Was it worth the wait?
It depends on how you look at it.
After three season openers were wiped out because of the coronavirus pandemic, the Arizona Wildcats finally got to play a football game Saturday. They battled No. 20 USC until the very end. The Trojans, who closed as 15-point favorites, escaped with a 34-30 victory at Arizona Stadium.
But it’s all relative. The Wildcats rarely were competitive during their seven-game losing streak to end last season. They gave the Trojans everything they could handle.
“There was definitely some disappointment,” said sophomore quarterback Grant Gunnell, who passed for 286 yards and three touchdowns. “That comes with a loss, especially when it’s that close and everyone is saying you’re the underdog – literally everyone.
“We’ve already gotten rid of that disappointment. We’re optimistic, and we’re driven right now. That’s a close game with the 20th-ranked team in the nation, our first game of the year.
“We want to be great. We want to win games here. We’re not settling for a losing effort. We’re tired of losing. We are gonna bring some wins.”
As strong as the effort was, as well as the Wildcats played for long stretches, their losing streak still grew to eight games. Those all count against Kevin Sumlin’s record, and no one is more aware of that than him.
“I don’t know that we proved anything,” Sumlin said. “You either win or lose. … That’s the bottom line. As I told them in the locker room, our effort was great. It was where it should be. Athletically, we’ve improved in all three phases. But to close games, it comes down to some situational football, some things we can clean up, and we gotta go back on Monday and fix some things. Those things are fixable.”
The winning points came on Vavae Malepeai’s 8-yard touchdown run with 25 seconds remaining. A little over a minute earlier, Gunnell had connected with Stanley Berryhill III for a 6-yard TD pass to put Arizona ahead 30-27.
The lead changed hands four times in the fourth quarter. The Wildcats went ahead 23-20 on Lucas Havrisik’s 51-yard field goal. The Trojans (1-1) regained the advantage on a 6-yard touchdown pass from Kedon Slovis to Erik Krommenhoek with 3:30 to play.
Arizona advanced to its 47-yard line on the final possession, but a sack pushed the Wildcats out of Hail Mary range. An attempted lateral play on the last play didn’t work.
Slovis finished with 325 passing yards and one touchdown.
Berryhill had eight catches for 70 yards. Gary Brightwell rushed 21 times for 112 yards.
The Wildcats lived on the edge in the third quarter and benefited from the Trojans’ self-destructive tendencies.
With the score tied at 20, USC advanced to the UA 1-yard line, where the Trojans faced third-and-goal. Back-to-back penalties pushed them back to the 11. On that third-down play, Anthony Pandy chased Slovis out of the pocket, forcing an incomplete pass. Parker Lewis then missed a 28-yard field-goal attempt.
After a UA three-and-out, USC again advanced inside the 5. But on fourth-and-1 from the 4, Rourke Freeburg stuffed Markese Stepp for a 2-yard loss.
Freeburg, a walk-on linebacker/safety from Scottsdale Desert Mountain, made his first career start. The redshirt junior had appeared in 15 games previously, mostly on special teams. He finished with six tackles.
After a first half in which they methodically marched up and down the field – outgaining the Trojans 231-145 – the Wildcats struggled to move the ball in the third quarter. Except for one big play, that is.
After USC bumped its halftime lead from 17-13 to 20-13, Gunnell threw a strike to Tayvian Cunningham, who raced 75 yards for the tying touchdown. Cunningham, starting for the unavailable Brian Casteel, beat Greg Johnson on a post route. Johnson at one point was committed to Arizona. Cunningham had five catches for a team-high 110 yards.
It took until Nov. 14 for the Arizona to play a football game in 2020, and it began in the strangest of ways.
On the third play from scrimmage, Gunnell threw an interception – matching his total for all of last season.
The interception — thrown over the head of an open Jamarye Joiner and into the arms of safety Talanoa Hufanga — set up the Trojans at the UA 17-yard line. Stepp powered into the end zone from the 1 to give USC a 7-0 lead.
“That first drive ... is on me,” Gunnell said. “I clutched the ball, and then I ended up throwing a pick. After that, I felt like the was offense was rolling.”
Gunnell settled down on the next possession, and the Wildcats evened the score. Gunnell connected with Joiner on a crossing route, and he outraced Max Williams down the left sideline for a 34-yard touchdown.
Arizona’s defense — featuring many new faces and a new coordinator in Paul Rhoads — should have had a stop on the next drive. But an unnecessary pass-interference penalty gave the Trojans an automatic first down. Roy Lopez and Pandy stuffed Malepeai on third-and-1 to force a field goal, which put USC back up 10-7 with 2:04 left in the first quarter.
A pair of Havrisik field goals – one set up by Gunnell’s 19-yard scramble – cut the deficit to 17-13 at halftime.
The scene in and around Arizona Stadium was peculiar to say the least. With the Pac-12 prohibiting tailgating and in-stadium attendance because of the pandemic, traffic was sparse on the streets and sidewalks around campus.
A little over 90 minutes before kicking, about two dozen guests of UA players and coaches lined up outside the northeast corner of the stadium. They all had to wear masks and show that they had taken a wellness check.
The UA players guests numbered around 200 and sat on the east side of the stadium, including in the otherwise empty ZonaZoo section. They were clustered in groups of four and separated by several feet.
A smattering of USC guests sat in the northwest corner. Opposite them, in the southeast corner, sat 24 UA players deemed unavailable for the game.
The Pac-12 isn’t allowing bands or cheerleaders inside stadiums this year either. But the UA came up with a workaround: The band and cheerleaders performed at Bear Down Field, which is just north of the stadium. Their routines were shown on the video board.
Extra points
- Veteran center Josh McCauley started for the Wildcats after missing much of fall camp because of a knee injury.
- Three Arizona receivers expected to be part of the rotation did not suit up: Casteel, Drew Dixon and Dyelan Miller. The UA classified them as “unavailable,” per Pac-12 policy.
- The Wildcats had seven new starters on defense: defensive linemen Aaron Blackwell, Kyon Barrs and Lopez; linebackers Freeburg and Parker Henley; and safeties Rhedi Short and Jaxen Turner.
- Arizona didn’t punt until the third quarter, and it was freshman Tyler Loop who got the assignment instead of sophomore Kyle Ostendorp.
