Quick hitters from the Arizona Wildcats’ Monday news conference at the Lowell-Stevens Football Facility:
* UA coach Rich Rodriguez said he planned to contact the Pac-12 Conference regarding some calls that went against his team during the Grambling State game. One was the ejection of linebacker Cody Ippolito for targeting. The others were two delay-of-game penalties against the defense for simulating the offense’s cadence. I’ll have more on the latter later.
* Rodriguez said quarterback Brandon Dawkins played inconsistently but will improve with more game experience. He needs to get better with his eyes, Rodriguez said. Mechanics, timing and footwork also were issues on some deep throws that were missed.
* Regarding the health of quarterback Anu Solomon, Rodriguez said “we’ll find out more about Anu later in the week.”
* Starting cornerback Dane Cruikshank was spotted with a walking boot on his left foot before the press briefing.
* Rodriguez said the calls and execution need to be better on the fourth-and-short plays that gave Arizona trouble Saturday. The Wildcats were 0 for 3 before Dawkins busted free for a touchdown. Rodriguez expects an 80-90 percent success rate in those situations.
* Rodriguez said J.J. Taylor made good decisions as a punt returner and reiterated that the coaching staff wants to get the impressive freshman more involved.
* Rodriguez said he speaks regularly with former Wildcats coach Dick Tomey, who is the winningest coach in the history of Arizona and Hawaii. Tomey recently moved back to Tucson.
* Rodriguez said the UA was approached by the conference to play a game in Australia in 2017 or ’18 but declined. “We don’t have anything planned,” he said. Hawaii opened this season against Cal in Sydney.
* Rodriguez is a proponent of instant replay but doesn’t like when the reviews take several minutes. “If it takes you that long, that tells you the decision right there,” he said.
* The Hawaii game will be Arizona’s third in a row starting at 7:30 p.m. or later. The following week’s game against Washington also will start after sundown. “I’d like to have an 11 a.m. time,” Rodriguez said of this week’s kickoff. “That would really mess Hawaii up.”
* Asked about the controversial ending of the Central Michigan-Oklahoma State game, Rodriguez said he has a list of about 50 game-ending scenarios that his team practices during training camp.
* Rodriguez said defensive lineman Sani Fuimaono has worked for several months on a unique-to-Arizona version of the Haka that the players have performed before games.
