2018 Season Recap:
The last few seasons Arizona has been an up and down team; any sign of success has been followed not too far behind by failure. Last year Arizona started the season 0-2 with losses against BYU 28-23 and @Houston 45-18. They won the next two games against Southern Utah and Oregon State to bring them to 2-2. After losing to USC 24-21, Arizona hosted Cal and returned two interceptions for touchdowns to lead them to a 24-17 win.
The Wildcats had to go on the road for the next two games losing @Utah 42-10 and @UCLA 31-30. The next week they had their best win of the season beating Oregon 44-15 in a game where the Wildcats ran for 276 yards. Arizona beat Colorado 42-34 in their tenth game of the season to take them to 5-5.
Coming off their two best performances of the season Arizona had to travel to Pullman, the Cougars went on to put up 600 yards on offense beating the Wildcats 69-28. In their final game of the season Arizona played Arizona State at home in a game where they had a big lead in the fourth quarter they ended up allowing 20 unanswered points in the fourth quarter and losing 41-40. Arizona finished the season at 5-7 and missed bowl eligibility.
QB Khalil Tate finished the season with 2530 passing yards 26 passing touchdowns as well as 345 rushing yards and 2 touchdowns. RB JJ Taylor ran for 1485 yards and 6 touchdowns, backup RB Gary Brightwell ran for 536 yards and 3 touchdowns. On defense the Wildcats were led by sophomore linebackers Colin Schooler and Tony Fields with over 200 combined tackles.
2018 Offense: 31.3 points per game, 3063 passing yards, 2429 rushing yards, 29 passing touchdowns, 14 rushing touchdowns
2018 Defense: 32.6 points per game allowed, 3234 passing yards allowed, 1950 rushing yards allowed, 27 passing touchdowns allowed, 24 rushing touchdowns allowed
2019 Arizona Wildcats:
Head Coach: Kevin Sumlin (career record:91-50)
Coming into the 2019 season the Arizona Wildcats had a lot to look forward to returning a bunch of key starters on offense and defense. The offense will be led by Senior QB Khalil Tate and Junior RB JJ Taylor. JJ Taylor was 1st team all pac-12 in 2018. On defense they will be led by Junior Linebackers Colin Schooler and Tony Fields the team’s two leading tacklers from 2018. Senior CB Jace Whitaker and Junior CB Lorenzo Burns came into the season with a combined 9 career interceptions and have started the season with another 3 interceptions each.
Arizona started the season @Hawaii, it was a wild game where Arizona intercepted Hawaii Qb Cole McDonald 4 times but also let him throw for 378 yards and 4 TDs. On offense Khalil Tate threw for 361 yards and 3 TDs and ran for 108 yards. But he was intercepted twice, and was tackled 1 yard short of the end zone on the last play of the game as they lost 45-38.
Week 2 Arizona played FCS school Northern Arizona. They won the game 65-41 as both QBs Khalil Tate and Grant Gunnell threw for over 125 yards and multiple touchdowns each. The next week they played Texas Tech at home. Khalil Tate threw for 185 yards and a touchdown and ran for 129 yards and another touchdown. Arizona won 28-14.
Arizona played UCLA week 4 at home. QB Khalil Tate and RB JJ Taylor missed the game with leg injuries. Qb Grant Gunnell’s first career start and he had to carry the load, he threw for 352 yards and a touchdown. Last week Khalil Tate returned from injury to start against Colorado on the road. JJ Taylor made it back for the game but only had 1 carry for 4 yards. Khalil Tate had another big game throwing for 400 yards and 3 touchdowns. Arizona went on to win their 4th straight game 35-30 over Colorado.
Arizona has put up a lot of yards and a lot of points so far this season. They are averaging 37 points, over 300 yards passing, and 200 yards rushing per game. Khalil Tate has shown he can beat you with his arm as well as his feet, when healthy. JJ Taylor has been injured part of the season but could be ready this week, backup Gary Brightwell has played well in his absence averaging 6.5 yards per carry. 8 different Arizona players have more than 10 catches on the year showing their willingness to spread the ball around on offense.
The Huskies have to travel to Arizona and play late at 8 pm. They have also struggled with running quarterbacks this season none of which are any where near as dynamic as Khalil Tate. If JJ Taylor is fully healthy this could be a tough game for the Huskies. On the other hand, Arizona has struggled to keep other teams out of the end zone allowing 28 points per game. This could be just what the Huskies need to get their offense on track.
