It’s hard to find much in common between the Arizona Wildcats’ first two games — one a close, competitive comeback that fell just short, the other a lopsided loss.
But UA coach Jedd Fisch, who also runs the offense, detected at least one through-line: missed opportunities in the passing game.
As a result, Fisch has decided to make a quarterback change three games into his tenure. Second-year freshman Will Plummer, who came off the bench in the first two contests, will start against NAU on Saturday.
Gunner Cruz, who started the first two games, will serve in a reserve role. It’s unclear whether he’ll be the second- or third-stringer, as Fisch indicated that Jordan McCloud will get more work in practice this week.
“I’m going to start Will and see how that goes,” Fisch said Monday. “I thought he did a very nice job when he got in there. He’s handled himself extremely well throughout the entire process here — the training-camp competition, spring-ball competition, the times that he had a chance to go play.”
Plummer played most of one series in the first half of the season opener vs. BYU. He entered late in the third quarter against San Diego State and played the rest of the way, completing 8 of 17 passes for 109 yards and his first career touchdown. Plummer also rushed three times for 16 yards in the Wildcats’ 38-14 defeat.
Plummer, who played two ways at Gilbert High School, was recruited by the previous coaching staff and is the lone scholarship holdover in the quarterback room. He appeared in three games last season, including one start and all but one play against UCLA when starter Grant Gunnell got hurt on the first snap.
Plummer completed 43 of 80 passes for 388 yards with three interceptions as a true freshman. He also had 95 rushing yards on 29 attempts.
Plummer overcame some early struggles in spring practice to pull even with Cruz entering training camp. Cruz arrived in spring after transferring from Washington State. McCloud, who transferred from South Florida, joined the competition in June.
Fisch said entering the opener that both Cruz and Plummer would play. But Cruz got the majority of the snaps through the first six-plus quarters. He looked promising against BYU, completing 34 of 45 passes for 336 yards with one touchdown and one interception.
“I’m going to start Will (Plummer) and see how that goes,” UA coach Jedd Fisch said Monday. “I thought he did a very nice job when he got in there.” Plummer played most of the second half of Arizona’s 38-14 loss to San Diego State.
But Fisch said a couple of days later that Arizona left approximately 150 yards on the field in the passing game. He again cited “opportunities that we missed” against San Diego State. Cruz completed 10 of 19 passes for only 70 yards with one TD and one pick. The Wildcats had just seven points when Plummer entered the game late in the third quarter.
Fisch had re-watched the game at least three times by the time he met with the media Monday. Part of the discussion he had with his staff was whether the struggles of the passing game were because Cruz was holding onto the ball too long or because his protection broke down.
“Could he have gotten the ball off on time and therefore not gotten hit? Could we have run a better route, which therefore would have allowed him to get it out before he got hit? Unfortunately, early in the game, we had opportunities that we missed,” Fisch said. “And therefore resulted in hits; therefore resulted in scrambles; therefore resulted in negative plays — throwing the ball behind the line of scrimmage, some things that we just never should have done.”
Fisch said the three factors he considers most critical to successful quarterback play are decision-making, timing and accuracy. He examined Cruz’s performance through that lens and determined a change needed to be made.
“Did he make a good decision? Well, if it took too long, then no,” Fisch said. “Was he accurate? The ball behind (tight end) Alex Lines, it resulted in an interception. Could he have caught it? Maybe. The decision-making was good, timing was OK but the accuracy was off. Was that because there was someone falling on his (Cruz’s) feet? That’s going to happen in this game.
“We need to be better pass protection-wise, that’s 100% fact. We will focus in on the fundamentals of pass protection once again. They (the Aztecs) caused some issues, but we need to improve. We will improve there. Hopefully that will enable the quarterback to have a little bit more time. And the quarterback has to be nice and quick-twitch there.”
Plummer certainly appears to play at a faster pace than Cruz, whose hesitancy to release the ball cost the Wildcats on at least two third-down situations, Fisch said. Plummer will need to improve his accuracy. Despite what Fisch described as a “very clean” throwing motion, Plummer’s career completion rate is just 53.0%.
Kicker change
Fisch and his staff made a change at kicker for the SDSU game. Second-year freshman Tyler Loop replaced fifth-year senior Lucas Havrisik on placements. Havrisik handled kickoffs and would have attempted any exceptionally long field goals.
Havrisik made only half of his four field-goal tries vs. BYU. Those two misses, from 31 and 44 yards, were costly in an eight-point game.
Arizona kicker Lucas Havrisik, right, only handled kickoffs against San Diego State after missing two field goals against BYU.
Afterward, Fisch expressed support for Havrisik, telling him he wouldn’t miss another field goal the rest of the season. During the week, however, the coaching staff decided to turn to Loop, who went 2 for 2 on extra points against the Aztecs.
“Competition is the central theme of our program, and everybody is constantly competing,” Fisch said. “We watched the way we kicked during the week. Loop stepped in and ... kicked the ball really well. We felt like it was an opportunity to give Tyler that chance.
“I talked to Lucas about it, and he totally understood and was supportive. Not excited, not happy, but supportive.”
Havrisik was the only Wildcat to make preseason All-Pac-12, landing on the second team.
Extra points
Fisch said receiver Jamarye Joiner was on track to play 5-10 plays vs. SDSU before the game got out of hand. He’s expected to play at least that many snaps against NAU in what would be his season debut. Joiner had foot surgery in late April.
Fisch expects the left side of the offensive line to be intact against the Lumberjacks. Left tackle Jordan Morgan sat out much of the second half vs. SDSU after missing the BYU game because of a lower-leg injury. Left guard Donovan Laie missed most of the second half after getting rolled up from behind by a fallen Aztecs defender.
Arizona missed 16 tackles vs. SDSU after missing only six vs. BYU. “The tackling was bad,” Fisch said. “We have to go back to the fundamentals.”
Fisch on his coaching performance vs. the Aztecs: “I was very disappointed that we couldn’t get things going. We need to call better ball plays, we need to coach better, prepare better, play better, execute better. ... I call the plays. We had a poor offensive performance. I gotta do a better job.”
Arizona’s Pac-12 opener at Oregon a week from Saturday will kick off at 7:30 p.m. The game will be televised by ESPN.
