Tuesday, August 4, 2015

Arizona football countdown: 30 days, the same number of touchdowns Anu Solomon had in 2014

Anu's successful freshman year has him on a record-setting pace.

From the 92-yard touchdown pass to Austin Hill against UNLV in his first collegiate game, the 85-yard touchdown pass to Cayleb Jones on the very first offensive play of his first road game against UTSA, and of course, the "Hill Mary", Anu Solomon was involved in a lot of scoring plays in 2014.

30 of them to be exact. 28 passing touchdowns and two rushing touchdowns.

30 touchdowns is the most by an Arizona quarterback since Matt Scott had 33 touchdowns in 2012 (27 passing TD's and six rushing TD's). And 28 passing touchdowns is the most by an Arizona quarterback since Nick Foles and Willie Tuitama both put up that same number in 2011 and 2007 respectively. I think it is notable that Foles and Scott both put up those numbers when they were seniors, and Tuitama was a junior.

For this reason, you can't help but marvel at just how good Anu's inaugural season was. Putting up that many touchdowns is an impressive feat for any quarterback, let alone a redshirt freshman playing through a nagging ankle injury.

It puts Anu on a record-setting pace. Assuming he stays for all four years, he is on pace to accumulate over 15,000 passing yards and 112 passing touchdowns. The current all-time record for passing yards is 10,011 by Nick Foles, and the all-time record for passing touchdowns is owned by both Foles and Tuitama with 67.

And he should only continue to get better.

Aside from having three years of eligibility remaining to terrorize the rest of the conference, he also represents the first time in Rich Rod's tenure at Arizona that he'll have a returning starting quarterback.

For once, instead of reconfiguring his offense to fit a new quarterback, Rich Rod can add to and perfect his offense from the previous season. It's that type of continuity and familiarity (Anu also gets four of his five top receivers back) that can help Solomon take his game to another level. Not to mention that the game usually gets easier for QB's as the years go on.

So while 30 touchdowns may seem like a lot now, I expect that number to increase in 2015 - though I'm sure Anu cares more about the number in the win column instead.

30 more days.



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