Rich Rodriguez met with the media Monday like he usually does and addressed plenty of the topics that fans had on their minds after Saturday's loss to Houston. Here's a rundown of everything important that was discussed today.
* You never know how Rodriguez will react to watching the film of the previous week's game and today he was more pleased with how things went than he thought he would be initially. The UA head coach said he was disappointed after the game but felt "a little bit better" after getting a chance to watch the film. He said everything he saw that went wrong was correctable.
* Rodriguez said the team "didn't execute well at all in the passing game" and he used the word "fundamentals" or "fundamentally" about 100 times when describing the quarterback play Saturday night against Houston. He said that was a point of of emphasis for the team during Sunday's session and he didn't think it was so much any kind of confusion as it was simply the fundamentals although that is not a big shock for anyone who watched the game.
He said that when you are as competitive as Brandon Dawkins and Khalil Tate are you just want to make a play and that is when they lose track of those fundamentals that are key to playing the position.
Rodriguez was asked about the quarterback play and he defended his quarterbacks saying "if everybody is pointing at the reason we lost the game was because of something with the quarterback play there was a lot of reasons. It always starts with the head coach on down."
There were plenty of questions about the quarterbacks as you can imagine and Rodriguez jumped out in front when talking about any potential "quarterback controversy" with his team and it still sure does sound like Dawkins will be his guy as things move along here.
* When it comes to the defense Rodriguez said he thought the players on that side of the ball "played a lot more aggressive mentally" and that was different from the previous week when that group was more tentative in the head coach's mind. He said he expects the defense to get better because they'll get more confident as they get more time in the system.
* Arizona is going to bus it to El Paso and then fly back after the game and Rodriguez said the main reason is that it "saves a little money" after making a similar gesture with his hands before answering the question. The team will lose an extra day of practice since Rodriguez wanted to give the players Monday off. That means Arizona will now go just Tuesday and Wednesday before heading off to El Paso.
* As far as the running game goes Rodriguez said they used JJ Taylor more than the team would have if Nick Wilson was healthy going to prove what I said earlier in that the senior is the leader when it comes to shouldering the workload even though they are co-starters when healthy. The UA head coach said that Taylor is in good enough shape to take the larger workload so he's not concerned if it has to stay that way while Wilson gets healthy.
On that front Rodriguez didn't clarify much about Wilson's status only that he "tweaked" his ankle and they thought he had a chance to play Saturday before eventually ruling him out. From the sounds of it the team isn't exactly confident he can go this week either so it will be interesting to monitor as it all plays out this week.
Rodriguez had some interesting things to say about the group saying on one hand he needs to get Taylor some more help but at the same time saying that Nathan Tilford's role will be to help on special teams as he continues to mature in the system. It certainly doesn't sound like the freshman running back will be helping take over some of those carries from Taylor this week. He could just be playing us a little bit but at this point it doesn't sound like Tilford's work at running back will expand much unless there is a blowout situation this Friday.
That is actually not inconsistent with what we were able to see during camp. It's not as though Tilford was projected to be a starter. The depth chart was as expected, but based on what I saw during camp I'm a bit surprised it hasn't been more of a thought to get him more touches especially around the goal line and in the red zone.
* Rodriguez was asked about some of the boos from the crowd Saturday night and if he felt it was a good time to get away and hit the road. He smirked a bit and said "they buy their ticket" about the boos.
"You want your home fans to cheer for you and not against you certainly," he said. "... the ZonaZoo has been terrific and our fans for five and a half or five-plus years have been terrific, so I'd rather play all games at home if I could but I don't think they'll let us do that."
* Special teams wasn't great for Arizona and without its normal long snapper Nick Reinhardt it meant a bunch of different players at the position. Donald Reiter got his shot but so did linebacker Brandon Rutt and eventually center Nathan Eldridge. Rodriguez said he thought Reiter did a nice job it wasn't exactly something the UA head coach didn't see as an issue heading into the game.
"The short snaps were an issue coming in and we started off with couple guys, but I think Nate Eldridge did a really nice job when he got in there," Rodriguez said. "So, we're pretty confident in Nate."
The long 81-yard kickoff return was something that Rodriguez said "should never happen" and he said the unit lost contain and had a few missed assignments that allowed it to come together. Special teams has been more of a focus heading into this season, and it's something that will continue to be a priority for the staff this week.
"Lucas can kick most of them out, but if he doesn't I don't want to be holding my breath," he said. "That's one unit we're gonna work really hard on this week."
* UTEP is a bad team, but it also presents a change in style for Arizona as Rodriguez said the Miners are more of a traditional power team with a good offensive line.
"If you don't stop it they'll keep running it down there and control the clock," Rodriguez said. "It's a whole different challenge for our guys defensively than we've seen not only the last two weeks but really the last six weeks, so we've gotta learn all that stuff this week."
* You never know how Rodriguez will react to watching the film of the previous week's game and today he was more pleased with how things went than he thought he would be initially. The UA head coach said he was disappointed after the game but felt "a little bit better" after getting a chance to watch the film. He said everything he saw that went wrong was correctable.
* Rodriguez said the team "didn't execute well at all in the passing game" and he used the word "fundamentals" or "fundamentally" about 100 times when describing the quarterback play Saturday night against Houston. He said that was a point of of emphasis for the team during Sunday's session and he didn't think it was so much any kind of confusion as it was simply the fundamentals although that is not a big shock for anyone who watched the game.
He said that when you are as competitive as Brandon Dawkins and Khalil Tate are you just want to make a play and that is when they lose track of those fundamentals that are key to playing the position.
Rodriguez was asked about the quarterback play and he defended his quarterbacks saying "if everybody is pointing at the reason we lost the game was because of something with the quarterback play there was a lot of reasons. It always starts with the head coach on down."
There were plenty of questions about the quarterbacks as you can imagine and Rodriguez jumped out in front when talking about any potential "quarterback controversy" with his team and it still sure does sound like Dawkins will be his guy as things move along here.
* When it comes to the defense Rodriguez said he thought the players on that side of the ball "played a lot more aggressive mentally" and that was different from the previous week when that group was more tentative in the head coach's mind. He said he expects the defense to get better because they'll get more confident as they get more time in the system.
* Arizona is going to bus it to El Paso and then fly back after the game and Rodriguez said the main reason is that it "saves a little money" after making a similar gesture with his hands before answering the question. The team will lose an extra day of practice since Rodriguez wanted to give the players Monday off. That means Arizona will now go just Tuesday and Wednesday before heading off to El Paso.
* As far as the running game goes Rodriguez said they used JJ Taylor more than the team would have if Nick Wilson was healthy going to prove what I said earlier in that the senior is the leader when it comes to shouldering the workload even though they are co-starters when healthy. The UA head coach said that Taylor is in good enough shape to take the larger workload so he's not concerned if it has to stay that way while Wilson gets healthy.
On that front Rodriguez didn't clarify much about Wilson's status only that he "tweaked" his ankle and they thought he had a chance to play Saturday before eventually ruling him out. From the sounds of it the team isn't exactly confident he can go this week either so it will be interesting to monitor as it all plays out this week.
Rodriguez had some interesting things to say about the group saying on one hand he needs to get Taylor some more help but at the same time saying that Nathan Tilford's role will be to help on special teams as he continues to mature in the system. It certainly doesn't sound like the freshman running back will be helping take over some of those carries from Taylor this week. He could just be playing us a little bit but at this point it doesn't sound like Tilford's work at running back will expand much unless there is a blowout situation this Friday.
That is actually not inconsistent with what we were able to see during camp. It's not as though Tilford was projected to be a starter. The depth chart was as expected, but based on what I saw during camp I'm a bit surprised it hasn't been more of a thought to get him more touches especially around the goal line and in the red zone.
* Rodriguez was asked about some of the boos from the crowd Saturday night and if he felt it was a good time to get away and hit the road. He smirked a bit and said "they buy their ticket" about the boos.
"You want your home fans to cheer for you and not against you certainly," he said. "... the ZonaZoo has been terrific and our fans for five and a half or five-plus years have been terrific, so I'd rather play all games at home if I could but I don't think they'll let us do that."
* Special teams wasn't great for Arizona and without its normal long snapper Nick Reinhardt it meant a bunch of different players at the position. Donald Reiter got his shot but so did linebacker Brandon Rutt and eventually center Nathan Eldridge. Rodriguez said he thought Reiter did a nice job it wasn't exactly something the UA head coach didn't see as an issue heading into the game.
"The short snaps were an issue coming in and we started off with couple guys, but I think Nate Eldridge did a really nice job when he got in there," Rodriguez said. "So, we're pretty confident in Nate."
The long 81-yard kickoff return was something that Rodriguez said "should never happen" and he said the unit lost contain and had a few missed assignments that allowed it to come together. Special teams has been more of a focus heading into this season, and it's something that will continue to be a priority for the staff this week.
"Lucas can kick most of them out, but if he doesn't I don't want to be holding my breath," he said. "That's one unit we're gonna work really hard on this week."
* UTEP is a bad team, but it also presents a change in style for Arizona as Rodriguez said the Miners are more of a traditional power team with a good offensive line.
"If you don't stop it they'll keep running it down there and control the clock," Rodriguez said. "It's a whole different challenge for our guys defensively than we've seen not only the last two weeks but really the last six weeks, so we've gotta learn all that stuff this week."
