But the quarterback will have to get them the ball. The Beavers have always been in the cellar of the conference standings, and they’ve again gotten off to a rough start in conference play. While neither of these coaches have been around for it, there’s a unique tale-of-two-halves between these programs. Most critical: get off the field on third downs and find a way to slow teams down in the red zone.
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Jerrard Randall, a 6-1, 185-pound senior, took over for Solomon and started the Stanford game. “And if they are not they are not who I think they are”. It’s a brutal grind these days in the Pac-12.
Additionally, All-American linebacker Scooby Wright is still sidelined after spraining his right foot against UCLA. The Cardinal had 314 yards rushing in the 55-17 win. Containing the explosive Arizona offense was a key point, too.
Arizona isn’t left with an empty deck despite the injuries. Randall accounted for 248 yards of total offense, but struggled to find a rhythm.
Nick Wilson, a 5-10, 200-pound sophomore who rushed for 1,375 yards and 16 TDs a year ago, is the Pac-12’s leading ground-gainer this season with 616 yards and six scores. But because he practiced Tuesday, it was looking likely that he’d play against the Beavers. So, too, would a 7-for-7 performance in the red zone for the Cardinal.
For his first bye as Oregon State’s coach, Gary Andersen took a few time last weekend to watch other teams play. “And then you just take that performance forward into the next game”. The turnover was one of two in the second half for the Wildcats, a vital factor for sure. The Beavers are hitting just. He’s second on the team in all-purpose yards average at 108.5. The Beavers did one better, as running back Storm Woods (203) and receivers Markus Wheaton (168) and Brandin Cooks (149) each surpassed the century mark.
Arizona football has been on an upswing in recent years.
Arizona has gone 12-4 thus far and 2-2 in conference play, with all four defeats coming against highly-ranked teams.
The Wildcats opened as a 12ƒ-point favorite over Oregon State, and could be either favorites or slight underdogs in their ensuing games against Colorado, Washington State and Washington. The opportunity at stake this week is for one side – rested or not – to pick up its first Pac-12 win of the season. 15 Ohio State. Arizona got a big straight set home win over Oregon and a 3-1 win against Cal for its two Pac-12 wins.
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Sunday night’s match against Oregon, however, is likely to be more of a test for Stanford. Or they won’t, and it will be clear that all of the preseason hype was unwarranted. While it would be easy to use the associative law to conclude USC is superior to UCLA, the Arizona State team that came out this weekend was wildly different than the one the Trojans faced. In those 24 contests, the Wildcats have outscored opponents 952-622, or an average of 39.7-25.9. The Huskies have won four in a row in the series and nine of the past 10.
