Official Anu Solomon Appreciation Thread

ANGCatFan · Post by **ANGCatFan** » Mon Sep 22, 2014 9:43 am

Braden Gall at Athlon Sports was able to find some positives out of Saturday's game. He obviously doesn't realize this game just highlighted the problems with the 3-3-5, Arizona's inability to recruit, and a lackluster fan base who who would rather complain about uniforms and PA announcers than enjoy record setting football, but I digress. Here's a couple positive points that it seems only outsiders are able to notice from one of the most exciting victories in Arizona history.

The improbable game-winning, 47-yard Hail Mary as time expired completed one of the most remarkable comebacks the Pac-12 has ever seen. Solomon led the Cats offense to a school-record 36 fourth-quarter points to beat an obviously improved Cal Golden Bears team at home.

The young star quarterback for Arizona is second in the nation in total offense with 1,621 yards (1,454 pass, 167 rush) of total offense, trailing only Washington State's Connor Halliday (1,845) . Solomon is also third in the nation in passing touchdowns with 13, behind only Halliday (16) and Missouri's Maty Mauk (13).

Most importantly, Arizona got a win in the conference opener in what is shaping out to be a much deeper and more unpredictable Pac-12 South race.

btfd16 · Post by **btfd16** » Mon Sep 22, 2014 10:23 am

ANGCatFan wrote:[url=http://athlonsports.com/college-footbal ... um=twitter] a lackluster fan base who who would rather complain about uniforms and PA announcers than enjoy record setting football, but I digress.

spot on

MountainCat · Post by **MountainCat** » Mon Sep 22, 2014 10:51 am

If Anu doesn't win Pac 12 Player of the week, then something is wrong with the system big time. Either him or it should be Jones or Hill.

BearDown89 · Post by **BearDown89** » Mon Sep 22, 2014 10:57 am

whatisee · Post by **whatisee** » Mon Sep 22, 2014 11:01 am

'The catch' ended up being the Top play for the weekend on ESPN

catgrad97 · Post by **catgrad97** » Mon Sep 22, 2014 11:42 am

Does The Catch become to Arizona football like McShot was to basketball?

TuiTouchdown · Post by **TuiTouchdown** » Mon Sep 22, 2014 1:58 pm

Can we call it the "Hill Mary" instead of "The Catch"?

azgreg · Post by **azgreg** » Mon Sep 22, 2014 2:53 pm

TuiTouchdown · Post by **TuiTouchdown** » Mon Sep 22, 2014 6:37 pm

azgreg wrote:

I loved these gif contributions during the game thread, especially when it looked like were facing an ass-whipping.

azcat49 · Post by **azcat49** » Mon Sep 22, 2014 7:42 pm

Let's see, you break 3 school records and you don't get player of the week leading the most historic comeback in school history.

Our defensive nominee gets 18 tackles with 4 for loss and forces a fumble and he doesn't get it.

Who is voting, Stevie Wonder

Chicat · Post by **Chicat** » Mon Sep 22, 2014 8:20 pm

azcat49 wrote:Let's see, you break 3 school records and you don't get player of the week leading the most historic comeback in school history.

Our defensive nominee gets 18 tackles with 4 for loss and forces a fumble and he doesn't get it.

Who is voting, Stevie Wonder

Anu was great late. But when you throw the ball 70+ times you're bound to break records. Jones was great all game. Easily the best player on the field in that game.

I have no defense for Scooby getting snubbed. It's a trend.

azgreg · Post by **azgreg** » Mon Sep 22, 2014 8:23 pm

Well the kid from Utah had 14 tackles, and a pick, and a fumble recovery.

ANGCatFan · Post by **ANGCatFan** » Mon Sep 22, 2014 8:32 pm

azcat49 wrote:Let's see, you break 3 school records and you don't get player of the week leading the most historic comeback in school history.

Remember Cayleb was nominated over Anu by our staff. You could make a case for either player, but my guess is they don't mind deflecting attention off Anu while they can. If Anu was nominated I suspect he would have also won.

azcat49 · Post by **azcat49** » Mon Sep 22, 2014 8:38 pm

Good point Ang (and Chi). Scooby was a beast but the Utah kid had a nice game and it was in the big house

dc4azcats · Post by **dc4azcats** » Mon Sep 22, 2014 9:11 pm

azcat49 wrote:Good point Ang (and Chi). Scooby was a beast but the Utah kid had a nice game and it was in the big house

Scooby got his with his tweet where he thanked Cal for telling him he wasn't good enough to play Pac 12 football. Wonder what they think of Scooby now?

wyo-cat · Post by **wyo-cat** » Mon Sep 22, 2014 9:13 pm

ANGCatFan wrote:
azcat49 wrote:Let's see, you break 3 school records and you don't get player of the week leading the most historic comeback in school history.
Remember Cayleb was nominated over Anu by our staff. You could make a case for either player, but my guess is they don't mind deflecting attention off Anu while they can. If Anu was nominated I suspect he would have also won.

36 points in the fourth quarter means whoever was nominated by UA was going to win!

Puerco · Post by **Puerco** » Tue Sep 23, 2014 12:18 am

Chicat wrote:
azcat49 wrote:Let's see, you break 3 school records and you don't get player of the week leading the most historic comeback in school history.

Our defensive nominee gets 18 tackles with 4 for loss and forces a fumble and he doesn't get it.

Who is voting, Stevie Wonder
Anu was great late. But when you throw the ball 70+ times you're bound to break records. Jones was great all game. Easily the best player on the field in that game.

I have no defense for Scooby getting snubbed. It's a trend.

I was thinking you can't give a team who just pulled out an amazing, improbable, jaw-dropping comeback at home against a bottom feeder in the PAC-12 both Outstanding Player Awards, right? So it was always going to be one of the two who won. If it would have been a top shelf conference team playing us in that game, Scooby would've gotten the award as well, I believe.

ANGCatFan · Post by **ANGCatFan** » Wed Sep 24, 2014 7:00 am

Berk's report from Tuesday's practice talks about how Coach Smith considered pulling Anu in the Cal game.

After every offensive series, quarterback Anu Solomon puts on a headset and checks in with his position coach, Rod Smith.

For the first three quarters Saturday against Cal, those conversations were not pretty.

"We're communicating in between series, and what he was seeing and what I was seeing was not the same picture," Smith said.

As Solomon was making misreads and overthrowing his receivers, the UA's quarterbacks coach contemplated making a change and taking Solomon out.

It's unclear who would have replaced him, but Smith was thinking about mixing things up.

"If he didn't start seeing some things, there was some thought process to it," Smith said. "I don't ever want him looking over his shoulder. I want to go with him as long as I can, but you have to make decisions, and he had too many misreads. All of those came in the first three quarters. His fourth quarter was pretty damn good."

Smith continued: "There was a time where I thought we might have to switch this up possibly, but we didn't, and he caught on and picked it up. He obviously had a great fourth quarter. I'm glad I didn't."

BearDown89 · Post by **BearDown89** » Wed Sep 24, 2014 7:27 am

ANGCatFan wrote:Berk's report from Tuesday's practice talks about how Coach Smith considered pulling Anu in the Cal game.

After every offensive series, quarterback Anu Solomon puts on a headset and checks in with his position coach, Rod Smith.

For the first three quarters Saturday against Cal, those conversations were not pretty.

"We're communicating in between series, and what he was seeing and what I was seeing was not the same picture," Smith said.

As Solomon was making misreads and overthrowing his receivers, the UA's quarterbacks coach contemplated making a change and taking Solomon out.

It's unclear who would have replaced him, but Smith was thinking about mixing things up.

"If he didn't start seeing some things, there was some thought process to it," Smith said. "I don't ever want him looking over his shoulder. I want to go with him as long as I can, but you have to make decisions, and he had too many misreads. All of those came in the first three quarters. His fourth quarter was pretty damn good."

Smith continued: "There was a time where I thought we might have to switch this up possibly, but we didn't, and he caught on and picked it up. He obviously had a great fourth quarter. I'm glad I didn't."

Read that last night, but couldn't post from my phone. Anyway, pretty damn candid insight from Coach Smith about just how close Anu was to getting yanked. Really interesting.

Chicat · Post by **Chicat** » Wed Sep 24, 2014 8:26 am

I thought for sure that Scroggins was coming in. I can't remember which series it was in the third quarter but when Anu came to the sideline RichRod was giving him an earful and he kind of just wandered away and I thought to myself that there was a good chance I wouldn't be seeing him on the field again.

catgrad97 · Post by **catgrad97** » Wed Sep 24, 2014 10:13 am

If Anu didn't get yanked against Cal, I don't think Scroggins sees any time this year outside of blowouts or injury.

azpenguin · Post by **azpenguin** » Wed Sep 24, 2014 10:17 am

Solomon's the future and that's how they're playing it. They're giving him a long leash now so that he can be a lot better later.

BearDown89 · Post by **BearDown89** » Wed Sep 24, 2014 10:17 am

Chicat wrote:I thought for sure that Scroggins was coming in. I can't remember which series it was in the third quarter but when Anu came to the sideline RichRod was giving him an earful and he kind of just wandered away and I thought to myself that there was a good chance I wouldn't be seeing him on the field again.

I remember that now and I think you're right. Somewhere in that same time frame they showed Scroggins throwing a few warm up passes on the sidelines. I'd forgotten about those moments.

X's and O's-wise, I'm not technically savvy enough (other than seeing that they're obviously not making plays) to observe what's going on when this is happening:

"We're communicating in between series, and what he was seeing and what I was seeing was not the same picture," Smith said.

"If he didn't start seeing some things, there was some thought process to it," Smith said. "I don't ever want him looking over his shoulder. I want to go with him as long as I can, but you have to make decisions, and he had too many misreads. All of those came in the first three quarters. His fourth quarter was pretty damn good."

Smith continued: "There was a time where I thought we might have to switch this up possibly, but we didn't, and he caught on and picked it up. He obviously had a great fourth quarter. I'm glad I didn't."

Is it just a matter of the defense disguising its looks and tripping him up and him needing the time to figure it out?

azpenguin · Post by **azpenguin** » Wed Sep 24, 2014 11:08 am

BearDown89 wrote:Is it just a matter of the defense disguising its looks and tripping him up and him needing the time to figure it out?

Pretty much. You can practice all you want but there's no teacher like game experience. All defenses will try to disguise their coverage in one way or another. The thing for Arizona is that if Solomon is making the right reads and delivering the ball on target, that offense is not going to be stopped. Someone will be open on every play. Cal did a very good job of hiding their coverages Saturday night with a very similar look on almost every down. They kept the safeties pretty close yet out wide. That allowed them to play the run and get into pass coverage, and it worked well for a while. It made it tough to figure out which side of the field the numbers were going to be on like RichRod likes the QBs to read. But when Solomon figured the Bears' defensive scheme out, they got flat-out shredded.

RazorsEdgeAZ · Post by **RazorsEdgeAZ** » Wed Sep 24, 2014 11:21 am

Chicat wrote:I thought for sure that Scroggins was coming in. I can't remember which series it was in the third quarter but when Anu came to the sideline RichRod was giving him an earful and he kind of just wandered away and I thought to myself that there was a good chance I wouldn't be seeing him on the field again.

When Solomon tweaked his knee a bit on a run and held it a bit on ground, camera's panned to Scroggins on sideline helmet on, warming up.

pokinmik · Post by **pokinmik** » Wed Sep 24, 2014 12:22 pm

Jumping the gun by a whole lot of course but with Rich Rod's offense and Solomon being a RS Frosh he definitely has the chance to become one of the P12 pass yardage leaders.

Chicat · Post by **Chicat** » Wed Sep 24, 2014 1:38 pm

I just realized what many of you probably already know:

Between high school and college, Anu Solomon has started 50 games at QB. In those 50 games his team's record is 47-3.

That's freakin' amazing...

prh · Post by **prh** » Wed Sep 24, 2014 3:26 pm

Chicat wrote:I just realized what many of you probably already know:

Between high school and college, Anu Solomon has started 50 games at QB. In those 50 games his team's record is 47-3.

That's freakin' amazing...

61-3 actually. He was 57-3 in high school. That 43-3 record that keeps getting tossed around is after his Junior year I believe.

Chicat · Post by **Chicat** » Wed Sep 24, 2014 3:31 pm

prh wrote:
Chicat wrote:I just realized what many of you probably already know:

Between high school and college, Anu Solomon has started 50 games at QB. In those 50 games his team's record is 47-3.

That's freakin' amazing...
61-3 actually. He was 57-3 in high school. That 43-3 record that keeps getting tossed around is after his Junior year I believe.

Even better.

Winner...

Merkin · Post by **Merkin** » Wed Sep 24, 2014 3:35 pm

Dude is a gamer.

But is he a practice player?

RazorsEdgeAZ · Post by **RazorsEdgeAZ** » Wed Sep 24, 2014 3:52 pm

Chicat wrote:I just realized what many of you probably already know:

Between high school and college, Anu Solomon has started 50 games at QB. In those 50 games his team's record is 47-3.

That's freakin' amazing...

As 'prh' stated:

Solomon
57-3 , 4-year starter in HS
4 state championships
Passed 10,112 yards
141 TDs
18 INTs.

Rushed 954 yards
19 TDs

3goggles · Post by **3goggles** » Wed Sep 24, 2014 4:07 pm

RazorsEdgeAZ wrote:
Chicat wrote:I just realized what many of you probably already know:

Between high school and college, Anu Solomon has started 50 games at QB. In those 50 games his team's record is 47-3.

That's freakin' amazing...
As 'prh' stated:

Solomon
57-3 , 4-year starter in HS
4 state championships
Passed 10,112 yards
141 TDs
18 INTs.

Rushed 954 yards
19 TDs

Legit and thats a big boy program.

Puerco · Post by **Puerco** » Thu Sep 25, 2014 2:10 am

RazorsEdgeAZ wrote:
Chicat wrote:I just realized what many of you probably already know:

Between high school and college, Anu Solomon has started 50 games at QB. In those 50 games his team's record is 47-3.

That's freakin' amazing...
As 'prh' stated:

Solomon
57-3 , 4-year starter in HS
4 state championships
Passed 10,112 yards
141 TDs
18 INTs.

Rushed 954 yards
19 TDs

Football version of Stanley Johnson

3goggles · Post by **3goggles** » Thu Sep 25, 2014 7:50 am

Puerco wrote:
RazorsEdgeAZ wrote:
Chicat wrote:I just realized what many of you probably already know:

Between high school and college, Anu Solomon has started 50 games at QB. In those 50 games his team's record is 47-3.

That's freakin' amazing...
As 'prh' stated:

Solomon
57-3 , 4-year starter in HS
4 state championships
Passed 10,112 yards
141 TDs
18 INTs.

Rushed 954 yards
19 TDs
Football version of Stanley Johnson

and we have both of them!

3goggles · Post by **3goggles** » Thu Sep 25, 2014 7:52 am

Anu is showing up in alot of articles lately.

"Anu Solomon (9), Arizona. Presumed starter going into August: USC transfer Jesse Scroggins, who had the best spring out of four candidates for the job. Solomon named starter: Aug. 25. Since then: Wildcats are 4-0, capped off by their ridiculous comeback to beat Cal late Saturday night. The redshirt freshman threw the Hail Mary game winner on the final play, part of a 73-attempt, 520-yard, five-touchdown passing night. For the year he’s thrown for 1,454 yards and 13 touchdowns, and run for another 167 yards. Next time we see him will be on a big stage: at Oregon on Thursday, Oct. 2."

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/forde-yard ... um=twitter

ANGCatFan · Post by **ANGCatFan** » Thu Sep 25, 2014 8:53 pm

The always great Anthony Gimino with another Anu story.

"We want football to be important to everybody - particularly at the quarterback position," quarterbacks coach Rod Smith said after Tuesday's practice.

"I had some reservations early on - does this mean enough to him? We pushed him and prodded him, and that's what all of last year was, trying to find out. There is not a doubt in my mind, as I sit here today ... he 100 percent cares - a lot. His way of doing it is different than other guys, and I respect that."

catgrad97 · Post by **catgrad97** » Thu Sep 25, 2014 9:02 pm

Guido will always be the man. Why he never has done a column is beyond me.

Catstatic · Post by **Catstatic** » Fri Sep 26, 2014 9:24 am

3goggles wrote:Anu is showing up in alot of articles lately.

"Anu Solomon (9), Arizona. Presumed starter going into August: USC transfer Jesse Scroggins, who had the best spring out of four candidates for the job. Solomon named starter: Aug. 25. Since then: Wildcats are 4-0, capped off by their ridiculous comeback to beat Cal late Saturday night. The redshirt freshman threw the Hail Mary game winner on the final play, part of a 73-attempt, 520-yard, five-touchdown passing night. For the year he’s thrown for 1,454 yards and 13 touchdowns, and run for another 167 yards. Next time we see him will be on a big stage: at Oregon on Thursday, Oct. 2."

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/forde-yard ... um=twitter

So if my elementary school math is working this morning that means he is averaging 364 yards passing, 3.25 TD's and 42 yards rushing per game. And that's with 3 quarters of atrocious ball against Cal. This kid is truly something special.

Go Cats!!

azgreg · Post by **azgreg** » Wed Oct 08, 2014 4:01 pm

A nice article on "Second Half Solomon" from AG.

Solomon off to rousing start with No. 10 Wildcats

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/e369f7bc ... 0-wildcats

We should sticky a thread for AG articles and tweets.

ANGCatFan · Post by **ANGCatFan** » Wed Oct 08, 2014 4:13 pm

Anthony Gimino

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — Some quarterbacks go their entire careers without a Hail Mary-capped comeback or a road win over a top-10 team.

Arizona's Anu Solomon has both — five games into his career.

"He's got a certain poise about him that's pretty neat for a redshirt freshman," Arizona coach Rich Rodriguez said. "He'll keep getting better. He's still going to have mistakes but, gosh, this guy has a lot of those intangibles you want in a quarterback."

"It feels very good to be relevant, to be spoken of, to be recognized in the nation," Solomon said. "We're trying to make this program into something special. For that to happen, we have to keep doing what we're doing. We can't become complacent."

Chicat · Post by **Chicat** » Wed Oct 08, 2014 5:13 pm

azgreg wrote:A nice article on "Second Half Solomon" from AG.

Solomon off to rousing start with No. 10 Wildcats

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/e369f7bc ... 0-wildcats

We should sticky a thread for AG articles and tweets.

Nice article AG.

The more we learn about Anu, the more he seems to have that kind of quiet, lead-by-example attitude that Nick Foles exhibited. You don't have to be loud and in your face to be a winner.

dc4azcats · Post by **dc4azcats** » Wed Oct 08, 2014 6:13 pm

Chicat wrote:
azgreg wrote:A nice article on "Second Half Solomon" from AG.

Solomon off to rousing start with No. 10 Wildcats

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/e369f7bc ... 0-wildcats

We should sticky a thread for AG articles and tweets.
Nice article AG.

The more we learn about Anu, the more he seems to have that kind of quiet, lead-by-example attitude that Nick Foles exhibited. You don't have to be loud and in your face to be a winner.

Not to jump ahead but how good can this kid be 2 years from now? Three years in the RR system and you would think that anything and everything would be in play.

Catstatic · Post by **Catstatic** » Wed Oct 08, 2014 6:33 pm

dc4azcats wrote:
Chicat wrote:
azgreg wrote:A nice article on "Second Half Solomon" from AG.

Solomon off to rousing start with No. 10 Wildcats

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/e369f7bc ... 0-wildcats

We should sticky a thread for AG articles and tweets.
Nice article AG.

The more we learn about Anu, the more he seems to have that kind of quiet, lead-by-example attitude that Nick Foles exhibited. You don't have to be loud and in your face to be a winner.
Not to jump ahead but how good can this kid be 2 years from now? Three years in the RR system and you would think that anything and everything would be in play.

In a word, unstoppable. Go into Oregon and get a W in your 5th game in college? Your first Pac 12 game on the road? Beyond any realistic expectation. His talent is only surpassed by his humility, which is an unstoppable combination.

Go Cats!!

ghostwhitehorse · Post by **ghostwhitehorse** » Wed Oct 08, 2014 6:48 pm

Anu Solomon = Mike Bibby? (and yes, I am all aboard all the implications of that comparison).

azpenguin · Post by **azpenguin** » Wed Oct 08, 2014 9:41 pm

Solomon will have Wilson along as well. Choo choo.

AzDave · Post by **AzDave** » Wed Oct 08, 2014 11:05 pm

azpenguin wrote:Solomon will have Wilson along as well. Choo choo.

Yep. Also, Jones, Grant, Phillips, Griffey, Neal....all sophomores. As long as Anu keeps growing as a player and improving, he'll have all the weapons he needs.

The key will be the o line.

Berkut · Post by **Berkut** » Thu Oct 09, 2014 6:05 am

AzDave wrote:
azpenguin wrote:Solomon will have Wilson along as well. Choo choo.
Yep. Also, Jones, Grant, Phillips, Griffey, Neal....all sophomores. As long as Anu keeps growing as a player and improving, he'll have all the weapons he needs.

The key will be the o line.

Isn't that always true?

azgreg · Post by **azgreg** » Thu Oct 09, 2014 11:51 am

Machina · Post by **Machina** » Tue Oct 14, 2014 10:29 am

First off, I am not trying to dump on this guy in any way, I love this kid's heart and how he has thrown the ball this year. But does anyone else seem to notice that Anu often times makes the wrong read on the read option? I can think of a few times each game (specifically most recently the 2pt conversion vs USC) that he hands the ball off for a loss or very short gain while he could run the ball for a lot of yardage.

I guess it is unfair to compare him to BJ Denker, who always seemed to make the right read on the read option.

Bear Down Arizona and Bear Down Anu. Beat the Cougars.

Merkin · Post by **Merkin** » Tue Oct 14, 2014 10:40 am

Definitely makes more than his share of wrong reads, although Denker wasn't perfect either. My biggest complaint about Anu is his overthrowing of downfield receivers.

But the dude is a winner, he is another Joe Montana in terms of comeback drives, just hope that he can get it together first quarter instead of the fourth.

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