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Arizona Football: Everything You Need to Know About the Washington Game

By Shereen Rayan

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GameDay? Check, Parent Weekend? Check, Homecoming? Check, playing at 8:00 p.m, at night in a cold and rainy place against the 3-4 Washington Huskies? The Arizona football team will this Saturday.

All the excitement of surrounding the Arizona football team’s first half of the season has come and gone, and we are left with a long and tough road to travel, literally. At this point in the season, the Wildcats will take it one week at a time and put the upcoming USC, ASU, and Utah games out of their mind. This week the focus is solely on beating the Washington Huskies in their house.

The Wildcats

The Wildcats are doing the right things to prepare. The players are taking things seriously, the coaches are pointing out to the players there are still things to fight for, and the team has a great attitude going into this game. The defense needs to be more aware on each play where the ball is, and they need to cause some turnovers.

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The offense needs to be able to play with any quarterback, and if whoever is playing center can snap the ball properly and consistently, we have a good chance.

Arizona’s Anu Solomon suggested to Ryan Finley of the Arizona Daily Star that Jerrard Randall should start, “He’s been doing a great job the last two weeks just let him have a shot.” Finely suggests that Coach Rodriguez’s hand will be forced due to the weather being windy and rainy, you will need Randall for his rushing game.

Senior defensive back Will parks used a hashtag on Twitter in a post that was heartfelt, #DontCountUsOut. Parks has been putting in extra effort this week in training and takes responsibility for leading the defense and getting better for Washington.

"“Everything. It all starts with me being a senior leader out there, giving my best effort and setting the tone for the rest of the defense. There are a lot of things we need to worry about, from the line all the way up to the secondary. I mean we just have to clean up and figure out what we need to do better."

Junior Linebacker Jake Mathews put it all into perspective.

"“We just have to work and keep working no matter what happens. We can’t quit, quitting last forever. We can never give up. Today and yesterday we had some competitive scrimmages at the end of practice and it was good for us to get the enthusiasm back. We play 12 games straight, we have worked the whole year for 12 opportunities and I think that is the mindset that we have to keep.”"

Early this week ZZ asked and answered the question, ‘Has the wildcats defense given up?‘ The answer was no, quite the opposite. Arizona’s defense knows where they stand in the Pac-12, down at the bottom of the list. This week, they put their excuses aside and players went out to compete at practice. Who will Coach Rodriguez play at Quarterback? How about at Center? Those questions will remain in the air, for now as he explained.

"“All week we’ll practice both Cayman [Bundage] and Zach Hemmila at center, and when they’re not playing center they’ll play guard,” he said, “Cayman’s a great football player, and if he’s not going to play center, we think he can contribute at guard. So we’ll practice it all week and determine it Saturday.” – Arizona Head Coach Rich Rodriguez"

The Huskies

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Washington is coming off of a 31-14 loss to Stanford, but who hasn’t lost to Stanford in the Pac-12? Nobody, not one Pac-12 team has beaten the Cardinal. The Huskies were able to keep Stanford’s running backs to less than 20 yards on any given play. Myles Gaskin, who averages 6.2 yards per carry, was able to gain 108 yards on the day making his total rushing yards to-date 606 on 97 attempts.

In order to get those yards, he needs an offensive line who can open holes for them. “It’s what we work on every day in practice,” he said, “And they are making it easier on me..it’s more on them and they open the holes so I just run through them.” On the Arizona defense, “Very athletic team, very athletic defense, and a much different defense than we have played against in the past. they are well coached, very well coached, and they know how to do their assignments.”

Oct 8, 2015; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Washington Huskies tailback Myles Gaskin (9) is defended by Southern California Trojans cornerback Marvell Tell III (7) at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Hopefully, there won’t be as many holes for him to run through.

Washington’s starting quarterback, Jake Browning did not play against Stanford due to a shoulder injury and Coach Peterson is noncommittal but optimistic that he will play against Arizona according to Adam Jude of the Seattle Times. The Huskies coach answered some questions about how he is preparing for the upcoming game against Arizona considering Arizona’s defensive injuries and multiple defensive schemes.

"“I think everybody has those issues [injuries] right now in the season. Everybody’s kind of a revolving door. So as coaches you’re always just trying to do the best you can keeping the opponent off-balance and those type of things,” he said, “There’s always challenges you know if it could be this guy that guy, what scheme is it going to be? [..] At this point in the season, we’ve seen a lot of different coverages, a lot of different blitz’s, we just got to be prepared to block for what they throw at us.” – Washington Huskies Head Coach Chris Peterson"

Peterson also spoke about how his team is preparing for not knowing who will be playing quarterback for Arizona on Saturday, he commented on Jerrard Randall, must think Randall is starting too.

"“He’s really good. They run their offense, they run him more obviously, but anytime you have a true running threat quarterback, that’s a problem. And obviously a lot of defenses have seen what a problem he is for them, and it’s a problem for us as well.” – Washington Huskies Head Coach Chris Peterson"

The Details 

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Arizona Wildcats /

Arizona Wildcats

Records: Huskies (3-4, 1-4) vs. Arizona (5-3, 2-3)  Washington is favored by -4½

Series: Washington has won 19 and Arizona 11 in the series, last game was won by Arizona 27-26 in Tucson in 2014

Last game: Washington lost to Stanford 31-14 Arizona lost to Washington State 45-42

Game Time: 8:00 p.m., TV – FOX Sports 1, Radio – TuneIn, Arizona IMG Sports Network

Date: Saturday, Oct. 31 Halloween night

Location: Alaska Airlines Field at Husky Stadium, Seattle, Washington

Hashtag: #AZvsWASH

Pre-Game Notes: 

  • Neither team has announced their starting quarterback, but Arizona’s offense should be used to playing with both quarterbacks by now.
  • Arizona’s offense has racked up 2,022 yards thus far in the season and Washington has earned 1,483 yards.
  • Arizona’s pass completion percentage is 69.2% vs. Washington’s 59.5%.
  • Arizona has scored 17 passing 45 total touchdowns, Washington has scored only 7 passing 21 total
  • Arizona has made 12 sacks vs. Washington’s 17
  • Arizona has only committed 1 interception, Washington 6
  • Arizona has four players listed on the injured and out list, the two MLB Scooby Wright III and Derrick TuriTuri, RB Nick Wilson and DL Parker Zellers (List is getting smaller)

Upshot: Washington’s offense hasn’t been that hot so far this season, and their starting quarterback is questionable. Washington’s defense is better than their offense, Arizona’s offense is better than its defense. This evens out the playing field, but add in the weather factor which the Huskies are used too, and the Wildcats had to practice with wet footballs in the desert, Vegas has given the edge to the Huskies.

Prediction:  Washington is used to losing, their fans may be out celebrating Halloween, Arizona has been serious and probably not too happy with the spread. Arizona eeks out a win because they stepped up their practice this week, predicting an upset of sorts.

Arizona 27 Washington 24.

Next: Find out why ZZ thinks Paul Magloire is a bright spot on the Wildcats defense

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