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Arizona Football: Wildcats vs Bruins, Three Things To Look For

ByMark Barrera|

This Saturday is the conference opener for the Arizona football team. The UCLA Bruins come to town, along with the ESPN College GameDay crew. 

This prime time game should be a good one. The 2015 NCAA football season has been going on for three weeks and this Saturday, September 26th, conference play is beginning for the Arizona Wildcats. It will be a match-up of two top-20 teams: No. 9 UCLA and No. 16 Arizona. If that wasn’t enough to get you excited, ESPN announced that College GameDay will be broadcasting live in Tucson!

Last week the Wildcats showed how dangerous the team can be. It was against a lesser opponent, in Northern Arizona, but those games can be trap games. We all saw how Ohio State barely survived against Northern Illinois, and Arkansas lost to Toledo the previous week. So when other power-five conference teams are losing to, or playing poorly against, lesser teams, it’s nice to see a dominating performance.

With UCLA coming to play in the desert, and ESPN College GameDay coming to town, Arizona will need to be on point, and firing on all cylinders. A football game is rarely decided by one factor, but instead on multiple facets of the game. ZonaZealots presents three things to look for during the game on Saturday.

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The first is the defense. With a high-powered UCLA offense, you must be sound in your defensive roles. Brett Hundley gave the Wildcats nightmares the past couple of years. True freshman Josh Rosen can give a team just as many nightmares. In recent games, he has been playing as a true freshman compared what he showed the country in week one of the season.

This week would be a great week to have Scooby Wright back on the field. In the 3-3-5 defense the Wildcats run, you have to be strong in the front six. There will be miscues and players out-of-place throughout the game, as this happens to all teams. But you have to limit the mistakes.

Arizona cannot afford to leave Rosen and UCLA out on the field for long periods at a time. The front six will need to display poise, and a solid pass rush to pressure the freshman QB. In what is looking to be a classic Pac-12 shootout, it’s the defense that will need to make the most noise.

Sep 3, 2015; Tucson, AZ, USA; Arizona Wildcats quarterback Anu Solomon (12) warms up before the first quarter against the Texas-San Antonio Roadrunners at Arizona Stadium. Arizona won 42-32. Mandatory Credit: Casey Sapio-USA TODAY Sports

The second thing to look for is the poise and maturity of Anu Solomon. Last year Anu made some questionable decisions in crunch time. I’m not asking for a perfect game from Anu. That is unfair and ridiculous to ask that out of any athlete. But Solomon will need to control the game from the very first snap. UCLA will be missing a key defensive star with LB Myles Jack out for the season. Arizona should be able to exploit the void left by Jack with their top-level athletes in the skill positions.

Anu Solomon showed the country last year, as a redshirt freshman, that he can lead a high-powered offense. In the first three games of the season, he showed much improvement in his comfort level in the pocket. Coach Rich Rodriguez always raves about the calmness Solomon brings to the team. If Solomon can continue to play calmly, and stand strong, he could have a special day.

The last thing to look for this Saturday is the offensive line play. Yes, Anu Solomon is the leader of this team, especially the offense. His confidence will help the offensive line, no question, especially out of the gate with a hyped up crowd. But the line will need to prove itself early, and not let up.

We have covered this before, but the offensive line sets the pace for the entire offense. Cayleb Jones and David Richards are defensive nightmares. Once the opposing defense thinks they have conquered their fear, Nick Wilson is there to knock you right back. None of these superb athletes can have success if the offensive line isn’t controlling the line of scrimmage. They cannot allow the UCLA defense to dictate what type of offensive plays the Wildcats run. The Wildcats offenses success depends on whether or not they can establish the run.

Sep 19, 2015; Tucson, AZ, USA; Arizona Wildcats wide receiver David Richards (4) is congratulated by tight end Josh Kern (17) after scoring a touchdown during the second quarter against the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks at Arizona Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Casey Sapio-USA TODAY Sports

These are only a few aspects of the entire game. A close third is the professionalism of the whole team. Arizona and UCLA may not have as much bitterness and hatred as Arizona and the other Arizona school, but there is a rivalry between the two schools.

Before Coach Rich Rodriguez got to Tucson, there was a bench-clearing brawl in 2012. Nothing has escalated to this level in recent years, but the trash talk is stronger than ever. ZonaZealots Editor Shereen Rayan brought up this exact subject with the weekly Pac-12 teleconference press call.

As Shereen points out in her questions, UCLA and Arizona has several players who know each other from pop warner and high school football days. When you have so many players who know each other, you are going to have a lot of jawing back and forth. There’s nothing wrong with trash talk until you take it too far. Buttons are going to be pushed for sure, but Arizona will need not to let UCLA get in their heads.

It’s going to be a long Saturday Wildcats. College GameDay starts bright and early in Tucson. The fans will be amped for the evening match. The players will have a long, long day to prepare themselves mentally. With the Pac-12 South being the stronger division, every game is important. The Bruins have won the last three times the two teams have played. This streak needs to end, and it needs to end Saturday night.

Are…you…ready?!?!

Next: Arizona Football: Everything You Need to Know About College GameDay

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