Arizona vs. Colorado: Wildcats players of the game

Who were the stars of the game for Arizona?

The Arizona Wildcats started out hot, than got extremely cold until the fourth quarter against the Colorado Buffaloes. But a late quarterback change was enough of a shift on offense to give the Wildcats a 38-31 win in Boulder.

Here are the players that were behind that win and earn our Players of the Game awards:

Offense: Jerrard Randall

I can't believe I'm saying this, but Arizona doesn't win that game without Jerrard Randall replacing Anu Solomon. True, Solomon was the one who actually threw the go-ahead touchdown pass, but Randall put him in that position. The Wildcats had gone nine-straight drives without putting points on the board before Jerrard came in. After he came in? Three-straight touchdowns.

He ended up with 81 rushing yards on 11 carries, but, and this is shocking, he completed each and every single one of his pass attempts. 3-for-3, primarily to Cayleb Jones, for 42 yards. Is Jerrard Randall a passing threat? No. But if he can do that, then all of the sudden that opens up holes for him and Jared Baker, and gives Arizona the victory.

Defense: Jack Banda

With Anthony Fotu suspended for the rest of the season, the guy who got his chance on Saturday was Jack Banda, and he made the most of it. Banda recorded two sacks, both coming in crucial spots late in the game. Those were his only two tackles of the night, but man were they important.

Special teams: Abraham Mendivil

Wait, what? Who is this you may ask. Well, Mendivil is the one who downed the ball on the one after Arizona had to punt because of weird timeouts and false starts while trying to draw Colorado offsides on a fourth and one with 46 seconds left. The false start forced RichRod to punt, and the punt pinned the Buffs 99 yards away from the tying touchdown thanks to Mendivil. And considering Jonathan Haden had a horrible brain fart earlier in the game trying to down the ball at the one, and a punt bounced off of Trey Griffey's back, I think Mendivil is definitely the right choice here.

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