Josh McCauley didn’t sugarcoat it. He was as blunt as could be.
“I gotta play better,” the Arizona Wildcats senior center said Tuesday. “As a group, we’re not always on the same page, and that starts with me. No matter who’s out on that field, we’ve gotta step it up.”
The UA offensive line has struggled this season, especially the past two weeks. You could make a case, based on the returning experience of that group, that it’s been the most disappointing unit on the team.
Arizona has allowed 11 sacks in its three losses, tied for the most in the Pac-12. The Wildcats, who have been one of the league’s top running teams the past several seasons, rank 11th in rushing yards per game (125.7). Their average per attempt of 3.6 yards ranks last.
Arizona scored only 10 points against UCLA last week, a season low. The Wildcats lost their starting quarterback, Grant Gunnell, on the first play, but McCauley said that’s no excuse.
“Sunday was tough as an O-line group,” McCauley said. “I can’t really speak for different position groups. As an O-line, we were down. We had another bad game.
“Here’s the thing: You have an opportunity on Monday to go out and get better at practice. You have an opportunity today to go out and get better at practice.
“We’ve got guys in the room that want to come out and ... continue to get better and show that they’re working hard to be able to make this offense work and move the football for Arizona.
“Even though we’ve had two rough games in a row, our energy is not down, and we’re still coming to attack each day.”
UA coach Kevin Sumlin said personnel changes up front could be imminent. No lineman has been immune from breakdowns, including McCauley, whose failure to pick up blitzing Bruins linebacker Bo Calvert resulted in Gunnell getting hurt.
UCLA’s blitzes caused considerable confusion among Arizona’s blockers. McCauley said the Wildcats’ failure to recognize those looks was a case of them beating themselves.
“That’s on me,” said McCauley, the Wildcats’ starting center since 2018. “They brought some different stuff — same stuff out of different formations, stuff that we haven’t seen before.
“We’ve got to execute. We can’t just continue to make the same errors over and over again.”
Gunnell’s injury forced freshman Will Plummer into action. He never had taken a college snap before the second play against UCLA. McCauley said Plummer handled himself well. He got sacked twice, avoided several other potential takedowns and took a number of big hits.
“We didn’t really help him out a whole lot,” McCauley said. “He was running for his life. He took some shots. That’s on us.”
After primarily working with Gunnell since spring, McCauley said it was different having Plummer behind center. “But as an O-lineman,” McCauley said, “no matter who’s back there, you gotta accomplish your job and do your one-eleventh of the offense. I think that’s what we’ve struggled with.”
McCauley said the line is to blame for the offense’s running woes as well.
The numbers don’t look as bad when adjusted for sacks – 153.7 yards per game and 4.9 yards per carry. But even those figures aren’t what Arizona has come to expect in recent seasons. The Wildcats ranked third or higher in the Pac-12 in rushing each of the past five years.
So how do they go about recapturing that? McCauley said the line, as a unit, has to double-down on its film study, make every practice rep count and avoid making the same mistake twice.
His message to the group is straightforward and simple: Keep grinding.
“Don’t give up,” McCauley said. “Adversity has struck. That’s within our room, and we gotta work harder than we ever have to come out of that with some success.”
On a mission
McCauley hasn’t missed a game despite suffering a knee injury that cost him almost all of fall camp.
However, McCauley said he would have missed the opener at Utah on Nov. 7 if it had proceeded as planned. The game was postponed after the Utes suffered a COVID-19 outbreak.
“My knee is fine,” McCauley said. “It’ll hurt for a couple minutes or whatever, but other than that I’m fine. I wouldn’t have rushed back to face USC if I wasn’t able to play, if I was hurting the team in any way, healthwise.”
This isn’t the first time McCauley has made an in-season comeback from a knee injury. He played in the Territorial Cup last year after missing the previous two-plus games because of a sprained MCL.
McCauley was asked if he ever considered opting out of this season because of injury. Although he’s a fifth-year senior, NCAA rules will allow him to come back in 2021 if he chooses.
“No. That’s not really who I am,” McCauley said. “Being able to play on Saturdays and practice every day, that’s one of my favorite things. In the time that I was out, during almost the entire camp, it was tough. … That’s something that just eats me alive. That’s something I just can’t see myself doing, is opting out.”
In and out
Several Wildcats have opted out since the start of the season — with receiver Drew Dixon being the latest one. Players can opt out and remain on scholarship if they’re concerned about their safety amid the pandemic, although it has become something of an escape hatch for players who are hurt or unhappy about playing time.
Most of the UA opt-outs have been defensive backs.
“I respect my teammates,” senior cornerback Lorenzo Burns said. “At the end of the day, I respect their decision. … That’s all I can really say to it.”
Burns described the season as “chaotic.” The offseason was filled with uncertainty because of the pandemic. At one point, the Pac-12 wasn’t going to play at all. Even after the league reversed course, several games have been canceled. Postponements and cancellations have hit every conference across the country.
McCauley said it’s up to each individual to overcome whatever obstacles he faces. In the Wildcats’ case, it’s not only COVID-19 but a school-record 10-game losing streak.
“You’ve gotta figure out a way to pull yourself out of this and come to work every single day,” McCauley said. “That’s the hardest thing. You see that some guys have, in fact, opted out. It’s that type of thing — you don’t want to come to work.
“But those guys are getting out of the building. And the guys that want to win are staying here, and I think that’s really good for us.”
