Arizona defeated Grambling State in the home opener Saturday night at Arizona Stadium. Here are some pertinent notes, quotes and statistics:
NOTES
* UA coach Rich Rodriguez said quarterback Anu Solomon “got rolled up in a freak thing” during practice Wednesday. Rodriguez said Solomon’s knee injury will not require surgery. His status for Hawaii is to be determined.
* Senior receiver Nate Phillips did not play. Rodriguez said Phillips’ shoulder was bothering him during warmups. He had a team-high seven catches for 69 yards in the opener against BYU.
* Because his ejection for targeting occurred in the second half, UA linebacker Cody Ippolito will have to sit out the first half against Hawaii. It’s possible Arizona could appeal the ruling.
* Saturday’s game marked the first time Arizona registered six takeaways in a game since Nov. 18, 2006, against Oregon.
* Saturday’s game also marked the first time Arizona has overcome a double-digit halftime deficit since the Cal game on Sept. 20, 2014 (aka, the “Hill Mary” game).
* With safety Tellas Jones (ankle) out, Anthony Mariscal started in his place. But Mariscal also left with injuries, leading to extended playing time for Tristan Cooper. The true freshman finished with six tackles.
* Linebacker Michael Barton ended up playing a significant role as a “co-starter” with Paul Magloire Jr. at “Will” linebacker. Barton finished second on the team with eight tackles, including two for losses and one sack.
* The Wildcats finished with five sacks, including two from defensive lineman Parker Zellers, one by linebacker DeAndre’ Miller and one by defensive end Justin Belknap. Those were the first career sacks for Belknap and Zellers, who also added the first two forced fumbles of his career.
* After tallying five catches on Saturday, UA receiver Samajie Grant now has 131 for his career, tying him for ninth all time with Syndric Steptoe. The 95 yards were Grant’s most since amassing 101 against UNLV in the 2014 season opener.
* Nick Wilson has 27 career rushing touchdowns after scoring one against Grambling. He's tied with Ronald Veal for fourth all time. With one more Wilson will tie Nic Grigsby for third in UA history.
QUOTES
Rodriguez on Arizona’s tackling: “We didn’t tackle. Our tackling was horrible. That’s as bad tackling as we’ve ever had – bad. … I’m not going to just stand there and say, ‘Well, that was OK. 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.”
Rodriguez on Ippolito’s ejection: “It wasn’t head-to-head, but in their opinion the head was down a little bit. You just don’t want to be close to that. … That’s a hard thing to figure – intent. When you launch with the crown of the helmet, that’s poor intent – target and go out. It’s all for the safety of the players, so I understand why the rule is severe. If it’s bang-bang and it wasn’t a launching and didn’t look like an intent to injury a guy, OK, a penalty. But throwing him and being out the next half? It’s a pretty severe penalty.”
QB Brandon Dawkins on his first career start: “A little shaky too start, as everybody probably saw, but we just had to make a couple minor adjustments. Once we got that down, you saw what we could do. We started getting the ball rolling in the second half and played better than we did in the first half.”
Barton on the team responding in the second half: “We missed a lot of tackles in the first half, and what was real big for us was how we were going to come out, how we were going to respond. I think that was just a defining moment for us that’s going to carry us through the rest of the season. We know we can play with heart.”
Safety Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles on the second half: “Coach Rod always tells us we play four quarters, so we can never look at halftime and dwell on it. We have to continue to keep on pushing forward, and that’s what we did. That’s when we forced turnovers and wreaked havoc.”
WR Trey Griffey on the defense forcing six turnovers: “They got us back in the ballgame, to be honest. It was just a momentum shift. We were struggling on offense, and they were making plays on defense.”
STATS
* Grambling State outgained Arizona in total yards 462-445.
* Arizona has recorded at least one sack in 14 straight games.
* After running 56 plays in last week’s loss against BYU, the Wildcats ran 77 plays against Grambling. The Tigers ran 80 plays.
* Grambling nearly doubled Arizona in passing yards, amassing 402 through to Arizona’s 223, but the Wildcats made up ground on the ground. Arizona rushed for 222 total yards, while Grambling had 60 net rushing yards.
* Grambling converted 9 of 15 third downs compared to 5 of 15 for Arizona. The Wildcats were 1 of 4 on fourth down.
* Dawkins rushed for 97 yards and two touchdowns and passed for 223 yards and one score.
* Wilson rushed for a game-high 116 yards and one touchdown.
