Embarrassing Pac-12 Championship Game Loss Shows How Far Arizona Has to Go

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Following his No. 7-ranked University of Arizona team’s 51-13 loss to No. 2 University of Oregon in Friday’s Pac-12 Conference Championship Game, head coach Rich Rodriguez did not have much to say.

“Tonight wasn’t a good night,” an uncharacteristically reserved Rodriguez said flatly in his postgame press conference at Levi’s Stadium.

Rodriguez didn’t need to say much—the outcome spoke volumes about where his program is in its pursuit of reaching the top of the Pac-12.

Arizona’s made progress in just three years under Rodriguez, as he pointed out.

“To win the Pac-12 South is a great accomplishment by our guys and our seniors especially,” he said. “It might be the toughest division in college football.”

But Friday’s title tilt was a potential changing of the guard for the Pac-12: Arizona, the conference’s only pre-expansion member without a Rose Bowl appearance, was looking for its third straight win against the recent benchmark for Pac-12 success.

Instead, the Ducks claimed their fourth conference championship since 2009 and almost assuredly booked one of four spots in the inaugural College Football Playoff.

“The winner of our league each year is going to be a contender to be one of the best in the country,” Rodriguez said. “Oregon’s the best team in our league this year.”

Oregon proved it’s just in another class from Arizona, and Ducks quarterback Marcus Mariota demonstrated himself to be peerless with five touchdowns.

A national championship and Heisman Trophy are the next goals for Oregon and Mariota. For Arizona, the postseason is about closing out 2014 with a positive step toward 2015.

The Wildcats didn’t land in Levi’s Stadium by accident. Arizona made its way to the Pac-12 South title and berth in the title game with its first 10-win season since 1998, blending the innovative offense for which Rodriguez is known with a vastly improved defense.

But Arizona’s divisional title wasn’t without its share of good fortune either.

Bobby Bowden’s philosophy on building a program—as described in John Bacon’s book about Rodriguez’s tenure at Michigan, Three and Out—is lose big in the first year, lose close in the second, win close in the third and win big in the fourth.

Rodriguez’s third Arizona team had the win close part down pat, but Friday was a regression to the first-year mantra.

The Wildcats didn’t just win six of their 10 games by single digits: They ended an 18-point, fourth-quarter rally against Cal with a Hail Mary touchdown pass as time expired and got a final crack at Washington by forcing an improbable fumble in the final minute.

Arizona’s 10-win campaign was truly just a few plays from going in a much different direction. Conversely, Oregon rolled to its 10th win while outscoring its opponent by at least 18 points.

Yet despite the lopsided final score and Oregon’s 627 yards of offense, the performance of coordinator Jeff Casteel’s defense was admirable for much of the first half.

During that part of the game, it even looked championship-worthy, holding the Ducks to just six points despite four trips inside the Arizona 25-yard-line.

“They were battling and competing and played a lot of plays,” Rodriguez said. “We couldn’t get any first downs on offense, so the defense had to go back out there. … When you’re having to go out that many times—57 snaps or whatever it was in the first half—with that type of offense, [Oregon] is going to get [its points].”

That discrepancy in offensive production and defensive performance shone a glaring light on one of the challenges Arizona must overcome to become a legitimate title contender: delivering consistently across all phases.

The 2012 team boasted one of the most explosive offenses in the nation with an average of 38.2 points per game, but the defense surrendered 35.3, per CFBstats.com.

This year, Arizona encountered the opposite problem. The Wildcats scored a combined 20 points in two of their three losses, mustering just seven in a Nov. 1 defeat at UCLA and scoring only two touchdowns in seven red-zone opportunities against USC.

A young offense must find more consistency to complement the improved defense, and that starts with first-year quarterback Anu Solomon.

“If I’m not doing well, it all starts with me,” Solomon said. “And that’s what happened today.”

Solomon picked Oregon apart in Arizona’s 31-24 win at Autzen Stadium on Oct. 2, but he was just 6-of-12 passing for 34 yards Friday.

A nagging ankle injury ended Solomon’s night at halftime.

Fellow freshman and running back Nick Wilson was also stymied, finishing with just 26 yards on 13 carries.

Oregon defensive coordinator Don Pellum called a masterful game, using frequent blitzes to disrupt and rattle the youthful Wildcats. Arizona never found an answer for that particular riddle.

The next one it must try to solve under Rodriguez is how it can bridge the gap between where the team is now and a championship.

Quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise cited. Statistics courtesy of the Pac-12 Conference.