The Wildcats are off with a bye this Saturday, so instead of a game preview, I have put together a notebook with five thoughts on my mind this week.
Coaches Hit the Recruiting Trail
One of the benefits of in-season bye weeks is that assistant coaches are able to hit the road recruiting. Arizona’s staff will spread out to their recruiting areas, visit top targets and take in high school football games this weekend. While the Cats were off a couple weeks ago, it was still a dead period for recruiting, which meant coaches were not able to hit the road. Now through November, “quiet period” recruiting rules are in effect, which means the following, according to the NCAA Eligibility Center:
September, October and November: College coaches can conduct evaluations during 42 days of their choosing (or 54 for Service Academies); coaches are not allowed to visit an athlete’s school on more than one calendar day during this time.
You can check out the @ArizonaFBall Twitter account to see where some of the coaches are headed. Offensive line coach Kyle DeVan, surely proud of his unit’s performance a week ago, appears headed to Florida.
DeVan has a commitment already from one lineman in the sunshine state (Woody Jean), while three linemen currently in the program hail from Florida as well. Guard Robert Congel, a transfer from Texas A&M, prepped at IMG Academy. Right tackle Paiton Fears is a Florida native and went on to Hutchinson Junior College in Kansas before transferring this spring. Lastly, freshman Jamari Williams from Fort Lauderdale appears to be a redshirt candidate this season.
Tate’s Second-Half Turnaround
In the first half of the Texas Tech game, quarterback Khalil Tate was off his A-game. He threw a pair of interceptions, lost a fumble and was unable to establish any sort of consistent connection with his receivers. He did, however, break off an 84-yard touchdown run on a perfectly-timed and well-designed play call. We will discuss that more later in this post.
While a cleaner first half for Tate may have improved Arizona’s chances of building a lead sooner, we have to take into account no player is going to play perfect every week. The question is how does a player respond when things aren’t going his way? I think Tate’s bounce-back in the third quarter was impressive and showed a maturity that perhaps we wouldn’t have seen a year ago.
On Arizona’s first possession of the third quarter, Tate found Jamarye Joiner for a 7-yard pickup on third-and-five. This was the second third down conversion of the possession, which started at the 13-yardline. While Tate came up a yard short on the next third down, leaving a fourth-and-one, Arizona was punting from its own 40-yardline instead of deeper in its own territory.
After the punt, Texas Tech started its next drive at its own 14-yardline. That’s the type of field position flip that a productive offensive possession can have even when points are not produced (we’ll get to field position later, too). Still, the Red Raiders hit one of their few big plays of the game on a 66-yard catch-and-run, and took the lead, 14-13, a few plays later.
However, Tate came right back with three more critical plays to regain the momentum. Facing a third-and-14 from his own 9-yardline, Tate dropped back to pass, scrambled, pulled the ball down and scampered 16 yards for a first down. Three plays later, he converted another third down, passing to Drew Dixon for 10 yards.
Later in the drive, on second-and-12, Tate finally hit on a deep ball, finding Cedric Peterson in stride for a 47-yard reception. That set up the go-ahead score, and the Wildcats never needed to pass again.
PFF College (@PFF_College) tweeted an interesting nugget earlier this week showing Oklahoma quarterback Jalen Hurts as the top-graded passer on third downs this season. Not far down the list was Tate, at No. 7. He had a couple of those big third-down throws in the third quarter against Texas Tech. Plus, he had the 16-yard run on another third down to get the chains moving on the go-ahead drive.
Hottest Run Play in College Football
If you’re on Twitter and don’t follow Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB), I highly recommend that you do. Feldman is reporter for FOX Sports and a writer for the Athletic, which is an excellent source of college football coverage at a nominal subscription price. In addition to being one of the nicest people to work with in the national media, Feldman is extremely well-connected to coaches and programs all over the country. When Bruce reports something, you know it’s coming from very good sources.
I mention this because Bruce wrote a column this week about the “Hottest Run Play in College Football”. Interestingly, it centers around Oklahoma offensive line/co-coordinator Bill Bedenbaugh, who served on Mike Stoops’ staff at Arizona from 2007-10. Bedenbaugh is well-connected in the Mike Leach/Air Raid offense coaching tree, and he’s been with the Sooners since 2013.
Feldman’s article highlights a specific run scheme the Sooners have been using to carve up defenses. Bedenbaugh calls it “GT”, which uses the guard and tackle from one side of the formation to pull as blockers. This scheme can be used in a variety of ways depending on the defense, and it’s something the Wildcats have utilized in their offense as well. Some of J.J. Taylor’s big runs against NAU were with Donovan Laie and Robert Congel pulling together from the left side of the line.
A quote from the Feldman article that really stood out to me was from Brandon Jones, the current run game coordinator at Houston who played for Bedenbaugh at Texas Tech. Jones, who was also an assistant at Tech under Kliff Kingsbury in 2017-18, said, “In the Big 12 everybody plays Bear, it’s like that defense’s Kryptonite.”
The “bear” was referencing a bear defense, which describes the crowding at the line of scrimmage with five or more defenders. Texas Tech, which runs a 3-3 front, often puts five or six at the line of scrimmage looking to disrupt run plays and get to the quarterback quickly on passes.
Arizona had a nice play dialed up for one of these looks in the second quarter, but instead of giving it to a running back, it was a designed quarterback counter on Tate’s 84-yard. It worked perfectly, and Laie, the tackle, basically had no one to block while Tate ran right past him – and the defense – for a touchdown.
Scheme aside, this play really changed the game as Texas Tech had to account for Tate as a runner the rest of the way.
Field Positioning for Success
One of the oddities to Arizona’s 2-1 start this season is the fact the Wildcats have lost the field position battle in all three games. Most glaring was last week against Texas Tech, when the Red Raiders had a 12-yard advantage in the average starting field position for their possessions.
I’ve tracked Arizona’s starting field position for several years, and it’s typically been a good indicator of success – or lack thereof. Either that trend will be reversed this season, or the Wildcats need to start winning the field position battle if they want success throughout the season.
Consider the following:
Record Based on Field Position (FP) Battle Since 2016
Win FP: 12-4
Lose/Tie FP: 5-19
Opponent Drive Start 28-yardline or worse: 14-3
Opponent Drive Start 29-yardline or better: 3-20.
So you will notice what was even more unusual about last week’s win over Texas Tech was that the Red Raiders not only won field position, but the average drive start was the 31-yardline (UA was 19-yardline). That’s outside a range of the 28-yardline and in that has also been a good predictor of success for Arizona.
A number of offensive, defensive and special teams factors contribute to field position in games, so we won’t dive any deeper into this for now. But it is something to keep an eye on going forward. As noted in my Mailbag earlier this week, field position is one of Bill Connelly’s five factors for most important college football stats.
Red-Blue Game
Believe it or not, the annual Red-Blue basketball game will take place Friday night at 7 p.m.
In what world do we live in that there’s a basketball game (scrimmage or not) held before the conference opener in football!?
Alas, the Red-Blue game is always a great recruiting opportunity, and this year will be no exception. Combined with the newcomers to the 2019-20 squad, the Red-Blue game will be something to keep an eye on this year. I don’t put any stock into the “game” itself, but seeing the fresh faces move around a bit gives you an idea of their skill set and potential.
Otherwise, the Wildcats are behind closed doors the entire month of October. There is a closed scrimmage scheduled against Saint Mary’s, which will be a good test for this team.
The first exhibition game and second opportunity for fans to see the Cats is Nov. 1 vs. Chico State. By then, Arizona football will be eight games into the year with Homecoming festivities taking place on campus.
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