USC vs. Arizona: Three things we learned from the Wildcats’ 48-14 loss to the Trojans

Rich Rodriguez listed some reasons to be optimistic moving forward

The Arizona Wildcats were torched in more ways than one on Saturday afternoon.

As the temperature on the field reached 137 degrees on a scorching Tucson day, the USC Trojans’ eviscerated the Wildcats 48-14 at a half-full Arizona Stadium.

The Trojans opened the game up with a 10-play, 73-yard touchdown drive and never looked back.

USC scored touchdowns on three of its first four drives, eventually taking a 34-7 lead at the half, thanks in part to some costly turnovers by Arizona.

Arizona Stadium was nearly vacant during the second half, and the Trojans cruised to victory.

It was a rough showing for the Wildcats, who are 2-5 on the season and 0-4 in Pac-12.

Here’s what we learned from the game:

Arizona’s offense had no chance

A 17-year-old true freshman quarterback playing against a Pac-12 defense is always going to be an adventure. It’s going to be a roller coaster ride of ups and downs, even if the quarterback is a former four-star recruit like Khalil Tate is.

There will flashes of brilliance at times, like when Tate scampered for 28 yards on Arizona’s first offensive play, but plenty of head-scratching plays to go along with that, as evident by the overthrown interception and fumble Tate gave up deep in Arizona territory.

Simply put, it’s hard to succeed against Pac-12 defenses when you’re as inexperienced as Tate is.

“He’s a true freshman so we wanted to rattle him a bit and get some hits on him,” USC head coach Clay Helton said after the game. “Watching film we knew he liked to run, I feel like he’s a run-first quarterback. We put some blitzes on him to make sure he couldn’t really get out of the pocket.”

Tate looked overmatched against the Trojan defense, finishing a dismal 7-of-18 for 58 yards and 15 carries for 72 yards.

“He's not the nervous type. He seemed okay during the week and at the beginning of the game, but there are times when a 17-year old freshman looks like a 17-year old freshman,” Arizona head coach Rich Rodriguez said. “He's a competitive guy, but it was a challenge.”

USC dared Tate to throw the ball and it worked out well, as he only completed one pass for four yards in the first half, plus committed two turnovers deep in Arizona territory that eventually led to USC touchdowns.

“A lot of the times he was seeing the right things but everything happens faster when you’re young like that,” Rodriguez said. “It’s a learning experience and he’ll grow from it.”

And since USC was loading the box, Arizona’s running game couldn’t get much going either.

Nick Wilson — who eventually left with an injury —only carried the ball six times for 47 yards (39 of them were on one play) and Zach Green had 14 carries for 46 yards.

The Wildcats averaged 4.6 yards per carry, but 3.2 yards per carry if you take away the two big runs by Wilson and Tate.

“Whenever I was in it was difficult because they brought six to the line,” Green said. “They were trying to stop the run and force the pass.”

Combine a 17-year old quarterback with a banged up backfield and a spotty offensive line, and you’re going to get an offense that struggles to move the ball consistently — if at all.

Add those issues to the fact that USC has a talented defense and Saturday’s result is what you get.

From the start, the Wildcats’ offense never had a chance.

Maybe conditioning is a problem?

We’ve seen Brandon Dawkins doubled over during a long drive (re-watch Arizona’s final drive in the fourth quarter of the Washington game) and same with Khalil Tate.

We’ve also seen plenty of injuries in not just this season, but last season too. It’s caused some to ask the question: are Arizona’s players in good enough shape to play the fast-paced style of football that they do?

Safety Tellas Jones isn’t convinced.

“We just gotta play better, condition better, and start better than what we have been doing,” he said. “Because it’s not working.”

Rodriguez disagrees though, particularly when it comes to injuries. He doesn’t believe the injury history the past two seasons is related to how his team conditions.

“It was the same as it was two years ago when we got on a nice run, but everybody stayed healthy and we played better,” he said.

Three reasons Rich Rodriguez is optimistic

Arizona is not a good football team and its 2-5 record and 0-4 Pac-12 record is indicative of that. The team lacks talent, is banged up, and has had a brutal schedule.

But there are three things that keep Rodriguez optimistic about the second half of the season.

“One, the attitude of the team, in particular the seniors,” he said. “I have a small senior class, but they’ve been really good leaders. I’m talking really good. And then certainly the young talent we have and the way they’re working, and then the third thing is recruiting.”

Meanwhile, Rodriguez wasn’t going to deny that his team has issues, some of which will take time to fix.

“I’m more of a realist. This is what it is,” Rodriguez said. “Some of the problems we currently have won’t get fixed over night. But they’re still on my watch. I’ve been here for four years, but we’re fixing some of them, I’ll promise you on that.

“We’ll get it right. We’ve taken a few lumps in the first half of the season but I feel pretty confident that we’ll be where we want to be.”

Arizona will look to start that turnaround on Oct. 29 when it hosts Stanford after its bye week.

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