Arizona Wildcats

Utah beats Arizona in Homecoming game, Wildcats coming home to play USC

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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The Arizona Football team traveled to Utah to take on the No. 24 ranked Ute’s attempting to extend their four-game winning streak. It wouldn’t happen.

Most predicted Khalil Tate would start the game for the Arizona Football team, but Rich Rodriguez told IMG Sports Network that if Brandon Dawkins felt good enough after warm-ups, he would start, so he did start.

Dawkins started off with a bang, threw a 75-yard touchdown pass to Shun Brown on the first play of the game. A couple stops by Cody Ippolito, Jace Whittaker and Arizona got the ball back. Both Offense and Defense started the game out strongly.

With that, we decided to do something different this time for a post-season post. We thought we would get insights from our team throughout the game. But as luck would have it, this game resembled the UCLA game. The Cats came out strong, their QB went down (along with their star MLB), Utah came out of halftime and scored the first touchdown.

Khalil Tate was thrown into the game to salvage it when Utah had the momentum to try to save the day; Arizona loses, but there were some beautiful plays by Tate and Samajie Grant, Brandon Dawkins and Shun Brown and Trey Griffey with both quarterbacks, that fans can hold onto if they chose to be positive.

First Quarter – Arizona 7 Utah 3

ZZ Expert Eric Townsend wondered  How is their kicker still playing? Isn’t he like 35 with four kids? Been playing with Utah since the Urban Meyer days.”

Peggy McClain, a ZZ contributor, chimed in with this in the first quarter about the Ute kicker’s age and Hogan from Stanford, “We need to recruit some soccer players from Australia.”

Of course, no Twitter DM Chat group with ZZ staff would be complete without a dig on ASU. Ryan Reyes couldn’t hold back, “To be frank, ASU’s uniforms always look as though they have just been ironed on by their moms.”

My notes: Two players back in the lineup or back showing up were DeAndre Miller and Paul Magloire, so both helped out in the first quarter. Cody Ippolito went down, and all the announcers kept us in the dark on how he was.

Jace Whittaker also shined in the first quarter breaking up passes:

Second Quarter – Arizona 14 Utah 12 (Arizona dominated on Offense, but didn’t show in the score)

Dawkins threw an interception, overthrew Shun Brown. “Dawkins looks apprehensive. His injury is having an effect. Need to bring in Tate to maybe open our offense a little and keep Utah guessing,” suggested Townsend. Just as Dawkins ran for seven yards.

“Really…..Murphy’s Law. I’ll take it,” rebuffed McClain.

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Dane Cruikshank broke up two touchdown passes in the end zone, “Cruikshank is a solid CB. We need more and bigger, physical corners like him,” said Townsend.

After the second quarterback switch back to Dawkins, ZZ Contributor Mark Barrera couldn’t hold back, “So you put Tate in at the half yard line, then don’t play him next series… hmm. Make a decision and stick with it.”

Townsend pretty much agreed, “Don’t tell me we wasted his redshirt to play him a quarter and a couple of series. In other words, [should have] just play Werlinger all game vs. UCLA, it’s not like we were going to win, down 24-7.”

My notes: Zach Green got a chance and ran a bit, 3-15, but made at key moments. Michael Barton continued his tackle making trend causing a turnover on downs. Jace Whittaker broke up a long pass by Utah, but then it was followed up by a made pass for 59-yards. Yes, it’s a pattern, brilliant defensive plays followed by brilliant misses.

Brandon Dawkins, after a Rich Rod time out and play call, ran in a 6-yard touchdown 11-41 rushing 5-7 160 yards passing.

Dawkins came out, seemed a bit hurt, so Khalil Tate came in at QB, but had to dig the Cats out of the end zone. Needless to say, Pasoni Tasini saw the whole and sacked Tate for a two-point Safety.

Against all penalty odds, Utah scored their first touchdown. Utah had committed 11-63 yards in the first half. One positive, the Arizona offense made four out of six third-downs!

Third Quarter – Utah 29 Arizona 14

Townsend had some insight on what would help the team. Unfortunately, it’s obvious, “We need to figure out special teams. Just heard Lamont say our Avg. field position is like our own 17; theirs is their own 34.”

Townsend, “Is it 2017 yet? Horrible. Awful. Horriful!”

McClain, “Disaster.”

My notes: Well, Utah scored on their first drive out of halftime just like the UCLA game. Players always point to that the team that scores first in the second half usually wins. Trey Griffey caught a beautiful pass just.

Tate came in for Dawkins and threw an interception. On the next series, he showed how strong he was and how he can turn sacks into positive yards. Glimmers of the future.

The stadium was so loud; the offensive line had to figure out how to communicate the snap. Jacob Alsadek helped Nathan Eldridge in the second half to avoid penalties.

Quarter 4 – Utah 36 Arizona 23 – Utah Wins

Contributor Preston Collins turned on his TV and gave us his late game thoughts. “At this point, simply hoping we don’t lose some of the impact players from next year’s class.”

Townsend’s final comments explain the frustration we all felt, “It’ll get better, just frustrating. The special teams unit needs major attention, and so does strength and conditioning. Teams get injuries, it happens, but this bad, every year?”

My notes:  Khalil Tate marched his team down the field like I have watched him do a million times. But failed on the third down on a confused missed play, Griffey was available in the end zone.

Rich Rod came unglued while Brandon Dawkins went into the locker room. Arizona kicked a successful field goal.

Brandon had got hit in the head on a penalty play. Utah’s No. 19, seem to hit his helmet on Dawkins helmet. There was no call on the play, yet our QB went to the locker room.

The bright light in this quarter was a 63-yard touchdown pass from Tate to Samajie Grant. Beautifully placed ball.

Our ZZ DM chat went quiet, not much but sadness from our crew. Queue Wildcats fans who started tweeting about basketball.

Coach Rich Rod sound bites post-game, all very good points. You gotta give it to him; he knows what’s wrong and who not to blame:

A consensus all around the ZonaZealots staff: Rich Rod should have started Khalil Tate for consistency, leaving Brandon Dawkins to come in just in case of injury. The noise in the stadium was a factor, and a couple of huge rushing plays by the Utes left our defense with their hands open facing the sky like ‘what just happened.’

Just like the Lakers who have a young team, so they have a hard season, then they get a top two draft pick, and there is some life in the locker room. Rodriguez has a phenomenal class coming in 2017, and maybe Wildcats fans just need to be patient, some more. BearDown Arizona!

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