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Arizona Football: Cats end the Season Leading the Pac in Rushing yards in two categories

By Kevin Jiang

Nov 25, 2016; Tucson, AZ, USA; Arizona Wildcats quarterback Brandon Dawkins (13) runs the ball for a touchdown against the Arizona State Sun Devils during the 1st quarter of the Territorial Cup at Arizona Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Casey Sapio-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 25, 2016; Tucson, AZ, USA; Arizona Wildcats quarterback Brandon Dawkins (13) runs the ball for a touchdown against the Arizona State Sun Devils during the 1st quarter of the Territorial Cup at Arizona Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Casey Sapio-USA TODAY Sports /
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Nov 25, 2016; Tucson, AZ, USA; Arizona football Wildcats wide receiver Samajie Grant (10) takes the hand off from quarterback Brandon Dawkins (13) during the third quarter of the Territorial Cup against the Arizona State Sun Devils at Arizona Stadium. The Wildcats won 56-35. Mandatory Credit: Casey Sapio-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 25, 2016; Tucson, AZ, USA; Arizona football Wildcats wide receiver Samajie Grant (10) takes the hand off from quarterback Brandon Dawkins (13) during the third quarter of the Territorial Cup against the Arizona State Sun Devils at Arizona Stadium. The Wildcats won 56-35. Mandatory Credit: Casey Sapio-USA TODAY Sports /

While the 2016 Arizona Football season did not go the way most fans wanted it to, the Cats’ school-record 511 rushing yards in Friday’s Territorial Cup 56-35 rout over Arizona State helped the team finish with a conference high in rushing yards this season.

The year 2016 was not a kind year to the Arizona Football team. In spite of a plethora of injuries to the Cats running back corp, the rushing attack was hardly slowed down. In fact, this is the first time under Rich Rod that the Wildcats led the Pac-12 in rushing during the regular season.

As a program, the Cats generally finished second or third behind Oregon; however, after both teams had a down season, the Cats took top honors as the best rushing team in the conference. Here’s how the Pac-12 regular season team rushing stats finished up:

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  1. Arizona 2,820 yards (5.5 yards/rush)
  2. Oregon 2,717 yards (5.5 yards/rush)
  3. Stanford 2,587 (5.4 yards/rush)
  4. Utah 2,526 (4.9 yards/rush)
  5. USC 2,487 yards (5.3 yards/rush)
  6. Washington 2,465 yards (5.5 yards/rush)
  7. Colorado 2,413 yards (4.2 yards/rush)
  8. Oregon St. 2,300 yards (5.2 yards/rush)
  9. California 1,852 yards (4.5 yards/rush)
  10. Arizona St. 1,522 yards (3.3 yards/rush)
  11. Washington St. 1,522 yards (4.5 yards/rush)
  12. UCLA 1,011 yards (2.9 yards/rush)

At ZonaZealots, we’d be wrong to not mention Samajie Grant‘s rushing contributions to this year’s team. The senior leader took one for the team, after adopting a new role for Arizona in his final year as a Wildcats.

Grant moved to running back earlier this season, amidst the depleted “revolving door” at the position. The Compton, CA native finished the season with a 19 carry, 176 yards (9.3 yards/rush) hat-trick touchdown performance in the Territorial Cup to finish the season with 74 rushes, 461 yards (6.2 yards/rush), and ranked as the 21st leading rusher in the Pac-12.

Referring to the conference rankings of team rushing, both Pac-12 South rivals Arizona St. and UCLA had the fewest yards per rush in the whole conference, which likely contributed to their own disappointing seasons as well.

Next: Brandon Dawkins led Pac-12 QBs in rushing yards

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