BOULDER, Colo.
The ball was still rolling loose on the turf, chaos everywhere, when Rich Rodriguez walked from Arizona’s sideline toward midfield. He pointed to the clock.
“It’s over,” he yelled to a referee. “Look at the clock.”
The zeroes on the Folsom Field scoreboard were frozen the same way RichRod’s Wildcats had been during the second and third quarters. But instead of a faceplant against the Pac-12’s most sorry football franchise, the Wildcats found a way to win 38-31 Saturday night.
“As much as I’ve got to watch the film on the plane ride home, it’s going to be miserable,” RichRod said. “Someone, my wife or my son, had better hold my hand. It’s going to be frustrating.”
But frustrating doesn’t last very long in college football when you know the game film has a happy ending.
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When the UA coaching staff reached their locker room there was no mistaking their full sense of relief. Or maybe it was an escape.
Offensive coordinator Rod Smith hugged an entire row of UA fans along a railing. Special teams coach Charlie Raigle and defensive coordinator Jeff Casteel embraced and tapped knuckles. Running backs coach Calvin Magee and RichRod’s wife, Rita, almost did a dance together.
Arizona is 5-2, a game away from bowl eligibility, but for about 40 minutes Saturday night the UA’s football season had the look and feel of a team going south. Going under.
The only teams Colorado has beaten at Folsom Field the last 3½ seasons are UMass, Central Arkansas, Charleston Southern, Nicholls State, Hawaii and a Cal team that was 1-11.
Arizona failed to score on eight straight possessions. That’s unthinkable at any time and any level. But then RichRod went to the bullpen, replacing quarterback Anu Solomon with Usain Bolt — oops, Jerrard Randall — and everything changed.
It was like a bolt, all right, a bolt of lightning.
The UA’s stalled offense gained 166 yards in the first 10 plays Randall was at QB.
“At that point,” said RichRod, “(CU) had to play against all 11 of our guys. They couldn’t play against 10 any more.”
RichRod has rarely gone to the bullpen since arriving in Tucson; but on Saturday he had no choice. For whatever reason, Solomon seemed strangely indecisive, inaccurate and off his game. The Buffaloes’ defense clogged the middle, shutting off tailback Jared Baker, who had opened the game by gaining 91 yards on six carries.
For the next eight possessions, there was no place to run, and Solomon wasn’t able to create yards the way Randall did.
In the fourth quarter, Arizona gained 213 yards on 21 plays.
“We didn’t adjust quickly enough on the field,” said CU coach Mike MacIntyre. “Randall made us miss a couple of times. Bounced outside. Got inside. When he came in, we really had them pinned back. It was tough. Really tough.”
Just as telling as Randall’s boost of energy, the UA defense, staffed with a few mystery guests, limited the Buffaloes to 82 yards on 15 plays in the fourth quarter.
“I looked out there,” RichRod said, “and there were only two starters on defense from our original group this year.”
On the game’s last series, with Colorado desperate to tie the game, the Wildcats were using Devin Holiday at cornerback. He replaced Jace Whittaker, a first-time starter. Defensive end Jack Banda, who had made one tackle in his college career, sacked CU quarterback Sefo Liufau twice.
By the time RichRod was to land in Tucson early Sunday morning, his mood had surely changed from frustration to mini-elation. How did the Wildcats beat anyone, on the road, with such a makeshift defense?
How did Arizona win when it botched the special teams game twice? Once a punt bonked off the shoulder pads off coverage man Trey Griffey, which led to a CU touchdown. Another time, punt coverage specialist Jonathan Haden expertly tracked down Drew Riggleman’s punt at the goal line. But then he mistakenly downed it while standing in the end zone, giving CU a first down at the 20.
No, it wasn’t the type of game a reshuffling team like Arizona wins anywhere. The “new normal” for this UA team is simply to survive.
Liufau, who has had difficulty in his 1½ seasons as a college quarterback, completing just 59 percent of his passes this year (he had also been sacked 17 times) came off as Andrew Luck for three quarters, completing 18 of 27 passes for 255 yards and rarely getting hurried or touched.
But in the fourth quarter, he had no luck and neither did his team. His coach, MacIntyre, got a bit carried away Friday night, declaring — or rather “guaranteeing” — that the Buffaloes would beat Arizona. But that’s just shop talk with your fans. A coach at a school whose team hasn’t had a winning season since 2004 can’t possibly guarantee anything that will be believed outside the campus limits.
“It was at a pep rally,” said MacIntyre. “If I don’t believe in them, nobody does. It was a pep rally, an excite-’em type of thing. You’ve all been to pep rallies, come on. Things are said all the time.”
About the time MacIntyre began his press session, RichRod was on a bus to the Denver airport. He was about to load up the game film on his computer. If he thought viewing the game film was going to be “miserable,” he should’ve heard MacIntyre.
“You can almost taste it,” he said. “It definitely hurts.”
RichRod’s flight home was pain-free.
