Wildcats search for consistency

The good news: Arizona’s offense—led by junior quarterback Willie Tuitama—appears to be getting more comfortable with offensive coordinator Sonny Dykes’ spread offense.

The bad news: everything else.

In Saturday night’s 29-27 loss at home to the New Mexico Lobos, the Wildcats watched all of the preseason goodwill surrounding their program vanish in a sea of penalties and bone-headed mistakes.

“We have to learn to play freely again and not to the expectations from preseason,” said head coach Mike Stoops.

With 10 returning starters from last season, Arizona’s defense was expected to be one of the stronger units in the Pac-10 conference.

Instead, the Wildcats gave up 421 yards of total offense—327 through the air—against the Lobos, who were picked to finish fourth in the Mountain West Conference in the preseason.

“For whatever reason, we’re not as sharp or as effective on defense as we were a year ago,” Stoops said.

Pass defense

While the Wildcats are only giving up 2.6 yards per carry on the ground, teams have found plenty of opportunities to attack the Wildcats through the air.

The pass defense, led by All-American hopeful Antoine Cason and senior cornerback Wilrey Fontenot, has underachieved through the first three games of this season.

Outside of Fontenot’s second-quarter interception, New Mexico receivers Marcus Smith and Travis Brown found plenty of open space in Arizona’s secondary.

Smith caught 11 passes for 164 yards and a touchdown, while Brown added 10 catches for 121 yards and two scores.

Lobos quarterback Donovan Porterie set the tone early, completing his first eight passes of the ballgame.

“It’s hard to put a finger on what’s going wrong, but we just have to play smarter and with more effort,” Stoops said.

Stoops also said his defensive line needs to get more pressure on the quarterback in order to take some pressure off the secondary.

While Brown and Smith are two talented wide receivers, they aren’t nearly as fast as the pair the Wildcats will face this Saturday when they travel to Berkeley, Calif., to take on the No. 6 California Golden Bears at 3 p.m.

Lavelle Hawkins and Desean Jackson might be the fastest wide-receiver duo in the nation, with Jackson’s exploits now becoming a staple of nearly every weekly highlights show.

“You certainly need to take notice of where Desean is and how they get him the ball,” Stoops said.

California has yet to complete a pass over 25 yards this season, so Hawkins and Jackson will be chomping at the bit to stretch the field.

“We’ve been trying to go deep, but we just haven’t connected,” said California head coach Jeff Tedford. “We’re going to keep trying it, though.”

Jackson made a couple of big plays in last year’s game at Arizona Stadium, but the Wildcats held on for a 24-20 win—knocking California out of the top-10 and causing the Wildcat faithful to rush the field.

“Arizona has a good team, and they made some big plays against us last year,” Tedford said.

However, if the Wildcats are going to have a chance to take down the Bears this season, they will need to get rid of the costly mistakes that defined the New Mexico game.

Whether it was Stoops drawing an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty before halftime, or Louis Holmes jumping offsides on a crucial third-and-short, or Tuitama drawning an intentional grounding penalty in the end zone for a safety, the Wildcats simply made too many mental errors last Saturday.

“We have a resilliant squad, and our players know they have to be sharp or it won’t be pretty,” Stoops said.

Big plays

On the bright side, Tuitama did set career-highs in completions (30), attempts (52) and yards (446) against New Mexico and appeared much more confident in making his reads and surveying the field.

If California does have a weakness, it’s that their defense is vulnerable to big plays.

Terrell Turner, Mike Thomas, Deleshaun Dean, Anthony Johnson and freshman tight end Rob Gronkowski should find ample space to make things happen in the Golden Bears’ secondary.

But Stoops knows his squad has its hands full this Saturday afternoon.

Quarterback Nathan Longshore is one of the top-rated passers in the Pac-10, completing two-thirds of his passes for 617 yards and four touchdowns this season.

Running back Justin Forsett has stepped into Marshawn Lynch’s enormous shoes and has gained 367 yards on 62 carries thus far.

“If anything, this squad seems almost faster than they did a year ago,” Stoops said. “Forsett is maybe a little faster than Lynch. They can stretch the field very quickly, and we have to be on our game.”

nprevenas@gvnews.com | 547-9747

Game Notes
Who: Arizona at No. 6 California

When: 3 p.m.

TV: Versus, channel 70

Radio: 1290 AM, 107.5 FM, 990 AM