Arizona QB Solomon remains iffy for Saturday game vs. Oregon State
TUCSON, Ariz. -- The status of Arizona starting quarterback Anu Solomon for Saturday's game vs. Oregon State remains uncertain.
Head coach Rich Rodriguez, at his weekly press conference on Monday, said Solomon, who suffered a concussion in the Sept. 26 loss to UCLA, is "day-to-day. He did not do anything last night. The doctors and the medical staff will make the determination whether he can play or not this week."
Solomon did not play in Saturday's 55-17 loss at Stanford. Senior Jerrard Randall made his first career start, but Rodriguez said he was less than 100 percent because of hamstring injury. Randall was 15 for 28 passing for 178 yards and ran for 67 yards on nine carries.
"I thought he saw the field pretty well. He didn't have a lot of missed assignments mentally," Rodriguez said. "He didn't have the same kind of burst and explosiveness that he had earlier. That limited him somewhat, but hopefully he will be better this week."
Rodriguez said Sunday was spent in six to seven hours of meetings with coaches and players to address things that need to be corrected.
"I think our guys understand if you play poorly or play well you have to move on after 24 hours, so we have done that," he said.
"You just keep working. It's hard when you come back on Sunday at four in the morning and you have to turn around and have meetings and walkthroughs and stuff like that. The good thing about it is that you can move on. Every week is a better opportunity.
"Our guys have been pretty mature about everything, I have been pleased with their attitude. Yesterday's walkthrough was ok. Tomorrow will be good. I would be shocked and disappointed if our guys aren't competing as best as they can every week."
The Wildcats was overpowered by a more physical Stanford offense and rank last in the Pac-12 in total defense (453.2 yards per game) and 11th in scoring defense (35.2 points), but Oregon State shouldn't be quite as daunting a challenge. The Beavers, quarterbacked by freshman Seth Collins, are last in the conference in total offense (338.2 yards) and scoring (23.0).
Collins has run for 306 yards and passed for 581.
"He might be the fastest quarterback we play all year," Rodriguez said. "I have been really impressed with him.
"It is a completely different plan than what we saw last week, so everything that we worked on last week is going to be different than everything we are working on this week. That is the challenge for us defensively, we certainty have to play better. We haven't played well in a couple of weeks, so it is a challenge."
Rodriguez said he doesn't expect injured linebackers LB Derrick Turituri (hip), Scooby Wright (foot) or Haden Gregory (knee) to be back this week.
Saturday's game will kick off at 1 p.m. and be televised on FOX Sports 1.
