It's amazing to think about where the Stanford football program was the last time the Cardinal tangled with the Wildcats. Arizona travelled to Palo Alto on the first weekend of October back in 2012, just as they do this weekend, for a game that would turn out to be critical to the Cardinal's season. In Stanford's first game without Andrew Luck, the Cardinal squeaked out a 20-17 win over San Jose State, put after pounding Duke, 50-13, the following week and then upsetting #2 USC the week after that, things were looking brighter.
But the offense couldn't score a touchdown in a troubling 17-13 loss to Washington, and suddenly folks were calling for a change at the quarterback position. Josh Nunes had won the starting job late in camp, getting the nod over Brett Nottingham, it was beginning to look like he was out of his depth.
And then came the Arizona game. Nunes played the game of his life, passing for two touchdowns and running for three, something no Stanford quarterback -- not Plunkett, not Elway, not Luck -- had ever done. Not only that, on a day when his defense couldn't be trusted (Arizona piled up more than six hundred total yards), Nunes pulled the team out of a 14-point deficit with nine minutes to play to force overtime, and the Cardinal ended up with a 54-48 overtime victory, one of the more thrilling wins in Stanford history.
Here's how I closed my recap of that game:
It was a thrilling game and a great win for the Cardinal, but something must be said about Josh Nunes. After enduring ten days of questions about his ability as a quarterback, Nunes emerged with more than just confidence. His final stat line speaks volumes: 21 for 34 for 360 yards, two touchdowns, and no interceptions. When you add his three rushing touchdowns (it should be noted that only seven players in the history of Stanford football, running backs all, have run for more than three TDs in a single game), that gives Nunes a total of five scores. His passes were crisp, his decisions sound, his poise unquestioned.
Josh Nunes, this is your team.
As it turned out, of course, it was only is team for three more games. Kevin Hogan would eventually take over the reins and lead the team to the Rose Bowl, but that Arizona game made all of that possible.
What will this year's Arizona game give us? Well, the hope is that it won't be quite as dramatic. With a showdown against UCLA looming ten days from now, there could be mild concern that the Cardinal could look past the Wildcats, but I'm guessing they remember the lesson they learned the last time they faced a team with that nickname. Also, it doesn't hurt that Arizona will be without their best player, linebacker Scooby Wright. (How good is Wright? After last season he likely had to rent another room just to store all his hardware. He was named the Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year, and he won the Nagurski Trophy as well as the Lombardi, Badnarik, and Lambert Awards, giving him a clean sweep of all the national defensive awards. He also finished ninth in the Heisman Trophy balloting. Oh, and he was only a sophomore.)
Aside from Wright, the Wildcats could also be missing starting quarterback Anu Solomon, who's listed as questionable after sustaining a concussion last week against UCLA.
Considering all this, as well as the resurgence of the Stanford offense, I'm predicting an easy win for the Cardinal. The offense should score enough points to mitigate the effectiveness of Arizona's running game, and Stanford should cruise to a comfortable 37-16 win.
For another perspective, however, here's Shereen Ryan (@SportsCrazee) from Zona Zealots, who was kind enough to answer my questions about the Wildcats. (You can read my answers to her questions about the Cardinal over at her place.) And so without further ado...
GMC:
Stanford and Arizona haven’t matched up since 2012. Can you briefly describe how the past two seasons have gone for the Wildcats?
Zona Zealots:
The 2013 season was full of highs and lows and the Cats ending up with a 7-4 record in Rich Rod's second year as head coach. Arizona opened up with three pre-season wins, then upset No. 16 Washington in their first Pac-12 division game 31-13. The USC Trojans then beat the Cats by seven points, 38-31 in the next game, followed by three straight Pac-12 wins against Utah, Colorado, and Cal. The Cats would lose to UCLA by five points after attempting to stage a comeback. This would be the first of Mora's wins against Arizona; there are now four. A huge highlight was the upset of No. 5 Oregon Ducks by a whopping 26 points, 42-16. After this huge high, no one predicted what was to happen next as the Cats were overwhelmed by their rival Arizona State in the Duel in the Desert, 58-21. Arizona went on to beat Boston College in the 2013 AdvoCare V100 Bowl, 42-19. Arizona did not play Stanford.
Our writer Vince Senick summed up last season nicely: The 2014 Arizona Wildcats football team enjoyed a very successful ten win season that no one really expected. They earned a Fiesta Bowl berth, a Pac-12 South championship, brought the Territorial Cup back to Tucson for the first time since 2011, and saw the emergence of their future at running back, and possibly, quarterback. The season may not have ended like we would have liked, but it was still a huge success. This team was picked to finish fourth in the Pac-12 South and was nowhere near the AP top 25 polls to begin the season. The season ended with a Pac-12 South championship and, as of January 4, a N0. 10 ranking in the college football playoff rankings and AP poll. Arizona did not play Stanford.
So here’s the most important question — who’s playing quarterback? Since it might be too early to tell, can you explain the strengths and weaknesses of Anu Solomon and Jerrard Randall? Do you expect the offense to change appreciably depending on which quarterback is behind center?
Good question! I don't know if anyone knows. If you listen to Head Coach Rich Rodriguez, it seems he is leaning towards Jerrard Randall. Anu is "day-to-day" last we heard. We will find out if he is ready to go on Thursday. I have to think that either way, all the quarterbacks are getting reps, but daily practices have been closed for a couple of days.
Sophomore Anu Solomon has a great arm, and he is good at scrambling out of sticky situations. He has some exciting targets in Cayleb Jones, Samajie Grant, David Richards, and Nate Phillips who all played with him last year, not to mention Shun Brown. What we found out last week is that Anu's strong point is not fielding high snaps. High snaps from our offensive lineman turned center Cayman Bundage were cause for a number of broken plays under Solomon and a resulting fumble.
How are folks feeling about Rich Rodriguez? Are people comfortable having him as the face of the program?
WE LOVE RICH ROD!!!! We have every confidence in our head coach who has done so much in such little time. He finds the diamonds in the rough for Arizona, and they shine. To be honest, after the big loss on GameDay to UCLA, a number of fans called for the defensive coach to be replaced, but that's crazy, he is the same coach that orchestrated the run to the Pac-12 South championship. I urged fans to 'step back from the ledge.' It's one game, and we have a battered defense, who seemed to not be able to stop the run. I am sure they are working hard on getting that under control.
Who are the players we should look out for? Who are the stars?
Defense: One of our stars is out with a new injury for three weeks or more, and that star is Scooby Wright who plays a key role as leader of the defense. So watch for Jeff Worthy to take over where he left off in the game against NAU where the Cats won 77-13. Will Parks has made some exciting plays and tied Wright for seven tackles against UCLA. DeVonte Neal has also made some great plays.
What about the defense? How do you expect them to attack Stanford’s suddenly prolific offense?
The Wildcats need to plug the holes which existed during the UCLA game as the Cats will not be able to win with holes in their defense. A lot of us are predicting that the type of defense will change from the past. Usually the Wildcats play a 3-3-5 defense, and this worked for three pre-season games, but not against UCLA. With injuries, the defensive coaching staff will have to put in place whatever the Cats played in the second half of the game against the Bruins because they stepped up the effort and help hold the Bruins to only two touchdowns.
Finally, how do you expect the game to play out? Give me a final score and your best guess as to how we get there.
Usually, our Wildcats have a good first half, but an even better second half if Anu is playing. If Randall or Dawkins play, then we may see a few early mistakes, but hope that once they get some plays under their belt, they will settle down and play some ball. The Cats have proved that even when they lose, the still score points. They scored 30 points in the game last week against UCLA (56-30), which is more than Oregon and three other schools. In case you didn't know, Arizona head coach Rich Rodriguez calls his own plays. He will start out running the ball and see how far that gets the team, then throw in some passes. If Stanford pulls away, Rich Rod will call some gutsy or risky plays to try to even up the score.