Arizona lost to Stanford 34-10 Saturday night at Arizona Stadium. Here are some pertinent notes, quotes and statistics:
NOTES
* Arizona lost for the fifth consecutive time this season. The Wildcats hadn’t lost more than three in a row during Rich Rodriguez’s first four years as coach.
* The defeat was the UA’s fifth in a row in the series against Stanford. Saturday marked the fourth time the margin was 24 or more points.
* Quarterbacks Brandon Dawkins (5 of 15), Anu Solomon (0 of 3) and Khalil Tate (0 of 2) combined for five completed passes in 20 attempts, totaling 116 yards. The completions were Arizona’s fewest since Sept. 2, 2000, when the UA had just three against Utah. The passing yards were a season low.
* Senior Samajie Grant made his first career start at running back and rushed for 64 yards on 19 carries. One of his rushes went for a 24-yard loss. Without that, he would have had 88 yards on 18 carries.
* Stanford’s Christian McCaffrey scored three touchdowns, his first time scoring since the Cardinal’s win against USC on Sept. 17. McCaffrey also moved into fourth all time on Stanford’s career rushing list, surpassing Brad Muster.
* Trey Griffey’s touchdown grab in the second quarter was the UA receiver’s first since Sept. 10 against Grambling State. Griffey led the Wildcats with 55 receiving yards on two catches.
* First-time starting quarterback Keller Chryst passed for only 104 yards – the second-fewest passing yards allowed by Arizona under Rodriguez.
* Arizona’s Nate Phillips caught one pass for 43 yards, extending to 41 his streak of consecutive games with at least one reception.
* Redshirt-freshman receiver Cedric Peterson made his first career start.
* Freshman safety Isaiah Hayes returned from a concussion and recorded his first career sack.
QUOTES
Rodriguez on whether he planned to play Solomon: “Yeah. We were going to play both (quarterbacks). He certainly hadn’t played in a while, so there’s a little bit of rust in there. We had some protection issues. The turnover (a fumbled exchange) was something that’s avoidable. He’s a good player. He’s probably not 100 percent. We’ll just keep working. … He’s a starting quarterback, as is Brandon.”
Rodriguez on Grant’s performance at running back: “He did OK. He’s still learning the position. He showed some explosiveness. There are some coachable points that we have to do with him. But we’ll keep him in there with our running back situation the way it is. I think he’ll get better each week. He’s a tough competitor.”
Grant on his first game at running back: “If I had to give myself a grade, I’d probably give myself a D-minus. I know I’m better than what I did out there. I just need to learn and watch film and do what Coach (Calvin) Magee is teaching me, because a lot of the plays, even when I got yardage, I didn’t read my assignment right.”
Guard Jacob Alsadek on Solomon’s return: “It’s awkward when you come back from injury. He’s been out for, I don’t know how long, six weeks? Five weeks? It’s a little different when you’re out that long, just getting back into it, that first game back.”
Arizona safety Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles on McCaffrey being left wide open for a TD catch: “It was a miscommunication. We need to communicate better. That’s the whole defense’s fault. We have to communicate more and fix it.”
Stanford coach David Shaw on springing McCaffrey: “We talked earlier today on offense about finishing drives in the end zone, about playing our style of football and mainly getting our running game going and getting five (McCaffrey) to the second level. We know that when Christian gets a crease, he does special things beyond the line of scrimmage, and we were able to do that.”
Shaw on containing Dawkins: “Our guys needed to keep mixing up the looks. But they also need to keep responsibility on the quarterback because he’s a special runner. He got out a couple times, but for the most part, our guys played hard, they played smart and they made some outstanding individual efforts to get him on the ground when it did look like he might break out.”
STATS
* Stanford averaged 5.6 yards per rush. Arizona averaged 3.9.
* Stanford averaged 3.4 yards per pass attempt. Arizona averaged 5.8.
* Stanford converted 7 of 18 third downs. Arizona converted 3 of 14.
* McCaffrey rushed for 169 yards on 23 carries (7.3-yard average).
* Stanford’s Jake Bailey averaged 44.7 yards per punt and dropped 4 of 6 punts inside the 20-yard line.
* Flannigan-Fowles, Dane Cruikshank and Paul Magloire Jr. tied for team-high honors with eight tackles. Magloire had two stops for losses, including one of Arizona’s four sacks.
* Arizona had a minus-17 differential in average starting field position.
