Arizona Football vs. Grambling: Biggest plays, Who Shined, improvement

Arizona Football pulled out a win last weekend, let’s review the biggest plays, who shined on both teams and what still needs improvement.

Arizona Football coach Rich Rodriguez is still struggling to get a feel for his team, why they aren’t coming out strong out of the gates and which players can step up. Injuries have started to creep in, particularly in the cornerback position: first Tellas Jones, then Jacob Alsadek got injured, so freshman Tristan Cooper came in, and he did step up.

We bring you this week’s who shined, biggest plays and what needs improvement.

Who Shined:

There are a lot of new names on the list for the Cats. Brandon Dawkins for one, he rushed 16 times for 111 yards and came in second behind Nick Wilson‘s 24 for 121 yards.

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As far as receiving, Samajie Grant, as Zona Zealots predicted, was the star receiver on the night. Grant caught five passes for 95 yards followed by Trey Griffey who caught four passes for 74 yards. A few new names on the receiving stat chart include Cam Denson, TE Trevor Wood, and Shawn Poindexter.

On defense, the Tigers quarterbacks were sacked five times for 43 yards, two of the sacks came from Parker Zellers, the other three sacks were made by Deandre Miller, Justin Belnap (including a sack) and Michael Barton. Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles topped the leaderboard with nine tackles (eight solo), next on the list was Barton with eight tackles (two solo). Flannigan-Fowles and Jace Whittaker made the two interceptions.

We would be remiss if we didn’t give a shout out to Cody Ippolito. Ippolito recovered two fumbles, and one tackle for a loss and five tackles. Ippolito will miss the first half of the Hawai’i game unless the targeting penalty gets overturned Cody was ejected for a “Targeting” call, he went after the quarterback and hit his chest, but the top of his helmet hit the grill on the quarterback’s helmet.

Targeting means it was an intentional hit, which it was not, and there was a hit on Dawkins missed in the first half that looked more like targeting which Brandon was sliding feet first.

We brought up the helmet to helmet hit on Brandon Dawkins in the first half to Coach Rod, and we were wondering if quarterbacks on the run would never be targeted when running with the ball.

“There was one, I thought, they may could have called that, and it’s such a, sometimes it’s such a bang-bang thing,” said Rodriguez, “I wasn’t sure Cody’s was, I know there was no intent to injure but his head was down a little bit, so I’m going to get a stronger interpretation of it. But it’s always nervous when your quarterback runs. We kinda tell our guys touchdown, first down, get down, in that order and he’s a competitive guy, and hopefully they stay out of harms’ way most of the night. “

The team shined last week when you take into consideration there were no interceptions or fumbles by the Wildcats! Let’s keep that up!

Biggest Plays:

Q1: Brandon Dawkins pass complete to Samajie Grant for 70 yards to the Grambling 27
Q2: Dawkins rush for 42 yards to the Grambling 15 for a first down
Q2: Josh Pollack 31 yard Field Goal (also made all four PAT’s)
Q3: Dawkins got the Defense to draw offsides on a third-down
Q3: Dawkins 34 yard pass for a touchdown to Trey Griffey
Q3: J.J. Taylor with a punt return no one thought he was going to return for 22 yards to the Arizona 36
Q3: Jace Whittaker intercepted the ball from the Arizona 23, ran the ball for 22 yards
Q3: Ippolito fumble recovery
Q3: Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles intercepted the ball from GSU’s backup quarterback.
Q3: Nick Wilson 11-yard touchdown run
Q4: Tiger Dominique Leake for 47 yards to the Arizona 28
Q4: Ippolito fumble recovery
Q4: Dawkins 21-yard touchdown
Q4: Jake Matthews stripped the ball from the receiver and came up with the fumble recovery
Q4: Jarvis McCall Jr. intercepted the ball after Jake Matthews pressure the GSU quarterback.

What needs improvement: (notice most came from the first half(=)

Q1: Need to commit fewer penalties
Q1: Defense cannot miss key tackles, seemed like they were watching the Tigers at times
Q1: Pass defense on Arizona’s secondary, Defensive pressure
Q2: Stops, Defense has to make stops, especially the QB
Q2: More big plays, offense needs to get cohesive, both QB’s were sharing reps
Q3: Try really really hard to not hit your helmet into your opponent’s helmet
Q4: Third down conversions

Sights and sounds of the game brought to you by Arizona Football and IMG Sports Network’s Brian Jeffries and Lamont Lovett. The video recap does include the six turnovers from our defense. Watch all the way to the end!

must read: Arizona Football trampled the Grambling State Tigers in the second half

On to the next one! The Hawaii Rainbow Warriors! BearDown Arizona!

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Arizona vs. Grambling: Biggest plays, Who Shined, What needs improvement

By Shereen Rayan | Sep 13, 2016

Arizona Football pulled out a win last weekend, let’s review the biggest plays, who shined on both teams and what still needs improvement.