Arizona loses QB, still drubs Utah
SALT LAKE CITY — Practicing at 6 a.m. in the sprinklers may not have made Arizona Coach Rich Rodriguez popular with his players, but it made them feel prepared.
Coming from sunny Arizona to stormy Utah, freshman Nick Wilson ran for 218 yards and three touchdowns as the Wildcats overcame an injury to quarterback Anu Solomon and pulled away from Utah 4210 Saturday.
“We were ready,” Wilson said. “That Thursday practice wasn’t really that bad. It was actually kind of fun.”
Not as fun as it was to run through and right by the Utes.
“I was fortunate the way the holes opened up the way they did. The offensive line made it easy for me,” Wilson said.
In heavy rain at times, Wilson had the most rushing yards ever for an Arizona freshman and topped the 1,000-yard mark this season. The Wildcats led 21-10 in the fourth quarter before Wilson scored on a 75-yard run.
Arizona (9-2, 6-2) reached nine victories for the first time since its 1998 Holiday Bowl team went 12-1. The Wildcats keep hope for a berth in the conference championship game as a matchup with No. 13 Arizona State looms next week.
“I’m really proud of our guys. We played a really good football team on the road with inclement weather,” Rodriguez said. “Normally we celebrate a win like this for 24 hours, but since we play our rival early, we’ll only enjoy it for 12 hours and move on.”
The Wildcats ran for 298 yards, the most allowed by Utah (7-4, 4-4) this season.
“We aren’t the most impressive team getting off the bus, but getting on the bus after games like this may be a little more impressive,” Rodriguez said.
Solomon threw for 58 yards and got his first career rushing touchdown in the first half. He was fitted for a walking boot at halftime because of an apparent injury to his right foot. He will be evaluated today and Monday.
Backup quarterback Jesse Scroggins only threw five times, completing three, as the Wildcats relied on their potent rushing offense and opportunistic defense to turn the game into a rout.
“I didn’t have to be a superhero or anything, we were already up and I needed to stay within the offense, the system,” said Scroggins, a senior and one-time USC quarterback who has not played meaningful minutes in a major college game. “I almost wanted to cry because it’s been five years.”
In other games involving Pac-12 teams, Marcus Mariota threw for 323 yards and 3 touchdowns and ran for 73 yards and another score in perhaps his last game at Autzen Stadium and No. 2
Oregon (10-1, 7-1) beat Colorado (2-9, 0-8) 44-10 in Eugene, Ore. … Remound Wright ran for four touchdowns, and
Stanford (6-5, 4-4) used a smothering defensive effort to rout rival California (5-6, 3-6) 38-17 in Berkeley, Calif., and clinch bowl eligibility. … Taylor Kelly passed for 4 touchdowns in his final home game, D. J. Foster rushed for 3 and Arizona State (9-2, 6-2) converted all 5 Washington State (3-8, 2-6) turnovers into touchdowns to beat the Cougars 52-31 in Tempe, Ariz. Redshirt freshman Luke Falk of Washington State passed for 601 yards but was intercepted four times and fumbled the ball away once.