No B.J. Denker, no Ka’Deem Carey, no problem.
Arizona rolled up a school-record 787 yards of total offense, and blew out UNLV 58-13 at Arizona Stadium.
The previous record for yards in a game was 691, which was set against New Mexico in 1969.
Quarterback Anu Solomon was near flawless in his debut, completing 25 of 44 passes for 425 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions.
He threw two long touchdown passes near the end of the first quarter, and then added a 13-yard strike to DaVonte’ Neal with 50 seconds in the half to increase Arizona’s lead to 18 at halftime.
Then on the first play of the second half, Solomon found Austin Hill for a 92-yard touchdown.
Arizona added a two-yard touchdown rush, and then true freshman Nick Wilson had an 85-yard touchdown rush with 43 seconds left in the third quarter to make it 48-13 through three.
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As good as Arizona’s offense was, the scary part for UNLV was it took a bit for Arizona’s offense to get going.
Arizona punted on its first drive of the game and missed a 38-yard field goal on its second. But then Solomon found Nate Phillips for a 39-yard touchdown pass to make it 7-0. After Arizona forced UNLV to punt, Solomon hooked up with Samajie Grant for a 63-yard touchdown to give Arizona a two-score lead.
Arizona outgained UNLV 247-106 in the first quarter.
Phillips’ touchdown ended a back-and-forth start to the game that featured three punts and a missed field goal.
After allowing two first downs on the opening drive, the Arizona defense clamped down.
Linebacker Cody Ippolito, making his first career start, had a tackle-for-loss on UNLV running back Keith Whitely to set up a third and 17 for the Rebels. Blake Decker’s pass was then batted down at the line of scrimmage by Jordan Allen to force a punt.
DaVonte’ Neal called for a fair catch on his first opportunity and Arizona took over at the 10-yard line.
Arizona’s first drive stalled after a couple first downs and Drew Riggleman came on to punt. After stopping UNLV, Arizona got the ball back and again moved the ball.
Terris Jones-Grigsby had a 25-yard rush and Arizona got down to the 21-yard line. Anu Solomon had a wide-open Samajie Grant in the end zone, but over threw him on a 3rd and 7. Casey Skowron then came on for a 38-yard field goal, but hooked it to give the ball back to the Rebels.
Arizona’s offense got moving after that as Solomon settled in.
The freshman stopped the overthrows and, at one point, completed nine passes to eight different receivers.
UNLV hit a pair of long field goals in the second for its points of the half.
Scooby Wright led Arizona’s defense with seven tackles and a sack. Jarvis McCall and Jared Tevis each had five tackles in the first half.
UNLV gained 245 yards in the first half. Arizona finished with 393.
Arizona scored its final touchdown with 1:18 to play in the fourth when Connor Brewer, the fourth quarterback to play, scored on a three-yard rush.
Jones-Grigsby rushed for 124 yards on 13 carries. Wilson had 104 yards on seven carries.
Hill, in his first game since 2012, had 110 yards on three catches. Samajie Grant also went over 100 yards with four catches for 101.
Arizona will play next on Thursday at UTSA.
