Mid-Season Evaluations

[ANGCatFan]

SI is out with their mid-season All-American list. One of their 4 best linebackers in the country is:

LB - SCOOBY WRIGHT III
Arizona, Sophomore
The sophomore made the key strip to seal the win over Oregon and has 70 tackles and 11 TFLs already.

[azgreg]

Tucson good.

[ANGCatFan]

Here is link for the PAC 12 blog mid-season awards and here are the awards where Arizona is mentioned:

Newcomer of the year: RB Nick Wilson, Arizona. Remember when there was all that concern about how Arizona would replace Ka'Deem Carey? Wilson, a true freshman, is more than the Wildcats could have hoped for. His 114.6 rushing yards per game ranks third in the Pac-12 and 17th nationally, and the one game he missed due to injury was Arizona's only loss.

Best coach: Rich Rodriguez, Arizona. With apologies to Utah's Kyle Whittingham and Dykes, who are equally deserving, Rodriguez gets the nod after leading the Wildcats to a 5-1 start and a No. 16 ranking in the AP poll. The job he's done resurrecting Arizona during Michigan's demise is one of the more entertaining storylines of the college football season.

Best game: Arizona 49, Cal 45. Well, there certainly wasn't a lack of choices. Ultimately, this game was chosen over Cal's 60-59 win against Washington State and only because a Hail Mary finish is infinitely more exciting than a missed 19-yard field goal. Austin Hill's catch in the end zone capped a 36-point fourth quarter for Arizona that helped erase an 18-point deficit.

[ANGCatFan]

From Bleacher Report's story on players on pace to break NCAA records:

Most Attempts/Completions/Passing Yards/Plays by a Freshman in FBS History

Rich Rodriguez has not put a leash on his freshman quarterback, Anu Solomon, and the results have been difficult to argue with.

Solomon is on pace to finish a 13-game season with 602 pass attempts, 377 completions, 4,628 passing yards and 722 plays (pass attempts + carries), all of which would be FBS freshman records.

Jared "Hefty Lefty" Lorenzon set the current attempts (559) and completions (321) records at Kentucky in 2000, and Brett Hundley set the yardage (3,740) and plays (638) records at UCLA two years ago.

Solomon and Hundley will share the field when UCLA hosts Arizona Nov. 1.

I really just care about winning each game, but this puts the first half of Anu's season into perspective. He is not only on pace to break 4 NCAA records for a Freshman QB, but would shatter all 4 records if he keeps up this pace.

[Chicat]

Oh man, all of that is incredible. The national recognition of Scooby and Anu though is simply amazing and will do wonders for the future of our program.

[UALoco]

Can you imagine what his numbers are gonna look like when he can string together 4 solid quarters every game. A lot of those stats are from the fourth quarter.

[3goggles]

Can you imagine what his numbers are gonna look like when he can string together 4 solid quarters every game. A lot of those stats are from the fourth quarter.

Its going to be AWESOME when this starts happening!

[Merkin]

If and when Nick Wilson and TJG return healthy those numbers are going to drop.

Also if Anu can start playing well to begin with, those numbers will also drop as the Cats don't have to play catch-up like they have been.

[RazorsEdgeAZ]

With Solomon, I would anticipate his numbers to "normalize" down a bit. BUT still be record breaking. At least for School records over-time. We'll see but getting the running game back full force should only help his stats long-term. Building up experience and skill in future at the RB position as well.

Rich Rod's offense has always been a primary run offense. Well since 2001. His teams every year have run more than pass as percentage of plays.

Before he got to Arizona his lowest run% for a season was 2001 WV team at 57.1%. His highest was 2005 WV 76.4%. many years ran the ball 70+% of the time (Michigan around 58%-60%). Looked much like last years Arizona team with Denker that ran 62.8% of the time.

2012 Arizona with Matt Scott was by far the lowest run% Rich Rod has run which was 50.3%. Clear argument that Rich Rod adjusts to his players strengths. Ka'Deem led nation in rushing in 2012 as well.

This year with Solomon, Arizona PASSING 53.3% of the time. Would be 1st time ever for Rich Rod primary pass if it holds for season. It's hard to imagine unless forced that 53% will go much further up if at all. Good chance down a just a bit. But obviously that's a guess.


Avg rushing yards per game
2012- 228
2013- 265
2014- 200 (last game dragged this down a bit)

Avg Passing yards per game
2012- 298
2013- 194
2014- 358

Avg #Plays per game
2012- 83
2013- 79
2014- 87

[ANGCatFan]

Some guy named Gimino with his mid-season report for FSA.

"There is so much stuff that's happened," senior wide receiver Austin Hill said. "It's crazy that only half the season is done. We have been so crazy, stressed-out, excited and sad ... we've gone through the emotions of a whole season and it's half a season."

After a 58-13 walkover in the season-opener against UNLV, the next five games were all in doubt in the final minute, decided by a touchdown or less.

"I don't think Coach Rod likes that," Hill said. "We don't want to give him a heart attack any time soon. I think a couple more of these games and we might lose a couple of staff members."

[ANGCatFan]

Bye week boredom has set in for me, so I decided to see how this year's team compared to last year's team at the half way point.

Overall team stats 2014 and 2013





Passing 2014 and 2013





Rushing 2014 and 2013





Defensive 2014 and 2013





Only a few surprises for me. We have really done a nice job with out uptempo offense gaining an advantage in plays per game. We've had 70 more plays this year and increased our yards per play from 5.7 to 6.3. At the same time we have held opponents to 11 fewer plays, but unfortunately have let their yards per play increase from 4.9 to 5.9. Too much break in our bend don't break defense.

Second, Scooby is really having an incredible year. He is averaging 5 more tackles per game over last year's leaders (Fischer and Scooby), he has the same number of sacks as last year's entire team, and has more than doubled the tackles for loss as last year's leader Tuihalamaka.

Finally, we need more production out of our other linebackers. Fischer, Wright and Flowers led the team in tackles last year by protecting their gaps and getting first contact. This year Scooby is the only LB in our top 5 tacklers. Better linebacker play will lead to fewer yards given up. Scooby can't be expected to be everywhere and do everything.

[Puerco]

From Bleacher Report's story on players on pace to break NCAA records:

Most Attempts/Completions/Passing Yards/Plays by a Freshman in FBS History

Rich Rodriguez has not put a leash on his freshman quarterback, Anu Solomon, and the results have been difficult to argue with.

Solomon is on pace to finish a 13-game season with 602 pass attempts, 377 completions, 4,628 passing yards and 722 plays (pass attempts + carries), all of which would be FBS freshman records.

Jared "Hefty Lefty" Lorenzon set the current attempts (559) and completions (321) records at Kentucky in 2000, and Brett Hundley set the yardage (3,740) and plays (638) records at UCLA two years ago.

Solomon and Hundley will share the field when UCLA hosts Arizona Nov. 1.

I really just care about winning each game, but this puts the first half of Anu's season into perspective. He is not only on pace to break 4 NCAA records for a Freshman QB, but would shatter all 4 records if he keeps up this pace.

These are not good records. They only reflect heavy usage, not effectiveness or efficiency, unfortunately. Give me yards per attempt records or passer rating records or something similar, and I'd be ecstatic.

[Machina]

I don't think the Cats have put together a complete game yet, but yet the Cats are 5-1 with the best (if not then top 3) win in college football this year.

I have confidence that at some point we will see the entire team clicking.

Overall have to give the season an A, but I am not sure you could give any unit besides the RBs and maybe WRs an A overall. To me that is the mark of a very good team.

[azpenguin]

If Arizona plays a complete game they will beat anyone in the country. They haven't played one yet, really, and they're a FG away from 6-0. As the younger guys get better this team will keep rising.

[scumdevils86]

5-1 and 2-1 in conference.

we have road games against 2 ranked teams (ucla/utah) and a home game against ranked asu.

reasonably challenging road games at wsu and home against uw.

i really don't know what to think but I am hoping we finish 8-4 and win a bowl game to get that 9th win finally for the first time in 16 years.

Arizona 2008 8-5
Arizona 2009 8-5
Arizona 2010 7-6
Arizona 2011 4-8
Arizona 2012 8-5
Arizona 2013 8-5

[UALoco]

Only winning 8, again, would be a fail in my opinion. If you are not improving you are falling behind.

[azcat49]

Surprising stats:

Only gaining a half yard more per play. I would have thought with Anu throwing for a 190 more per game we would be way up.

Scooby crushing it in the defensive stats

Opponents number of plays are similar.

Only scoring less than a Fg more per game

Not surprising:

Giving up 7 more points per game

Giving up a boatload more in the passing game with Wazzu still to play