Toledo-Arizona Part 1

Today, I will focus on Arizona's opening game which is at home against Toledo.  The last time those two played in Toldeo, the Wildcats took care of business 41-2.  As for the last time Rich Rod faced the Rockets, it didn't turn out any good as his Michigan Wolverines lost 13-10 at home to the Rockets.

Toledo 13 Michigan 10

Isn't life cruel for Rich Rod since he gets to face Toledo in his first game in Tucson?  What has he done so wrong to put himself in that situation?  Really, what set the tone was a 100-yard interception return by Tyrrell Herbert of the Rockets to put Toledo up 7-0.  Quite the powerful momentum turning play in Ann Arbor that afternoon.  I'm sure Rich Rod will be telling Matt Scott to take care of the football against the Rockets.

You might have caught in my last blog post that I named Scott as the QB for the 2012 All 4CSports Blog Preseason Team.  I looked at the QBs that Rich Rod coached while at Tulane and Clemson and looked at how they did their first years.  Shaun King was Rich Rod's QB at Tulane and put up some impressive numbers (taken from King's Wikipedia page):

• 1997: 199/363 (54.8%) for 2577 yards and 24 TD vs. 14 INT. 124 carries for 511 yards and 5 TD.
• 1998: 244/364 (67.0%) for 3495 yards and 38 TD vs. 6 INT. 156 carries for 633 yards and 11 TD.

Woodrow Dantzler had a nice career at Clemson playing two of his three seasons under Rich Rod.

When Rich Rod begun at West Virigina, the Big East still had Miami FL, Virigina Tech, and Boston College which was still a very solid football conference at that time.  The Mountaineers finished 3-8 that season but turned things around the following season.  First he had Rasheed Marshall who was solid for the 'Ners then Pat White showed up in Morganstown one day and took the starting QB job that was open due to Marshall graduating and boy White was senstational if any of you recall.  I'm still amazed that CU managed to contain White and Noel Devine in Boulder.

Looking back at Rich Rod's failing in Ann Arbor, the 2008 QBs for the Wolverines didn't really take care of the football that well.  2009 saw some improvement but it wasn't enough.  In 2010, Dennard "Shoelace" Robinson finally got the starting job and Rich Rod finally had his protype QB and the Wolverines went on to play in a bowl game but it wasn't enough to keep Rich Rod's job.  I think Michigan would have still had a very good season last season with Rich Rod at the helm so I believe it was just plain impatience but I'm sure Arizona fans don't mind in this case.

Now that brings us to Scott.  If you clicked on "Scott", that will lead you to his ESPN.com profile and if you click on the stats tab, it will take you to Scott's stats from 2008, 2009, and 2010.  Those stats were acculmated in an Air Raid offense and those were decent stats for a backup QB to Nic Foles who has since moved on to the NFL.  It is clear that Scott is a capable dual threat type of QB and you combine him with Rich Rod, just watch Scott's numbers go up in a big way since Scott will be the full time starter for the Wildcats this season.  I believe we will see production similar to Shaun King's first season with Rich Rod as his OC back in 1997.

I'm excited for Arizona's future with Rich Rod and maybe Rich Rod will lead the Wildcats out of the tunnel in the Rose Bowl for the actual bowl game instead of against UCLA in the future.

In my next blog about the upcoming Toledo-Arizona game, I think I will focus on who is coming back for Toledo and if they really pose a threat to Arizona plus have a look at the new 3-3-5 defense being installed in Tucson.  Tomorrow, I will look at Arizona State's opening game versus Northern Arizona.

Note: the words in bold have links to them.  I am still new to the blogging website but will eventually figure out how to make the underlines visible.  Thanks for you patience with me.