The season that many will want to forget will soon be over for Arizona football. As that transition takes place this week the Wildcats on the hard wood are just getting started and heading into another interesting week. Then there is of course always recruiting to discuss. It will be a busy week with Thanksgiving and some big games coming up, so lets jump right into it.
Here is this week’s Thanksgiving edition of the War Room.
Football
It’s almost over. The end is near. Arizona has one more game this week and the 2016 season will finally get put to rest. It has been a dismal season for the Wildcats and there is no way around that. UA is going to finish in the cellar of the Pac-12 this season and it has just one game left to try and avoid going winless in conference play for the first time since 1957. UA is already an early underdog for the yearly meeting with Arizona State, but that shouldn’t come as too big of a surprise after how this season has gone.
* Saturday was the latest chapter in the saga that is Arizona’s 2016 season and as we have done all season no matter how big the loss we will breakdown where things went wrong for the Wildcats in its latest game. As we have done the last few games we will focus more generally on each side of the ball plus special teams.
- Offense: First up will Rich Rodriguez side of the ball and Arizona’s offense that continues to struggle to put up the numbers fans have become used to in the early years of his tenure as head coach. It starts at the top with play calling but also with the quarterback position. Arizona’s signal callers just don’t have it right now and haven’t since the top two went down with different injuries. Anu Solomon hasn’t been the same for a while, but Brandon Dawkins has not been the same since his injuries and really since he hasn’t had a true running back. Arizona losing JJ Taylor against Washington and Nick Wilson having all his injuries have hurt the quarterback position and the offense.
Still, the quarterbacks have not been very good on their own. Saturday it was just another example of simply not being able to have enough to put the ball in the end zone. Dawkins did it once on a 10-yard pass to Nate Phillips but outside of that UA was not having a ton of success through the air against Oregon State. Solomon started the game but injured himself in the early going, but while he was in UA at least had some semblance of a passing attack. Even then it wasn’t enough and the team’s biggest plays came on scrambles and some improvised plays more than the actual offense. UA is going to have to start over at the position next season but for one more week at the very least Dawkins will have his chance to show that he should still be considered going into the offseason.
Saturday it was once again a matter of not having enough time to make the right throws along with not letting things develop and going through progressions far too quickly. That takes the receivers out of the game and impacts the rest of the offense.
At running back it is hard to blame any player running the ball. Samajie Grant continued to show his heart by working in a game that was clearly getting out of hand. He scored a touchdown in the fourth quarter, but there are times when it is clear he is playing out of position. Matt Morin had one carry and nearly had as many yards as Grant but UA opted against using him more in the game. Zach Green also was able to get a few carries, but at this point in the season UA is just running on fumes at the position.
Receiver wise the Wildcats were able to get that unit more in the action coming out being dedicated to throwing the ball. It looked different and the receivers felt more engaged with Solomon taking the snaps but still there were only 16 completions in the game. It is clear that whether they mean to or not there is a different energy among the group when the passes are flying more frequently.
Now moving onto the biggest issue UA has had this season as of late and that is the offensive line. More injuries for UA this game meant more young faces and that has been a theme this year. Solomon was rushed out of the pocket quite a bit and OSU came up with a couple sacks as well. The entire right side of the line is getting its first bit of experience this season and that has showed. There were times when defenders were coming up the middle without much trouble and at center Nathan Eldridge is in his first season of action too. It is hard to put it all on the players when they are playing, for the most part, before they are truly ready but you would also hope to see some progress with the entire unit that just hasn’t shown up this season. UA has the pieces to be better next season but for at least another week it could be an adventure especially with how much ASU likes to bring pressure.
- Defense: On defense it is much of the same story. It is about talent and youth with a dash of lack of progress thrown in there with the injuries. Patience is going to be key with this defense as it finishes up its first season under Marcel Yates. The players who are going to make an impact in the coming years aren’t ready yet or aren’t in Tucson yet. The others are going through their growing pains right now. As hard as it feels like it is, there are some bright spots defensively with some of UA’s younger players on defense. The secondary will have some experienced playmakers next season especially at safety.
The linebacker group is going to be a work in progress but the talent is promising although it will be young ... very young and inexperienced. Up front and at the cornerback spot the problems have been noted quite a bit already.
During Saturday’s game it was a culmination of all the issues UA has been having this season. There was not a ton of pressure from the defensive line and tackling was again a big problem.
Yates did mix up the looks and give OSU some different challenges, but Marcus McMaryion still threw for five touchdowns and made UA’s defense look just about how it has all year.
- Special teams: Taking more off of Josh Pollack’s plate has helped some. There was a reason UA didn’t want him doing every job this season and it started to play out that way over the middle of the season. Still, UA is getting pinned back deep quite a bit and giving up too many yards on returns. It is a problem that was clear wasn’t going to be solved this season, but UA is still battling trying to figure out ways to get better field position. When the Wildcats had better field position in Saturday’s game it led to some better things.
Of all the groups the special teams unit is one that deserves to be looked at thoroughly to figure how to remedy all the issues.
* Now on to Rodriguez and his future with the team. This has been the case for weeks now but there is no plan to relieve him of his duties right now despite the season playing out as it has. There is still a belief that things will turn around and letting him go would bring its own set of challenges, which would very likely include trying to build a mostly new recruiting class in just a couple months. At the very least Rodriguez will be given another season to begin to turn things around barring some very, very unlikely and unforeseen circumstances. Internally there has always been the feeling that things could go severely south this year and that has turned out to be the case so just how bad it has gotten is not a true surprise to many in the program.
It still has to turn around, however, and right now that job will be in Rodriguez’s hands as he decides just how exactly he wants to make that happen. After Saturday’s game he continued to take the blame for all of Arizona’s issues reiterated how much of the problems fall on him first and foremost.
“It goes back to us not getting deep enough roster wise or big enough in recruiting,” Rodriguez said. “Obviously we’ve addressed that now, but it’s painful to go through that. I feel bad for our school. I feel bad for our fans. I feel bad for our guys in our program, because as bad as we get we shouldn’t get to this point.
“I guarantee you we will get out of it. I don’t want to say we’ll be better because of it because it’s miserable, but we’ll address it and we’ll fix it. Some of it will be fixed right away.”
Here is this week’s Thanksgiving edition of the War Room.
Football
It’s almost over. The end is near. Arizona has one more game this week and the 2016 season will finally get put to rest. It has been a dismal season for the Wildcats and there is no way around that. UA is going to finish in the cellar of the Pac-12 this season and it has just one game left to try and avoid going winless in conference play for the first time since 1957. UA is already an early underdog for the yearly meeting with Arizona State, but that shouldn’t come as too big of a surprise after how this season has gone.
* Saturday was the latest chapter in the saga that is Arizona’s 2016 season and as we have done all season no matter how big the loss we will breakdown where things went wrong for the Wildcats in its latest game. As we have done the last few games we will focus more generally on each side of the ball plus special teams.
- Offense: First up will Rich Rodriguez side of the ball and Arizona’s offense that continues to struggle to put up the numbers fans have become used to in the early years of his tenure as head coach. It starts at the top with play calling but also with the quarterback position. Arizona’s signal callers just don’t have it right now and haven’t since the top two went down with different injuries. Anu Solomon hasn’t been the same for a while, but Brandon Dawkins has not been the same since his injuries and really since he hasn’t had a true running back. Arizona losing JJ Taylor against Washington and Nick Wilson having all his injuries have hurt the quarterback position and the offense.
Still, the quarterbacks have not been very good on their own. Saturday it was just another example of simply not being able to have enough to put the ball in the end zone. Dawkins did it once on a 10-yard pass to Nate Phillips but outside of that UA was not having a ton of success through the air against Oregon State. Solomon started the game but injured himself in the early going, but while he was in UA at least had some semblance of a passing attack. Even then it wasn’t enough and the team’s biggest plays came on scrambles and some improvised plays more than the actual offense. UA is going to have to start over at the position next season but for one more week at the very least Dawkins will have his chance to show that he should still be considered going into the offseason.
Saturday it was once again a matter of not having enough time to make the right throws along with not letting things develop and going through progressions far too quickly. That takes the receivers out of the game and impacts the rest of the offense.
At running back it is hard to blame any player running the ball. Samajie Grant continued to show his heart by working in a game that was clearly getting out of hand. He scored a touchdown in the fourth quarter, but there are times when it is clear he is playing out of position. Matt Morin had one carry and nearly had as many yards as Grant but UA opted against using him more in the game. Zach Green also was able to get a few carries, but at this point in the season UA is just running on fumes at the position.
Receiver wise the Wildcats were able to get that unit more in the action coming out being dedicated to throwing the ball. It looked different and the receivers felt more engaged with Solomon taking the snaps but still there were only 16 completions in the game. It is clear that whether they mean to or not there is a different energy among the group when the passes are flying more frequently.
Now moving onto the biggest issue UA has had this season as of late and that is the offensive line. More injuries for UA this game meant more young faces and that has been a theme this year. Solomon was rushed out of the pocket quite a bit and OSU came up with a couple sacks as well. The entire right side of the line is getting its first bit of experience this season and that has showed. There were times when defenders were coming up the middle without much trouble and at center Nathan Eldridge is in his first season of action too. It is hard to put it all on the players when they are playing, for the most part, before they are truly ready but you would also hope to see some progress with the entire unit that just hasn’t shown up this season. UA has the pieces to be better next season but for at least another week it could be an adventure especially with how much ASU likes to bring pressure.
- Defense: On defense it is much of the same story. It is about talent and youth with a dash of lack of progress thrown in there with the injuries. Patience is going to be key with this defense as it finishes up its first season under Marcel Yates. The players who are going to make an impact in the coming years aren’t ready yet or aren’t in Tucson yet. The others are going through their growing pains right now. As hard as it feels like it is, there are some bright spots defensively with some of UA’s younger players on defense. The secondary will have some experienced playmakers next season especially at safety.
The linebacker group is going to be a work in progress but the talent is promising although it will be young ... very young and inexperienced. Up front and at the cornerback spot the problems have been noted quite a bit already.
During Saturday’s game it was a culmination of all the issues UA has been having this season. There was not a ton of pressure from the defensive line and tackling was again a big problem.
Yates did mix up the looks and give OSU some different challenges, but Marcus McMaryion still threw for five touchdowns and made UA’s defense look just about how it has all year.
- Special teams: Taking more off of Josh Pollack’s plate has helped some. There was a reason UA didn’t want him doing every job this season and it started to play out that way over the middle of the season. Still, UA is getting pinned back deep quite a bit and giving up too many yards on returns. It is a problem that was clear wasn’t going to be solved this season, but UA is still battling trying to figure out ways to get better field position. When the Wildcats had better field position in Saturday’s game it led to some better things.
Of all the groups the special teams unit is one that deserves to be looked at thoroughly to figure how to remedy all the issues.
* Now on to Rodriguez and his future with the team. This has been the case for weeks now but there is no plan to relieve him of his duties right now despite the season playing out as it has. There is still a belief that things will turn around and letting him go would bring its own set of challenges, which would very likely include trying to build a mostly new recruiting class in just a couple months. At the very least Rodriguez will be given another season to begin to turn things around barring some very, very unlikely and unforeseen circumstances. Internally there has always been the feeling that things could go severely south this year and that has turned out to be the case so just how bad it has gotten is not a true surprise to many in the program.
It still has to turn around, however, and right now that job will be in Rodriguez’s hands as he decides just how exactly he wants to make that happen. After Saturday’s game he continued to take the blame for all of Arizona’s issues reiterated how much of the problems fall on him first and foremost.
“It goes back to us not getting deep enough roster wise or big enough in recruiting,” Rodriguez said. “Obviously we’ve addressed that now, but it’s painful to go through that. I feel bad for our school. I feel bad for our fans. I feel bad for our guys in our program, because as bad as we get we shouldn’t get to this point.
“I guarantee you we will get out of it. I don’t want to say we’ll be better because of it because it’s miserable, but we’ll address it and we’ll fix it. Some of it will be fixed right away.”
