Scouting Arizona

Football
1

Last year, Rich Rodriquez’s team went 7-6, they are ranked middle of the P 12. They return a 3rd year starter at QB, Solomon and a very good RB in Wilson who is 5’10 and 210 lbs. His backup is also small and quick.

The wildcats had a questionable defense that averaged 35 points against them in their last 7 games of 2015. They have a new DC in Marcel Yates

So expect their defense to improve but they still have average D backs and undersized linemen.

Rodriquez is the mastermind of the GFGH that Anae brought back to BYU. They love to quick hit the line with about 4 options for every play…the full back dive, the QB option of pitching out to the Hback or step back and throw the quick out or the QB just tucks the ball and runs. They will score on BYU but can they put up big numbers is the question.

BYU on its side have Hill and Williams and a new offense, We also have a improved Defensive backfield. Our only question is the linemen on both sides of the ball but fortunately Az is not the team to really test BYU’s line strength . We also do not have a proven field goal kicker but I don’t think the game will be that close and this will not be the week we will need to find that out. BYU has done poorly in the past 5 games against AZ with a 4-1 loss record.

The game is at the NFL Cardinals field, neutral in every sense of the word as BYU is out selling AZ for tickets.

BYU vs. AZ offense, advantage BYU
BYU vs. AZ defense, advantage BYU
Win-Loss record, advantage AZ
special teams, advantage AZ

Score…first one over 30 wins. Vegas has this one as over/under of 62 points with AZ -1 to -3 to win.
I have it as BYU 33-27 AZ.

2

Thanks for the analysis! With the cloak of secrecy on our Fall practices there just hasn’t been much to talk about except the upcoming games. Only a week to go! I crack up at some sports shows that try to predict how many games we’ll win having never watched BYU practice, let alone play a football game with our new coaches and new offense and defense. We’ll find out what we have soon enough.

3

I see Travis Tuiloma is still being held out to recover from a lisfranc foot injury. It took Taysom nearly a year to bounce back from his lisfranc injury and be considered 100% healthy. Travis was injured during the bowl game last year. I don’t know if Travis has used up his redshirt year but I think it might be the best option for him this year. Mendenhall talked about Tuiloma being the best defensive player on the team. You just hate to see a guy with that much talent miss several games and then maybe re-injure his foot because he tried to come back too soon.

4

Boy was I wrong about how the game would be run…Last second field goal, yikes.

I will say that when BYU was able to control Zona from the start, it was in the game plan to grind out a ground game…after all we out weighed them by 50 lbs along the line.

Look at what Wisconsin did to LSU.

BYU will have to air it out against Utah, they are just too big on defense. We will see a very different game on Sat. in terms of how BYU plays.