Cincinnati rushing attack ‘a significant challenge’ for Arizona’s defense

In back-to-back weeks, the Wildcats have come back from two-possession deficits in the first quarter to beat Northern Illinois and Washington State. Arizona outscored WSU 34-10 after falling behind 14-0. In the final three quarters combined against Washington State and NIU, the Wildcats outscored them 62-17.

“It pisses me off,” Gonzales said. “It means I’m freaking terrible at predicting what they do, which pisses me off.”

Arizona head coach Brent Brennan said, “There’s always going to be a learning curve for our defensive staff, because we are different.”

“There’s no opponent film they can watch and go, ‘Oh, that’s what they’re going to do against this,’ because no one plays what we play,” Brennan added. “That’s how we study film.”

Gonzales said Arizona’s defensive coaches “have no idea how teams are going to attack us every week,” because of how the Wildcats deploy safeties and linebackers. Former Boise State head coach Chris Petersen gave Gonzales “the greatest compliment” as a coach, when Gonzales was a defensive coordinator at San Diego State.

Whenever Boise State game-planned for Gonzales’ aggressive defense at SDSU, the Broncos would use 12 players for their scout-team offense instead of 11, “because they never knew where the plus-one was going to come from.”

“So, if they block 12 (players), they’ll find success,” Gonzales said. “That’s the greatest compliment, because … you play so freaking hard, the movement makes it difficult for people. They have to be able to identify who the middle linebacker is going to be. … Those guys are doing a fantastic job with their disguises, which makes it harder for those guys to identify who the plus-one is.”

Arizona’s defense has “a significant challenge coming into Casino Del Sol (Stadium)” in the undefeated Cincinnati Bearcats, which has the second-best rushing attack in the Big 12, averaging just over 270 rushing yards per game. Cincinnati is seventh nationally in rushing yards per game.

“If they come in here and run for freaking 270 yards, then we’ve failed,” Gonzales said. “We have to do a great job of preparing, because they are more than capable of doing that.”

The Bearcats will face an Arizona defense that is third in the Big 12 in rushing defense — No. 13 nationally.

“They do a lot on defense,” Cincinnati head coach Scott Satterfield said on Tuesday. “They bring pressure a lot. … They mix it up on you and make you earn everything that you’re getting. It’s a huge challenge for us offensively and defensively.”

A year after having one of the top passing defenses in college football, Arizona’s defensive identity has been more of a run-stopping unit this season, allowing 80.3 rushing yards this season. Arizona has 47 run stops behind the line of scrimmage this season, including eight from linebacker Cooper Blomstrom, six from linebacker Taye Brown and five from defensive linemen Mays Pese and Tre Smith, according to Pro Football Focus.

“That’s a sign of good coaching,” Satterfield said. “You look at what you have talent wise and then figure out the best thing to do with those guys. It is a little bit different, but it’s the same structure and same aggressiveness.”

Arizona’s first three opponents in Big 12 play are the top three rushing teams in the Big 12. West Virginia, which hosts Arizona in Morgantown next week, is the top rushing team in the conference with 294.8 yards per game. BYU, which beat Arizona to begin Big 12 play, is the third-best rushing team in the Big 12.

“Their running backs are physical downhill,” added Arizona’s defensive coordinator. “I think Cincinnati’s running backs — all three of them — are very physical. All of them are violent runners.”

After losing standout running backs Tawee Walker and Evan Pryor, Cincinnati’s top three running backs this season are Notre Dame transfer Gi’Bran Payne (pronounced guh-bron), Stanford transfer Cole Tabb and Louisiana transfer Zylan Perry, who has 97 yards on 12 carries. Payne and Tabb have made up nearly half of Cincinnati’s rushing attempts this season.

Payne “is violent downhill,” Gonzales said. The 5-10, 208-pound Payne has 51 carries for 368 yards and two touchdowns, averaging 7.1 yards per carry.

The 5-8, 200-pound Tabb is “faster than the three (running backs) they had last year,” Gonzales said, and has 28 carries for 311 yards and six touchdowns this season. Tabb is also averaging 7 yards per carry after contact, according to Pro Football Focus. Both Tabb and Payne each have 10 runs of 10-plus yards this season, per PFF. Cincinnati’s one-two punch at running back has combined for 25 first-down runs in four games.

Compared to Cincinnati, BYU’s offensive line “is bigger up front and they’re going to smash-mouth you and pound you,” Gonzales said.

Cincinnati’s offensive line, led by preseason All-Big 12 selections in left tackle Joe Cotton and left guard Evan Tengesdahl, “run a little bit better” than BYU’s offensive line. Sixty-five of Payne and Tabb’s 79 rush attempts this season are zone runs, according to PFF.

“All of those things to create gaps,” Gonzales said. “It’s what got us on the first two runs (against Cincinnati) last year. Really hard to simulate in practice, because there’s not a ton of outside zone teams anymore. It took (former defensive tackle) Deshawn McKnight two series last year to get a feel for how fast they were and how they cut your tail off.”

Added Gonzales: “They’re every bit as violent as BYU, but they just try and do it in space and you have to be a little bit of a better athlete than those guys. That’s the significant differences between the two, but they both run the ball tremendously.”

Running the ball effectively also opens up the possibility of play-action passes, and Cincinnati quarterback JC French IV, a transfer from Georgia Southern, has 397 yards and five touchdowns with a 75% completion rate on play-action passes this season.

“Clean eyes” is the best way to defend an offense that uses play-action at a premium.

“Our guys do a good job of eye discipline,” Gonzales said. “Almost too good sometimes.”

Running the football and play-action is how Cincinnati scored early against Arizona last season. The Bearcats ran the ball at will and scored on a passing touchdown when Arizona defensive back Treydan Stukes “comes up to the line of scrimmage, because they had so much success running the football” and gave up a touchdown, Gonzales said.

“So if you’re running the football, play-action kills you,” Gonzales said. “If you can’t run the football, it’s easier to see those things. If we don’t allow them to run it, it makes it harder. But I think they’re really good.”

Arizona linebacker Everett Roussaw, who made his UA debut last week and forced a fumble after missing the first three games with an undisclosed injury, said the Bearcats “do a lot of great stuff, but we have this saying, ‘Faceless opponent.’ It doesn’t matter who we play, we try to go out and redline in it. … It’s about us at the end of the day. It’s us versus us.”

Cincinnati’s high-powered rushing offense has led the Bearcats to four straight wins to start the season, including a win over Kansas State last week.

“We gotta have a different plan, a better plan to stop them,” Gonzales said. “They’re coming up here with a lot of momentum.”

Extra points

— Arizona quarterback Noah Fifita and UA men’s basketball coach Tommy Lloyd are the featured speakers at the Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl kickoff luncheon Thursday morning at Westin La Paloma.

— Satterfield said Fifita is “probably the best quarterback nobody talks about throughout the country.” Added Satterfield: “He’s fun to watch unless you gotta play him. He’ll certainly be a big challenge for us, trying to stop that.”

— Cincinnati is traveling to Tucson on Thursday and will practice somewhere in Tucson on Friday, Satterfield told reporters on Tuesday.