It didn’t go the way they planned it. Not even close. But the Arizona Wildcats will take it.
Arizona rallied from an 18-point halftime deficit to defeat Grambling State 31-21 Saturday night at Arizona Stadium. The Wildcats evened their record at 1-1 and avoided a potentially embarrassing outcome.
The oddsmakers favored Arizona by 44.5 points in the home opener against Grambling, which plays in the Football Championship Subdivision. Everyone envisioned a blowout – by the Wildcats.
Yet Arizona trailed 21-3 after what had to be one of its worst first halves in recent history. The Wildcats missed countless tackles. Quarterback Brandon Dawkins, making his first career start, misfired on a sure touchdown pass. And Arizona failed to convert on two fourth-and-short situations.
"I just love stress," UA coach Rich Rodriguez said. "Let’s have a stressful game against a I-AA. Give them credit. Their coaching staff did a great job. They played really hard. Their skill players, particularly their quarterback and their running back, were every bit as good as I thought. They outplayed us for a large part of the game."
Everything changed in the second half. The defense forced turnovers on four consecutive possessions – and six in all – leading to 21 Arizona points.
The first of two Cody Ippolito fumble recoveries led to Nick Wilson’s 11-yard touchdown run, which gave the Wildcats their first lead with 42 seconds left in the third quarter. Ippolito’s second fumble recovery – after Parker Zellers’ strip sack – set up Dawkins’ 21-yard touchdown scramble that made it 31-21 with 12:08 remaining.
Dawkins’ run came on fourth-and-2 and marked Arizona’s first fourth-down conversion in four tries. All required 2 or fewer yards.
Later in the fourth quarter, Ippolito was ejected after the officials ruled that he targeted Grambling’s backup quarterback Trevon Cherry. Ippolito’s helmet contacted Cherry’s chin after he released a pass.
Arizona improved to 5-0 in home openers under Rodriguez. The UA hosts Hawaii on Saturday.
"At halftime, I wasn’t going to scream and yell," Rodriguez said. "We just challenged them to see what they’re made of a little bit. Go out and execute, take pride in our conditioning. It was a battle the whole day."
Although the first two weekends of the college football season were filled with upsets and near-upsets, no one expected what happened in the first half – least of all the Wildcats.
Dawkins – starting after Anu Solomon hurt his knee during practice Wednesday — made some big plays but was far from efficient. He completed only 6 of 15 passes for 114 yards in the first half.
Still, Arizona was in position to score more than three points in the half.
Trailing 7-0, the Wildcats advanced to the Tigers’ 32-yard line on their first possession. However, Grambling limited Wilson to 1 yard on a fourth-and-two run, turning the ball over on downs.
Trailing 14-0 in the second quarter, Arizona reached the Grambling 6. Again the Wildcats faced fourth-and-short. Again they failed to convert.
On fourth-and-one, Dawkins handed the ball to Wilson out of the shotgun formation. The Tigers hit Wilson almost immediately. The play resulted in a loss of 4 yards.
Arizona again drove into the red zone on its next possession. On second-and-10 from the 14, Rodriguez called a perfect play, with Dawkins rolling to his right and Wilson sneaking out of the backfield to the left. Wilson was wide open in the end zone – but Dawkins just missed him. The Wildcats had to settle for a field goal.
Arizona had all kinds of trouble tackling Grambling’s dynamic tandem of Devante Kincade and Martez Carter in the first half.
Kincade, the transfer quarterback from Ole Miss, passed for 193 yards and two touchdowns and scrambled out of danger multiple times. Carter had 104 combined rushing-receiving yards, including a 49-yard swing screen on third-and-29 in the second quarter. That possession ended with Kincade’s 26-yard touchdown pass to Devohn Lindsey, putting Grambling up by 14.
"I was really nervous about their skill players," Rodriguez said. "We tried to recruit one (Kincade). You can see why, right?"
Kincade got hurt later in the second quarter. While scrambling on second-and-10, Kincade pulled up near the right sideline because of an apparent leg injury. He did not return.
The Tigers barely slowed down. Cherry led them the remaining 59 yards for a touchdown. Carter capped the possession with a 1-yard run with 16 seconds left in the first half.
Grambling compiled 303 yards in the half against Arizona’s new-look defense, which looked a step slow and appeared to take a step backward after a promising debut performance against BYU. The Tigers converted 6 of 8 third downs in the half and scored five more points in 30 minutes than the Cougars managed in 60 last week.
But Kincade’s injury proved to be a game-changer. The Wildcats harassed Cherry throughout the second half, and he was involved in the first four Grambling turnovers.
The fifth turnover prevented a possible Tigers rally. With Arizona up by 10, Cherry connected with Chad Williams for a 7-yard gain to the UA 9-yard line. But Jake Matthews, playing in place of Ippolito, knocked the ball free. Matthews also recovered the fumble, giving Arizona the ball back with 6:20 remaining.
Extra points
• Arizona receiver Nate Phillips didn’t play because of a shoulder injury.
• Safety Tellas Jones (ankle), as expected, didn’t play.
• Redshirt freshman Anthony Mariscal started in place of Jones but didn’t play most of the second half. Instead, freshman Tristan Cooper received the first extensive playing time of his career and finished with six tackles.
