UA football: Report card for UTSA game

Quarterbacks

C+: Solomon was average Thursday night. He completed just more than half of his passes and still threw for 231 yards and a touchdown. But there were a lot of overthrows, misthrows and miscommunications with his receivers. Those are the types of things you expect from a freshman making his first career road start. He got some help from his receivers early, notably Cayleb Jones on the 85-yard touchdown, but after that, there weren’t many big plays. He gets bumped up to the C+ because he protected the football. His ability to make smart decisions and not make the egregious mistake is one of the biggest reasons he won the job out of camp.

Running backs:

A: Nick Wilson easily earned an A for the running backs. The true freshman was incredibly impressive on the road against a physical defense that is good against the run. Wilson averaged 5.8 yards per carry and was stellar throughout his 174-yard game. His 30 carries tied a UA freshman single-game mark. He was smart at finding the holes, and also showed a burst of speed once he reached the second level of the defense. It’s pretty easy to see he has a bright future, and the UA should be really solid at this position once Terris Jones-Grigsby returns from an ankle injury. Jared Baker, who had 32 yards on four carries, including a 17-yard scamper, was also solid.

Wide receivers

B-: Jones’ play on his 85-yard score automatically puts this group in the B range. Like Austin Hill and Samajie Grant last week on their long touchdowns, Jones did all of the work. He threw a couple of stiff-arms, got defenders off of him and took a short pass to the end zone for a touchdown. He finished with four catches for 143 yards and the touchdown and showed why college coaches were drooling over him coming out of high school. Grant was solid yet again with six catches for 54 yards. He might be the most reliable receiver on the team and has already made a lot of plays for the UA through two games. The rest of the group — Hill, David Richards, Nate Phillips and Trey Griffey — were quiet, but not bad. The team missed DaVonte’ Neal, who was out with a banged up ankle.

Offensive line

B-: The front five wasn’t as good as it was against UNLV, but the group was still solid. UTSA’s front is big and physical and the line had its hands full. There were a few too many false starts penalties for a veteran line in a loud environment, but it obviously could have been worse. Lene Maiava, who started at right guard for Jacob Alsadek, seemed to get better as the game went on. Center Steven Gurrola’s high snap in the end zone that eventually resulted in a safety proved to be costly. Tackles Mickey Baucus and Fabbians Ebbele were mostly steady as was guard Cayman Bundage. Overall, with a freshman quarterback and running back, this group made it easier on them.

Defense

Front six

C-: Even though UTSA quarterback Tucker Carter was sacked three times, he faced very little pressure on the majority of his 33 pass attempts. The UA’s ends weren’t able to get anything going off the edge, and Arizona’s outside linebackers had a tough time defending UTSA’s tight ends. The grade is lifted a bit because of the two men in the middle, Jeff Worthy and Scooby Wright. Worthy did a nice job staying active in the middle of the line and drawing attention from UTSA’s line. Wright had 11 tackles and a sack and made every open field tackle he had a chance on. But Arizona has to find a way to generate more pressure up front and get some more speed at the outside linebacker spots.

Back five

B: Considering the amount of time Carte had to throw on most attempts, holding him to 228 yards is a good indication the back five had a strong night. Jared Tevis was the headliner. He had 16 tackles 1 ½ tackles-for-loss and a key fourth-quarter interception. There was confusion on UTSA’s first quarter passing touchdown, but it’s hard to know whose miscue it was. Tevis was very strong against the run and made plays all over the field. Will Parks also had a good game with seven tackles including 1 ½ tackles-for-loss. Jourdon Grandon had five tackles and was fine. Cornerbacks Jonathan McKnight and Jarvis McCall seemed to be better than last week. Though it was interesting that McCall was taken out for the final two series in favor of Cam Denson.

Special teams

A: Casey Skowron gets this unit to an A easily. The redshirt junior was clutch and accurate in Thursday’s win. He was a perfect 4 for 4 on field goal tries, hitting from 38, 23, 44 and 28 yards. Arizona’s offense struggled big-time in the red zone, but Skowron picked the group up. He had two touchbacks on eight kickoffs, but showed plenty of strength. Drew Riggleman averaged 39.4 yards on five punts. He had a couple he’d like to have back, but another two that were solid. Nate Phillips handled punt return duties with no DaVonte’ Neal. He had an 18-yard return that would have been longer had it not been for a holding penalty.