UCLA’s 56-30 win over Arizona was just minutes old when an ESPN cameraman cinched up his cargo shorts and headed for the Arizona Stadium exit. ABC’s broadcast booth was bare a half hour later, the network’s fixed-jib robo-camera packed up and sent to the next destination.
By the time the last worker left Arizona Stadium, it was as if Saturday had never existed.
Who knows when Tucson will be the epicenter of the college football world again?
The ninth-ranked Bruins pounded the 16th-ranked UA Saturday night, declaring themselves one of the teams to beat in the Pac-12 South. Arizona (3-1 overall, 0-1 Pac-12) went back to the film room — and back to the drawing board — in search of answers.
The Wildcats may need a quarterback, too.
Starter Anu Solomon left the game in the second quarter with an apparent head injury, and did not return. Jerrard Randall, a gifted runner, took over, but Arizona’s offense soon became one-dimensional. Randall rushed 16 times for 128 yards and a touchdown, but completed just 4 of 16 passes for 45 yards and a score. He was also intercepted once.
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Coach Rich Rodriguez said Randall was “pretty composed,” though it’s unclear if the LSU transfer is in the UA’s short-term plans. Rodriguez said after the game that was unsure about Solomon’s status, in part because he had yet to meet with the quarterback. Solomon completed 4 of 10 passes for 55 yards and a score before leaving the game, but was part of two turnovers. He was unable to chase down a bad snap and UCLA recovered, eventually scoring a first-quarter touchdown. Solomon later fumbled a handoff to Nick Wilson, leading to another Bruins score.
UCLA outgained the Wildcats by just 29 yards — 497 to 468 — but dominated every other statistical category. Coach Jim Mora’s team was a perfect 7 for 7 with seven touchdowns in the red zone, and converted 11 of 15 third downs.
Arizona’s offense hummed along for most of the game, but simply couldn’t score. The Wildcats delivered just two touchdowns in five red-zone appearances; kicker Casey Skowron missed a 29-yard field goal as the first half ended.
“You have to score when you get into the red zone to win a game like this,” Rodriguez said. “We missed a field goal and had a couple turnovers, and we did not execute on third or fourth downs. …
“But Jerrard competed.”
Even before Solomon’s injury, the Wildcats were seemingly doomed to defeat by a dynamic UCLA (4-0, 1-0) team.
Thomas Duarte caught a 35-yard touchdown pass from freshman quarterback Josh Rosen, and Paul Perkins punched in a 16-yard score after UCLA recovered a UA fumble, and the Bruins led 14-7 at the end of the first quarter. Perkins finished with just 85 rushing yards, but scored three touchdowns, all in the first half. UCLA led 42-14 at halftime and 49-23 at the end of the third quarter.
“We did not tackle well,” Rodriguez said.
The Wildcats received a defensive boost when All-America linebacker Scooby Wright, out since tearing his lateral meniscus in the team’s Sept. 3 opener, returned. Wright did his part, cleaning up receivers and running backs to the tune of seven tackles, but couldn’t will the Wildcats to stop UCLA’s playmakers. Rosen completed 19 of 28 passes for 284 yards and two touchdowns. UCLA’s stable of running backs combined for 213 yards and six touchdowns.
“They came out to play,” nose tackle Sani Fuimaono said, “and they played.”
Saturday’s performance was a disappointing end to one of the most promising days in program history.
The morning began with a taping of ESPN’s “College GameDay” on campus, an event that brought a few thousand fans to the UA mall. The Zona Zoo began filling into Arizona Stadium two hours before kickoff; the student section was completely full by 4:30 p.m.
By halftime, the sleepy crowd had thinned. The hope of future “GameDays,” more nationally televised games and repeating as Pac-12 South champions had faded.
Arizona will travel to Stanford next week, but who knows where the Wildcats are really headed? Last week, the Wildcats set program records for points, total yards and rushing yards in a runaway win over Northern Arizona.
On Saturday, they looked overwhelmed by a UCLA team that now leads the Pac-12 South standings — and holds the edge in any potential tiebreakers should Arizona rebound.
The loss was “definitely out of character,” UA receiver David Richards said.
Richards was asked how.
“Well,” he said, “we didn’t play good.”
