Arizona Football: How Wildcats Can Win Pac-12 in 2015

As the defending division champion with plenty of key starters returning, Arizona should be considered a contender to not only claim another Pac-12 South title but to win the conference outright. To accomplish that, however, the Wildcats need to get better since the league remains as strong as ever.

Arizona returns breakout stars at quarterback (Anu Solomon) and running back (Nick Wilson) and one of the deepest receiving corps in the nation, while reigning Bednarik, Lombardi and Nagurski award-winning linebacker Scooby Wright highlights a handful of veteran defenders. They provide the core of a team that is capable of winning the Pac-12 championship, but it will take more than just talent to get the job done.

Here's a look at what the Wildcats must do and the path they need to take to claim the conference title.

Come through in the red zone

Arizona averaged more than 34 points per game last season, keeping opponents on their toes with a fast-paced offense that ran more plays (1,139) than any other team in the country. The Wildcats never had to keep an eye on the play clock, though coach Rich Rodriguez could regularly be seen urging his charges to get to the line even quicker.

"I think we can play faster than we have before," Rodriguez told Bleacher Report after the April 10 spring game. "We have a really good grasp of what we can do."

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But as is the case with uptempo teams, it becomes harder to move the ball when the field shrinks. Arizona was not immune to this problem in 2014, ranking 85th nationally in red-zone efficiency and managing only 33 touchdowns on 60 trips inside the 20-yard line.

In an effort to be more diverse and less predictable in the red zone, Arizona has been experimenting with using slot receivers in the backfield and spreading ball-carriers out wide. This led to smaller skill players like junior Samajie Grant, sophomore Tyrell Johnson and redshirt freshman Jonathan Haden lining up in multiple places depending on the play call.

Since Arizona does not use much time when it has the ball—at less than 27 minutes, 14 seconds per game it ranked 119th in time of possession last season—it cannot afford to waste possessions, especially when in the red zone. In two of the Wildcats' four losses last year, they had a combined four red-zone drives that ended without points and only four of 10 scoring drives resulted in touchdowns.

Arizona lost those two games, against USC and UCLA, by a combined 10 points.

Be more than a one-man defense

Last year it was Wright and everyone else. And those other Wildcat defenders didn't do much, at least not in comparison to Wright, and the most productive players of the bunch have now graduated.

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Wright, the then-sophomore linebacker, led the FBS in tackles (163), tackles for loss (29) and forced fumbles (six), and also ranked third in sacks (14). Will Parks, who will be a senior, had 81 tackles and 13 tackles for loss to rank as the top returner not named Wright in those categories, while no three players had as many sacks as Wright.

Arizona's offense is one of the fastest in the country, but as a result its defense is also on the field more than most other defenses. Last year the Wildcats played 1,115 snaps on defense, third most in FBS, and that led to quite a few breakdowns.

Rodriguez wants to get to where he can cycle in fresh bodies as often as possible, and Arizona's depth is slowly getting to that level of two or three capable players at each position. To develop that depth, Parks said Rodriguez overworked the defense with a litany of looks and alignments this spring to get it prepared for constant change during the season.

"They threw everything at us," said Parks, who will play the hybrid linebacker-safety "Spur" position in Arizona's 4-2-5 defense. "This was definitely a smooth spring. We have a lot of versatility."

Maintain offensive balance

Rodriguez prefers to run a version of the spread that is close to 50-50 run/pass but leans more toward the run. In his three seasons with the Wildcats, his offenses have averaged 258.5 passing yards and 223.8 rushing yards per game, but last year Arizona ran for 100 fewer yards per game than it gained through the air. 

The combination of Solomon, the record-setting then-freshman quarterback, and a deep receiving corps—seven players caught at least 23 passes last year—contributed to this skew, but so did a lack of experience at running back. Wilson, a true freshman, emerged as the go-to rusher and finished with 1,375 yards and 16 touchdowns, but Solomon didn't prove to be as mobile as expected and was sacked 40 times.

With nearly every significant skill-position player back, this could be Arizona's best offense yet. In order for it to be most effective, though, the balance has to be there in the play-calling. Wilson got banged up as the workhorse in 2014, and unless Solomon can improve as a scrambler, another runner will need to emerge to take on some of the carries.

Arizona showed in 2013 that it can play fast and still eat up clock, thanks to the running of Ka'Deem Carey. If the Wildcats can replicate that approach with a better set of parts, they should be in the running for another division title and a shot at their first-ever trip to the Rose Bowl.

All quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.

Follow Brian J. Pedersen on Twitter at @realBJP.