the Oregon Ducks came to town. That game famously saw the ZonaZoo storm the field before the game was over, and the Ducks went on to win 44-41 in two overtimes.’

Coach Rich Rod was asked if he was going to make it to the outdoor broadcast booth on the Mall during yesterday’s press conference. “I don’t know if I’m going down there or not, Blair (Arizona SID) will probably get me over there,” said Rich, “When I was doing television before they made me put makeup on, hopefully, they don’t do that to me this time. I think the last time they were here was in 2009, before the big wall in the student section was built.”

Next: Get out Your Red Wildcat Gear

Sep 19, 2015; Tucson, AZ, USA; Arizona Wildcats fans cheer during the third quarter against the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks at Arizona Stadium. Arizona won 77-13. Mandatory Credit: Casey Sapio-USA TODAY Sports

Get out Your Red Wildcat Gear

First things first, you need to get your red Wildcat gear out of the closet and decide which pieces you will be wearing to the game and on The Mall for the GameDay broadcast.

We asked Coach Rich Rod on the Pac-12 conference call what uniforms the Cats will wear with those shiny helmets, “We are going to be in all red. I guess it’s a red out, so we got our red uniforms,” he said, “we got our new, helmets our guys are breaking in so it should be a good one for us.”

That wasn’t our only question, but I just had to know!

In case you didn’t know this, the seemingly new helmets were the controversial copper helmets painted over in metallic red. So kiss those copper helmets goodbye and start buying up all the mini copper helmets you can find.

Next: Make Some Clever and Funny Signs

Oct 11, 2014; Tucson, AZ, USA; Arizona Wildcats fans in the student section hold signs and cheer during the game against the Southern California Trojans at Arizona Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

Make Some Clever and Funny Signs

GameDay is not complete without signs, and the last two weeks of shows did not disappoint. Some of the best signs held up before the Michigan State versus Oregon game (Oregon lost), and even funnier signs which were touted prior to the Alabama versus Ole Miss game last week (Alabama lost.)

For some fabulous ideas, Javier Morales of AllSportsTucson.com put together this great sampling of ideas –> Best signs for ESPN College GameDay appearance on Arizona campus

Here are some examples of signs that made it to Twitter:

What’s your sign going to say? I like, “Hey Pac-12! What DIRECTV channel is this game on?”

Particulars

Next, what time to be there? If you want to be on camera and close to the podium, you will need to get there early. The whole event starts eleven hours before the 5:22 p.m. kickoff; that’s 3:30 a.m. Wildcats fans!

Here’s all the information care of Arizona athletics:

Next: Arizona Football: Three Things We Hope the Bruins Don’t Do