Morning Wrap: Oregon Wins Pac 12 and CFB Playoff Spot

((ht: foxsports.com))

So we know at least one of the four teams in the inaugural College Football playoff.

The Oregon Ducks assured themselves of a berth in the playoff Friday night after destroying Arizona 51-13 in front of a really small Pac 12 Championship crowd in Santa Clara, California.

All world Ducks QB Marcus Mariota improved his Heisman bid by throwing for 303 yards and 2 TD's. He enhanced it by running for 33 yards and 3 more TD's.

The maligned Oregon defense held Arizona to 224 yards while the offense did all the flashy stuff.

The win moved Oregon to 12-1 on the season and like we said, pretty much guaranteed them a shot at the National title.

Arizona, who had a resurgent season under head coach Rich Rodriguez, dropped to 10-3 and will likely get a solid bowl game draw.

Your highlights from FOXSports:

Arizona Bears Down On The Territorial Cup & Wins Pac 12 South

All the chips fell for the Arizona Wildcats today.

UCLA was upset at home by Stanford 31-10.

Nobody in Arizona Stadium knew that because Wildcat head coach Rich Rodriguez ordered that the score of that game not be shown on the stadium scoreboard.

All the focus was on Arizona State.

Then today at Arizona Stadium the Wildcats defeated arch rival Arizona State 42-35 to claim the Pac 12 South title.




“I didn’t know if this would happen in year three." Arizona head coach Rich Rodriguez said.  "But I knew it could happen, otherwise I wouldn’t have come here."




Did you hear what Rich Rod said?  He told the players in the locker room the Wildcats may have three games left to play.

Rodriguez believes Arizona has an outside chance of breaking into the College Football Playoff.

But first thing's first.

Here we are, we’re where we want to be, playing for a Pac‐12 Championship."Rodriguez said. "Our goal every year is to win the Pac‐12 South and then win the Pac‐12 Championship. We don't talk about much after that because we don't know.”

Arizona State could never figure out Nick Wilson who was the top Cat on the field.  Wilson rushed for 178 yards and three touchdowns to lead the way to the Pac 12 Championship game for Arizona.

Morning Wrap: UCLA Shuts Down Arizona

((ht: espn.com))

This season hasn't lived up to expectations for the UCLA Bruins so far. But Saturday night may have provided some redemption.

The Bruins rode a strong defensive performance to a 17-7 win over the 12th ranked Arizona Wildcats late Saturday evening.

The defense held Arizona's high powered offense to only 255 yards and an early touchdown.

Meanwhile UCLA QB Brett Hundley, ran for 131 yards and threw for 189 for the 22nd ranked Bruins who moved to 7-2, 4-2 in the Pac 12.

The win also threw the Pac 12 wide open, with everyone but Oregon having 2 losses in the conference.

Again ESPN gives us the highlights:

Southern California Survives In Tucson 28-26, Missed Last - Second Field Goal Dooms Wildcats

Southern California had a 21-6 lead mid-way through the third quarter.  Then the game was wild.

Arizona's Jared Baker would not be denied the end zone all three of his touchdowns in the second half.

Baker's third touchdown with just over a minute left in the fourth quarter had the Wildcats trailing by two.


Then Arizona recovered the on side kick.

Wildcat kicker Casey Skowron had a chance to win the game with a 36 yard field goal.  It was wide right.


"God’s got a plan, and we’re not exactly sure what his plan is for us yet but he is testing our will, leadership and character."  USC head coach Steve Sarkisian said.  "I couldn't be more proud of our team, just to continue to fight."

"Losing on the last play is not easy. "Arizona head coach Rich Rodriguez said.  "We just didn't make a play at the end to win it."

Southern California should give it's game ball to running back Javorius Allen who rushed for 205 yards and three touchdowns.

Allen's third touchdown, a one yard run late in the third quarter to give the Trojans a 28-13 lead proved to be the game winner.

Arizona quarterback Anu Solomon put up some big numbers.  Soloman attempted 72 passes vs Southern California, completed 43 of his throws for 395 yards and a touchdown.

"Anu Solomon competed well."  Rodriguez said.  "Everyone says he struggles and doesn't make every play, but we put a lot on the guy. He didn't make all the big plays in the first half, but for a redshirt freshman playing in a big arena, Solomon has accounted for himself pretty well."

Hail Mary Pass A Game Winner For Arizona

Arizona was down 28-6 at halftime to California at home.

Rich Rodriquez must of had a hell of a halftime speech.

“There wasn’t any panic at halftime,” Rodriguez said. “We’re in shape. I told the guys before the game that we were going to have to play for 60 minutes.”

Arizona outscored California 43-27 in the second half and that would have been a story however the way the game ended trumped all of that.

With the Wildcats down 43-45 on the games final play Anu Soloman, who threw for a school record 520 yards, threw the Hail Mary and Austin Hill caught it to win the game for Arizona 49-45.


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"Anu (Solomon) threw a great ball and I'm just happy I was able to make the
catch." Hill said.  "The whole time I was hoping that I wouldn't get bumped into or anyone land on top of me so I could secure the catch. It means a lot to me that I was able to secure the catch."

"Winning on a Hail Mary is so improbable." Arizona head coach Rich Rodriquez said.  "At first you are exhilarated and then you're thinking ‘how did that just happen?’ I'm so happy for Austin Hill who is a senior that bounced back. You're happy for Anu Solomon) who was off tonight, but kept battling and executed the last play. I'm happy for   the people who stayed and watched the game. It's a good day to be an Arizona Wildcat."

"We’re sorry we didn’t find a way to win the ball game tonight, but I told them it won’t ever happen again." California quarterback Sonny Dykes said.  "It is part of growing up, and getting a program turned around.”

Oh, by the way, it might have taken a Hail Mary, but Rich Rod is 4-0 at Arizona. Michigan isn't 4-0.
— Pete Fiutak (@PeteFiutak) September 21, 2014

Arizona Barely Beats Texas-San Antonio 26-23. Opportunity Missed For Roadrunners

Texas-San Antonio had a chance to take a major step in their young football program Thursday night
at the Alamodome but the Arizona Wildcats proved to be up for the challenge.

Arizona running back Nick Wilson's 174 yards rushing and Casey Skowron's four field goals was the difference for the Wildcats defeating the Roadrunners 26-23.


It was a missed opportunity for UTSA to make a splash nationally and as far as a moral victory for the Roadrunners, don't go there.

"We definitely feel like we let one get away." UTSA quarterback Tucker Carter said.  "We're not going into any of these games trying to keep it close or anything like that. We expected to win that game tonight and couple plays away. But, yeah, everyone's disappointed. That is the way it is when you leave your heart out there and you wind up short."

"We knew it was going to be a battle."  UTSA tight end Davd Morgan II said.  "Arizona is a hard team, and we played a tough game and fell a little short in the end."

"There wasn't one player in there happy with playing this team close, and I think that's the
thing that's kind of what we're all about." UTSA head coach Larry Coker said.

Arizona outgained UTSA in total offense 454 yards to 349 and Wilson, a freshman starting for the first time was outstanding running the ball for the Wildcats.  It was Wilson's two yard touchdown run before halftime that swayed things Arizona's way.

It was one of the few red zone trips by Arizona that ended in the end zone.

"We settled for way too many field goals and didn't execute down in the red zone," Arizona head coach Rich Rodriguez said. "There are so many things we need to clean up and get better at. But I didn't see anyone lose their poise. We took their best shot."

Arizona Students Riot in Streets After Loss?

((ht: kgun))

Okay, maybe we are just old, but the whole thing about college students rioting and destroying things after a game makes no sense to us.

A pretty large group of University of Arizona students inexplicably hit the streets of Tuscon near campus and were met with a pretty large group of police officers there to disperse them. This on the heels of the Wildcats losing to Wisconsin in overtime for a shot at going to the Final Four.

Of course once on the streets of Tuscon, chaos ensued and fifteen or so students were arrested and a handful were injured as police launched pepper spray into the crowd.

If there's a reason that fans do things like this, we'd love to know. Though we supposed this isn't as silly/stupid as the whole couch burning thing that University of Kentucky students did Friday night after their win, which only got them to the Elite 8.

Why riot? Why destroy stuff? Because you can? Because it's a chance to burn off steam and vent? Once upon a time, back in the dark ages, we went to college and don't remember that being a prerequisite for the school's sports teams having success.

But then again, we're old.

Here's your TV story from KGUN-TV in Tuscon:

Bad Night To Be A Miller... Florida And Wisconsin Advance

((HT: March Madness TV))

Two Millers had a chance to get to the last four teams to play this season in men's college basketball...

And neither will get to North Dallas...

Archie Miller and his Dayton Flyers lost by ten to Florida, 62-52, so Billy Donovan and the Gators go...
In the last game of the night, Sean Miller had a chance to get there- first surviving regulation with Wisconsin and playing another five minutes. But, the extra five ended really goofy...

An offensive foul call down one led to an inbounds pass that had a 37-minute review before a reversal that gave Arizona another chance at getting the game-winner...


Actually, in all fairness, the review wasn't 37 minutes... but it seemed that long...

But they did get it right...

But, more interestingly, the offensive foul call was the more debatable of the two calls by officials late-late-late in the free hoops portion of the program...

Props to Bo Ryan and to the B1G- the conference has a team in the last three games of the year for the 11th time in last 16 years - but Michigan State in 2000 is the only team to get a title...

UPSET: #1 Arizona Goes Down To Cal

Justin Cobb is a household name Sunday morning because he hit this fadeway jumper with less than a second left to lift California to a 60-58 upset of #1 Arizona.

Thanks Pac-12 Networks:

“We talked about." Cobb said. "If we got a stop no timeout, just run it straight into a pick-and-roll and see if we could get to the basket, but [Kaleb] Tarczewski did a good job and I couldn’t get there so I just stepped back and shot a good shot and it was able to go in for me.”

"Justin was feeling good offensively."  California head coach Mike Montgomery said.  "He really got off his feet on the last shot and rose up. It was a little bit like Oregon. It looked good the whole time.”

"We'd always found a way to be on the positive end of it," Arizona head coach Sean Miller said. "Tonight in that same moment, we didn't make the shots and we didn't get the big stop."

In the locker room the Bears celebrated big time.

Thanks Pac-12 Networks:



Early in the game Arizona lost Brandon Ashley while going for a rebound to a foot injury.  Wildcat head coach Sean Miller is expecting the worse.

“It’s a foot injury. It looks to be broken,” Miller said. “I don’t think we can say that it is right now just because we have to get the X-rays and overall. But certainly an injury that’s going to have him out a period of time, if not for the entire year."

With Arizona's loss to California you can expect Syracuse to move up to the top spot in the AP Poll that will be released Monday afternoon.

#1 Arizona Allows Only 25 Points To Washington State

It may not be such an understatement to say that Washington State's game against #1 Arizona was over at tip off.

The Wildcats swarmed the Cougars winning the game 60-25.

That's right, Washington State could only score 25 points on the top ranked Wildcats.

Thanks Pac-12 Network


Thanks ArizonaWildcats



"Arizona jumped on us early and it never really ended." Washington State head coach Ken Bone said.

Washington State was 9-45 from the field shooting only 20 percent for the game and the Cougars 25 points is their lowest since January 15, 1938.

Junior Longrus led Washington State in scoring with six points.  He was the only Cougar with multiple field goals made in the game.

“Obviously we feel good about our defensive performance." Arizona head coach Sean Miller said.  "One thing I wanted to point out is Washington State was clearly playing without two players."

Those two players Washington State was missing was their leading scorer DaVante Lacy who had an emergency appendectomy and another starter Dexter Kernich-Drew who is recovering from a concussion.

“It seemed like it just snowballed and as it snowballed one thing that was impressive was Arizona being able to sustain a high level of intensity, especially through the half,” Bone said. “Their defense was still good even as the score became lopsided.”

A Long Day For BC In Shreveport

((HT: Pac-12 Digital/ESPN))

The ACC is having their problems this year in bowl games- and they may have more tonight, depending on the level of motivation of JFF...

Ka'Deem Carey and the son of some guy named Griffey had a big day for RichRod and Arizona as they rolled Boston College in the Independence Bowl, 42-19...

Arizona never trailed and was up 42-6 in the fourth quarter. The Wildcats held BC's Andre Williams to only 75 yards, but that figure still has him as the 5th best all-time in NCAA history with 2,177 yards.

William Parks put a stomp on the game early with this 69-yard pick-6 to give Arizona a 14-6 lead and they never, really, looked back...

Ducks Lay an Egg: Arizona Stomps Oregon 42-16

Well, if you really wanted to still be taken seriously University of Oregon, this probably was not a good way to go about it.

The Ducks squared off with a feisty Arizona Wildcat squad Saturday afternoon, and Arizona sent them quacking with a 42-16 win. And while Oregon could arguably state they were blinded by the Arizona uniforms, that argument would be a wash considering some of the jersey's they sport their own selves.

Arizona kept the ball for 35 minutes and ran for 304 yards in their dismantling of a seemingly uninterested Oregon squad. Ka'deem Carey got 48 carries, ran for 206 yards and 4 Touchdown's to lead the Wildcats to the biggest win in the Rich Rodriguez era.

The win moves them to 7-4, 4-4 in the Pac 12, as for Oregon, they may have gagged away a potential Rose Bowl berth while dropping to 9-2, 6-2 in the Pac 12.

ESPN provides the highlights:

Coach "O" Brings Fun Back To USC Football, And A Win Over Arizona 38-31

[HT: Los Angeles Times]

Could it be it's fun to play football again at Southern California?

It sure seems that way with USC's 38-31 win over Arizona.



Interim head coach Ed Orgeron has brought is Cajun enthusiasm to L.A. and it seems to be catching on.  You can chalk that up to what a difference a coaching change can make.

There were Trojans with "Coach 'O'" painted on their chest and it seemed USC was playing with more passion than before athletic director Pat Haden made the move to change coaches.

“Coach O was awesome,” Haden said to the Los Angeles Times. “An entirely different energy for our team.

“It was just fun watching our kids having a blast. The game is supposed to be a game of joy and they played with joy tonight.”

"I had a blast," Orgeron said.  “I think I woke up happy for the first time in my life [Thursday] morning, besides the day I married my wife and had my kids.

“I’m not a happy guy, but today I was happy. Just a feeling of happiness of being able to represent USC.”

Leave it to Arizona head coach Rich Rodriquez to bring up USC's former head coach.

"And give Lane Kiffin credit. Lane recruited those guys and their talented and they played hard." Rodriquez said.

They played hard for Coach "O".

Southern California may have found another star receiver in Nelson Agholor who caught seven passes for 161 yards and a touchdown.  Agholor had to step up against Arizona with All-American receiver Marqise Lee out with a knee injury.

USC quarterback Cody Kessler was an efficient 15-30 passing for 297 yards and a touchdown and no interceptions.

“It was awesome,” Kessler said to the Los Angeles Times as he left the field. “It was great to come out and make a statement. I think people are excited about USC football again.”

Notre Dame is next up for the Trojans.