The New Era of Arizona Football Begins with a Huge Thud

A ‘New Era’ of Arizona Football was introduced on Saturday night that ended in a resounding and all too familiar thud for Wildcat fans.

Fans hoping for an exciting product on Saturday evening were severely disappointed, when the Arizona Football team kicked off the 2018 season!

Beer, wine, food, renovations, Khalil Tate, Kevin Sumlin, etc., so many great perks heading into the opening game. However, in front of a crowd of 51,002 people, it seemed like the introduction of alcohol to Arizona Stadium was the only memorable thing on Saturday evening

The Wildcats opened as a 10-point favorite, but in hindsight, I’m not sure what the odds makers were thinking here. From the kick, Arizona appeared flat.

Arizona Wildcats

Perhaps some growing pains should be expected in the first game of the season, but a year billed as a potentially great one, with the Wildcats even picked as a sleeper to win the Pac-12 South, they instead looked like a team that may be in store for a long season.

From the start the teams’ energy seemed meek and uninspiring. The play calling was unimaginative and disappointing to say the least, and the defense looked timid, passive and completely over matched.

The opening series did look promising, but after a decent-looking drive, Arizona couldn’t connect on a 43-yard field goal attempt to try and take an early lead. A few series’ later, it was BYU that drew first blood, scoring the first touchdown with over four minutes to go in the first quarter.

Luckily, Arizona responded quickly, but only were able to put up three points on a drive that lasted 12 plays and went for 71 yards.  After a fairly quick three-and-out by BYU, the Wildcats were able to drive the ball right back down the field, scoring their first touchdown of 2018.

Sitting at second and seven with 0:50 to go in the first half, Tate would find a streaking Tony Ellison from 15-yards out that would give the Wildcats a 10-7 lead just before halftime. Unfortunately, that was the only lead Arizona would have for the entire game.

The Wildcats would enter the second half with a slim lead, but would follow that up by playing arguably one of their worst quarters I’ve ever seen as a fan.

In the second half, the Cougars came out prepared, focused and ready to steal this win in Tucson. In that third quarter, BYU was able to take it to the Wildcats, moving the ball at will, running it down Arizona’s throats, not deviating from what was clearly working.

Regardless of what the Cougars did, the Wildcats weren’t stopping it and couldn’t. BYU would score 21 unanswered points, virtually putting this game out of reach for good.

Trailing 28-10 entering the fourth quarter, Arizona would finish their drive on a two-yard touchdown run by Tate that would cut the Cougars’ lead to just 11-points with over 13 minutes to play.

A few series’ later, Arizona would add another touchdown late in the fourth quarter, when running back J.J. Taylor would scamper and dive in from just a yard out to cut BYU’s lead to five.

The Wildcats would go for a two-point conversion, but their attempt would go unsuccessful.

Now trailing 28-23 with 3:20 to go, the Wildcats would elect to kick-off deep into BYU territory instead of attempting to retrieve the ball on an onside kick. From there, BYU lined up for the rest of the game, and essentially punched Arizona in the mouth.

No matter what the Wildcats did defensively, the Cougars proved Arizona couldn’t stop them when it mattered. Despite the few third-down opportunities, BYU continued to pound the ball, and escaped Tucson with a 28-23 win.

Playing a BYU team that finished 4-9 last season, the Wildcats look uninspired, unprepared and completely over matched. All off season, we’ve heard nothing but hype and a ‘car salesman like pitch’ that this team would look different.

In a way we got that, as offensively the Wildcats were very vanilla looking, especially in comparison to last year. The offensive line struggled mightily which I figured they might against BYU’s size, and running was not much of an option either, especially as they sent the 5-foot-6 184 pound Taylor up the middle too many times to count.

More regrettable was the style that Tate played last night. One of the most electric players in college football last season, Tate seemed to play away from his strengths, ultimately making Arizona’s offense less dynamic.

Who would have thought that the person who could stop Tate the most in 2018, is his offensive coordinator, Noel Mazzone.

Defensively, Arizona wasn’t much better either. What we saw last night from that group wasn’t all that much different than what we’ve seen defensively in about seven or eight of the seasons prior.

The tackling was terrible, the defensive line couldn’t put together any semblance of a pass rush, and more humbling was the fact BYU wasn’t running anything all that special. It was the same few plays over and over again, and schematically the Wildcats still couldn’t figure it out or couldn’t adjust

To be honest, this loss feels incredibly dejecting and downright embarrassing. Things don’t get much as easier either as the Wildcats travel to Houston next week to take on arguably the best defensive player in college football!

Moving forward, perhaps the Wildcats need to stop scheduling BYU, or the program needs to truly live up to its mantra in ‘Bearing Down’, but last night was not a good showing of football.

At Zona Zealots, hopefully the team can figure it out and quick other wise this season won’t be all that different from what we see nearly every year. A lot of promise and very little delivery. Bear Down, Arizona!