Grant Gunnell tied his career high with three touchdown passes, including the go-ahead score with 1:35 to play. He threw for 286 yards, the second-highest total of his career. But he knows he could have played better. Gunnell overthrew Jamarye Joiner on the third play from scrimmage, resulting in an interception that set up the Trojans for a touchdown. He also held the ball too long on several occasions, leading to four sacks. Gunnell said he got “greedy” against USC’s zone coverages and should have dumped the ball to his outlets. To his credit, Gunnell exploited the defense with his legs, gaining seven first downs on rushes. In all, a promising start to his second campaign.
Gary Brightwell was the main man here as the Wildcats shrunk their rotation. The senior had a career-high 24 touches for 132 scrimmage yards. As Kevin Sumlin put it afterward: “He moved the pile when there was nothing there. And when there was something there, he hit it.” Sophomore Michael Wiley was the only other back to touch the ball. He had three carries for 11 yards and two catches for 15. He said during his postgame interview that he could have done better in blitz pickup.
Stanley Berryhill III and Tayvian Cunningham were excellent. Jamarye Joiner and Ma’jon Wright flashed. Boobie Curry was surprisingly quiet. Berryhill had a career-high eight catches for 70 yards and made a nifty move on the go-ahead touchdown late in the fourth quarter. Cunningham showed off his track speed on a 75-yard TD hookup with Gunnell and also was effective on crossing routes. Joiner didn’t get many looks after his early 34-yard catch-and-run for a score, but he threw the key block on Berryhill’s touchdown. Joiner and Curry were targeted only three times apiece. Wright was targeted only once, but the freshman made a nifty tiptoeing, backpedaling catch to set up Berryhill’s score. The entire group needs to do a better job of uncovering when Gunnell tries to buy time.
Overall, the Wildcats averaged 4.0 yards per carry. But that number was deflated by sacks (four in all) that weren’t all the line’s fault, plus a poorly executed lateral to Joiner that lost 5 yards. The running backs averaged 5.1 yards per attempt. As mentioned, Gunnell conceded that he held the ball too long at times. He also helped the line by running when those opportunities presented themselves. There was little Gunnell could do when USC’s top pass rusher, Drake Jackson, put a spin move on sophomore left tackle Jordan Morgan, who was making just his third career start, for a drive-killing sack in the third quarter.
It was a tale of two halves for this unit and the defense as a whole. USC had just 65 rushing yards and 145 total yards in the first half; those numbers climbed to 108 and 353 in the second. The Trojans were able to exploit the Wildcats with stretch plays in the second half, and Arizona didn’t record a sack. But the Wildcats had eight tackles for losses – eclipsing any game from 2019 – and the front accounted for seven of those. Aaron Blackwell, Rourke Freeburg and Jalen Harris had two apiece. LB Anthony Pandy had eight tackles. Harris had a career-high six, plus a pass breakup.
It didn’t always look pretty at times, but USC quarterback Kedon Slovis ended up with a big stat line – 30 of 43 for 325 yards and a touchdown. The Trojans’ top receivers, Amon-Ra St. Brown and Tyler Vaughns, combined for 14 catches and 183 yards. Senior safety Jarrius Wallace got beaten inside by TE Erik Krommenhoek for Slovis’ lone TD toss. But there were plenty of positives. The new safety tandem of Rhedi Short and Jaxen Turner – both making their first career starts – combined for 17 tackles, one TFL and one PBU. CB Christian Roland-Wallace came within inches of securing a game-clinching interception on USC’s final drive.
A promising start for a unit Sumlin has been seeking to upgrade since he got here. Lucas Havrisik made 3 of 4 field-goal attempts, including a 51-yarder. He also had a 100% touchback rate on seven kickoffs. Freshman Tyler Loop surprisingly got the call at punter, and he delivered, averaging 45.3 yards on three attempts. So why not an “A” grade? Some quibbles: Joiner probably shouldn’t have fielded Ben Griffiths’ 58-yard punt at the UA 5-yard line in the second quarter; Joiner gained just 1 yard. And a holding penalty on a Griffiths punt into the end zone in the third quarter pushed the Wildcats back to their 10. Those plays contributed to a minus-14 differential in average starting position.
UA fans had to be pleased with the team’s effort and competitiveness; the latter was lacking over the second half of last season. USC made more critical mistakes than Arizona, totaling 11 penalties to the UA’s seven. New coordinator Paul Rhoads and his assistants had the defense well-prepared; the Wildcats just ran out of healthy bodies in the secondary late in the fourth quarter. If you’re going to second-guess Sumlin about anything, two fourth-down decisions come to mind. Late in the second quarter, he elected to kick a field goal facing fourth-and-2 from the USC 6. Early in the fourth, he made the same call on fourth-and-2 from the USC 33. Both field goals were good. But Arizona ended up losing by four points.
