Before the season, Arizona quarterbacks coach Rod Smith said that he felt as comfortable about his stable of quarterbacks, particularly with Anu Solomon and Brandon Dawkins at the top, as he’s felt since this coaching staff’s first season at Arizona.
That was in 2012, when Matt Scott was the starter and B.J. Denker was the backup.
Late in the third quarter of Saturday’s game against USC, the UA lined up with Matt Morin at quarterback.
Morin is Arizona’s third-string tight end.
So much for comfortability.
By now, it’s been well-written: The Wildcats, for the second straight season, have been decimated by injuries, perhaps no more alarmingly than at quarterback and running back.
At quarterback specifically. Solomon hasn’t played since Week 1 because of a knee injury and Dawkins missed the USC game, a 48-14 loss, with a concussion suffered a week ago at Utah.
That left the Wildcats with Khalil Tate, a 17-year-old true freshman, and Zach Werlinger, a walk-on, at quarterback.
Morin has been around in case of emergency. Last week he practiced at quarterback, but only with handoffs. This week Morin practiced exclusively at quarterback.
As Tate struggled, completing just 39 percent of his passes for 58 yards, zero touchdowns and an interception, UA coach Rich Rodriguez pulled him in the second half, skipped over Werlinger and went right to the emergency man.
All things considered, it wasn’t terrible.
“I think for a guy that hadn’t played quarterback since five years ago in high school, and has been taking snaps for a week or a week and a half,” Rodriguez said, “he did all right. Obviously everything’s kind of new to him with that.”
Morin competed 4 of 8 passes for 84 yards, including a 7-yard touchdown pass to Samajie Grant and a 51-yard completion to Cam Denson. He also threw an interception in the fourth quarter.
It was the first time Morin threw a pass in a game since his senior year at Chaparral High School in Murrieta, California, back in 2011. He was actually recruited to play quarterback at San Diego State but left after one season, moved to tight end and played two seasons of junior college football at Saddleback College and Riverside Community College before joining Arizona last year.
The Wildcats have a bye week coming up before an Oct. 29 game against Stanford, meaning an extra week of recovery for both Dawkins and Solomon, and an extra week of learning for the young Tate.
Ideally, Arizona won’t have to go to Morin again.
“I don’t know what our quarterback situation is going forward,” Rodriguez said, “but we’ve got at least two weeks now to figure something out.”
Wilson again leaves early
Ever since Nick Wilson’s stellar freshman season in 2014, the UA running backs have struggled to stay on the field, to say the least.
That continued against USC on Saturday.
Shortly after an impressive 39-yard rush in the second quarter, Wilson toted the ball one more time, gaining one yard, and then left the game for good with an apparent right lower leg injury.
The Wildcats have already lost J.J. Taylor for the season with an ankle injury, and Wilson’s preseason “co-starter” Orlando Bradford was kicked off the team, leaving UA with redshirt junior Zach Green, converted receiver Tyrell Johnson, receiver Samajie Grant and walk-on freshman Branden Leon as the lone options at running back.
Against USC, Green finished with 46 yards on 14 carries, Johnson carried the ball once for 14 yards and Leon collected 18 yards on four carries.
Cats avoid Jackson
In the days leading up to Saturday’s game, the Wildcats talked about how important it was to avoid kicking the ball directly to USC star Adoree’ Jackson on punts and kicks.
The Wildcats didn’t do a whole lot well against USC, but they were able to complete that task.
Josh Pollack replaced Edgar Gastelum as the placekicker on kickoffs — in addition to his field goal kicking and punting jobs — and Jackson combined for just three yards on two punt returns.
Pollack averaged 44.6 yards on five punts, pinning two inside the 20-yard line.
Extra points
- Christian Boettcher started ahead of Freddie Tagaloa at left guard. The former walk-on was listed as a co-starter with Tagaloa on this week’s injury report.
- After hauling in a 17-yard reception, UA receiver Nate Phillips extended his streak of recording at least one catch to 40 consecutive games.
