In Rich Rodriguez’s world of up-tempo offense, buffet-style team meals and truly brief media briefings, it’s all about being fast and efficient. RichRod likes to go, go, go.
Atypically, the starts to his Arizona Wildcats’ first two games this season have been slow, slow, slow.
Arizona has yet to score a touchdown in the first half. The Wildcats have only three points. As a result, they have been playing from behind.
Arizona overcame a double-digit halftime deficit against Grambling State on Saturday night for the first time since the “Hill Mary” game against Cal in September 2014. But it’s not the position the Wildcats want to be in, especially against tougher competition. Arizona hosts Hawaii this week before beginning Pac-12 play on Sept. 24.
“I’m going to review that,” Rodriguez said after Saturday’s game. “In this game we tried what I call rhythm plays — some easy execution stuff to get first downs early in the game, to get Brandon (Dawkins) settled down. But we didn’t execute them. If you can’t execute the easy rhythm plays, it can make you sputter for a while. We’ve got to fix that.”
Despite a rare drop by Trey Griffey and a miscommunication with Shun Brown, Dawkins and the offense moved the ball on Arizona’s first possession. The Wildcats advanced to the Tigers’ 32-yard line, where Nick Wilson got stuffed on a fourth-and-2 run.
So it went throughout the first half. Arizona had five possessions. Twice the Wildcats were stopped on downs. They punted once. They made one field goal. And they ran out of time at the end of the half.
Just like the opener the previous week against BYU, the second half brought adjustments and improvements. Buoyed by a defense that took the ball away six times, Arizona scored 28 unanswered points.
Through two games, the Wildcats have been outscored 30-3 in the first half. They have outscored their opponents 44-9 in the second half. The net result, fittingly, is a 1-1 record.
Rodriguez remained relatively calm at halftime. Rather than ream the players, he and the coaching staff challenged them “to see what they’re made of a little bit.” They responded.
“You never know what to expect with Coach,” said Griffey, who finished with four catches for 74 yards and a touchdown. “But he definitely is going to make sure we’re in the right situation at the right time. He knew we were struggling in the first half, so we came out in the second half and made corrections.”
Arizona scored at least 17 first-half points in nine of 13 games last season. Only twice did the Wildcats fail to reach double digits. The UA scored three points in the first half against Stanford and Washington. Arizona lost both games handily.
QB questions continue
Arizona’s quarterback situation is murky heading into the Hawaii game.
The knee injury suffered during practice Wednesday by Week 1 starter Anu Solomon will not require surgery, Rodriguez said. But Solomon’s status is unclear. He wore a large brace on his left leg while watching the Grambling game in street clothes.
Dawkins completed 15 of 29 passes for 223 yards with one touchdown and rushed for 97 yards and two scores. He missed some open receivers but generally managed the game well in his first career start.
Rodriguez came away impressed with Dawkins’ “competitiveness and his ability to create.”
“But there were a lot of things,” Rodriguez said, “that we can do better.”
‘Horrible’ tackling
Arizona missed countless tackles against Grambling, a huge factor in the Tigers scoring 21 first-half points. Rodriguez said it might have been the worst tackling performance of his UA tenure.
“Our tackling was horrible,” Rodriguez said. “We’ll work on it. The same dudes have to tackle next week. That was the one thing that was really poor. The tackling was gross.”
The Wildcats had a particularly difficult time corralling quarterback Devante Kincade, who passed for 193 yards and two touchdowns and scrambled effectively before exiting because of an injury late in the second quarter.
Rodriguez said he tried to recruit Kincade, who originally signed with Ole Miss before transferring to Grambling.
Ejection consequences
Starting middle linebacker Cody Ippolito faces a first-half suspension against Hawaii after being ejected for targeting in the second half against Grambling.
The crown of Ippolito’s helmet struck backup quarterback Trevon Cherry in the chin after he released the ball for an incomplete pass in the fourth quarter. Arizona could appeal the ruling.
Ippolito finished with five tackles, including one for a loss, and two fumble recoveries.
Extra points
- Brown, a sophomore, made his first career start in place of senior receiver Nate Phillips, who was unavailable because of a shoulder injury.
- Freshman Tristan Cooper played extensively at the “Spur” safety position after Anthony Mariscal got banged up. Mariscal, a redshirt freshman, made his first career start in place of Tellas Jones (ankle).
