As quarterback Brandon Dawkins led the Arizona Wildcats to a near-upset of powerhouse Washington in September, Anu Solomon watched.
The two-year starter wore a T-shirt and sweatpants, with a heavy brace on his left leg. Solomon’s knee was injured and his confidence was shot. In the stands, on television broadcasts and in the minds of Arizona fans, Solomon’s name was but a faint whisper.
Two years ago, Solomon was a local celebrity, the quarterback of a 10-win, Pac-12 South Champion and Fiesta Bowl team.
Now it’s November, and Arizona is 2-7 and losers of six straight games. A healthy Solomon might be the Wildcats’ best option as they head into Saturday night’s game against No. 16 Colorado.
This might be his reintroduction — a new Anu.
“When you’re injured, with some people,” Solomon said, “you just kind of fade away.”
Swift stardom
Few quarterbacks in UA history could match what Solomon did as a redshirt freshman in 2014. He passed for 3,793 yards and 28 touchdowns and set a record for single-game pass attempts with 72. The last one, of course, was a Hail Mary pass to Austin Hill that helped the Wildcats stun California.
Solomon started every game that season, beating Oregon in Eugene and Arizona State in Tucson.
His final regular-season victory, coupled with a UCLA loss, lifted Arizona to its first Pac-12 South Division title.
“Everything was going right,” Solomon said.
And then it went disastrously wrong.
Arizona was dismantled by Oregon in the Pac-12 championship game and was upset by Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl.
Solomon exited the title game with an injury and made a costly error late in the bowl game. Arizona was at Boise State’s 8-yard line, trailing by eight points, when Solomon took a sack as the clock ran down to zero.
The quarterback could’ve — and, as he admits, should’ve — thrown the ball away.
Things haven’t been the same since. Not for Solomon, and not for Arizona.
Arizona opened the 2015 season 3-0 and Solomon played well, throwing for 10 touchdowns with no turnovers. The next week, he suffered a concussion against UCLA and missed a blowout loss to Stanford.
Solomon was benched two weeks later because of ineffectiveness, and he watched from the sideline as Jerrard Randall guided UA to a 38-31 win over Colorado.
In that game, Solomon passed for 283 yards and two touchdowns.
Now the Buffaloes will be facing a much different Arizona team. The offense that used to routinely put up 30 points game has stalled. In fact, no UA quarterback has thrown for more than 283 yards and two touchdowns in a regular-season game since.
Injuries, inconsistency
This season has been, well, strange.
Solomon injured his left knee in practice, and Dawkins — who had pushed him in training camp — quickly won over the fan base. Solomon was relegated to spectator, and his seeming lack of enthusiasm on the sideline was noticeable.
Solomon would watch home games from a chair, headphones on as he listened to the coaches call plays.
Solomon turned down interview requests and kept a low profile. He just didn’t know what to say, the quarterback admits now.
Tuesday, a reflective Solomon spoke to the media after practice for the first time since Arizona lost to BYU in its season opener. He freely admits he could’ve handled himself better.
“It’s just, your mindset is, ‘Why am I here if I’m not going to play?’” Solomon said. “Then again, I just can’t be that guy, especially with my position. I’m the quarterback who’s played three years of college football. I need to be there for Brandon and Khalil (Tate).
“I just gotta be there for them, and especially for the team.”
Frustration boiled over two weeks ago, when coaches noticed both Solomon and Dawkins hanging their heads in a blowout loss to Stanford.
Solomon hung his head a lot during that time.
“It was tough to see him in that state,” said UA defensive lineman, and close friend, Sani Fuimaono. “But he’s a real tough guy, he has a hard edge to him. I know he’s faced much adversity, as we all have. I know he can bounce back. ... He loves to compete. It’s a misconception that he’s just laid back, that he doesn’t care. He is a guy that truly cares about his craft and this program.”
He’s not alone
Matt Scott can relate. Like Solomon, he started early in his career, was benched — and then forgotten.
Back in 2009, Scott — then a sophomore — beat out Michigan State transfer Nick Foles to win the UA’s starting job. Scott lasted less than three games before then-UA coach Mike Stoops pulled him during a loss to Iowa. Foles never looked back, becoming Arizona’s all-time leading passer and the first modern-era Wildcats quarterback taken in the NFL draft.
Scott called it “a real humbling experience for me.” He redshirted as a fourth-year player in 2011, conceding the job to Foles.
“I was the starter coming in. I was the guy coming out of high school,” Scott said. “It was frustrating at the time. I felt like I should’ve been playing more. But I’m not the one who was making the decisions. I just felt like it pushed me to work a little harder.”
In 2012, Scott got his chance. Running Rich Rodriguez’s offense to perfection, Scott guided the Wildcats to an eight-win season and New Mexico Bowl victory.
Scott now lives in Scottsdale and works at a BMW dealership. He’s been watching Solomon from a distance.
“I can understand where he’s coming from, to a certain point,” Scott said. “At the same time, you’re a quarterback on the team. You’re one of the leaders on the team, and I think everybody needs to feel that from you regardless of whether you’re playing or not.”
After all, Scott knows what it feels like to be The Guy one week, forgotten the next.
“Once that new guy comes in and makes a couple plays, it’s like ‘OK, who is this guy?’” Scott said. “It made me mad, but it pushed me to work harder to get back in there. Once you’re in there making plays, they’re all going to be about you again.”
Ready for a comeback
Solomon played extensively last week, his biggest workload since Sept. 3. He was rusty: Solomon attempted multiple laterals, one of which fumbled to the defense, and passed for only 122 yards.
But the junior completed nine of 13 passes, threw a long touchdown pass to Cam Denson and finished with his best passer rating since last year’s New Mexico Bowl.
Solomon’s future with the program is up in the air. He will be a senior next year, but Dawkins and Tate will have an extra year of experience in Rodriguez’s system. Four-star recruit Braxton Burmeister will push all three in training camp.
The immediate future isn’t much clearer. The Wildcats have yet to name a quarterback for Saturday’s game.
Still, Solomon is in a better place physically and mentally than he was a month ago. He called his absence “a long six weeks.”
“You think a lot. You question yourself. You don’t believe in yourself at all, or you don’t believe in the team,” he said. “Then it gets closer and it gets to the point where you’re like ‘what are you doing? You love football. I hit that point. I was mentally weak and I was like, I can’t do this, especially in the position I’m in, people are looking up to me. People were doubting whether I could respond.
“I’m going to continue to respond. That’s just what I want to do and it’s what I have to do.”
