The California Golden Bears travel to Tuscon this week and while they won't have to face the full hellish heat of southern Arizona, they will have to withstand Rich Rodriguez's offense. This is an offense that is replacing Ka'Deem Carey who led the Pac-12 in rushing in 2013 and 2012. Also being replaced from last year is senior quarterback BJ Denker. To complete the shakeup, two of the top three receivers on this year's squad didn't play in a single game for the Wildcats last year. Even with all this turnover Arizona is scoring 39 points a game! The heat will certainly be on Cal's improved defense.
Arizona's head coach, Rich Rodriguez, is credited with the invention of the zone read at Glenville State in the early 1990s. After a successful tenure at West Virginia and a much less successful three years at Michigan, RichRod was hired by the Wildcats to bring a offense to a school traditionally strong on defense. Those cats have been running wild ever since.
On the Ground
True freshman Nick Wilson #28 was thrust into the starting running back role because of an injury to Terris Jones-Grigsby after the first game of the year. Wilson has only rushed for over 170 yards in each of the subsequent two games he has started. But Jones-Grigsby had 128 yards against UNLV and significantly more yards per carry than Wilson has had. Maybe we should look at the system which is producing these eye popping stats as well as the players who are accumulating them.
Here is one of the variations of the Zone Read that RichRod is currently using. Arizona has a formation with 5 offensive linemen, 4 receivers, one running back and the quarterback. Notice that the running back #28 Wilson is next to the quarterback and that one of the wide receivers is lined up just behind the right Tackle (almost like an H-back).
Nevada is in a 4-3 defensive front. Arizona is going to run the Zone Read to their right (top of the screen). This option play leaves a man purposely unblocked. That defender's actions will determine how the offense will run the play. In this play it will be the Defensive End (in yellow).
To understand why this is so hard to defend, we have to understand that to a football coach (offensive or defensive coordinator) every play is a numbers game. Assuming everyone does their job perfectly, the team with more players at the point of attack will win. The offense wants to assign one blocker or potential receiver for each defender. Traditionally the defense has had an advantage in this numbers game as the job of the quarterback is to pass the ball or hand it off (after which he essentially throws his hands in the air and says "don't hit me!"). That left 11 defenders for 10 offensive players. The option requires the defense to assign a player to the quarterback because he is a running threat which negates that one defender advantage. With the numbers even, the running back just "has to make one man miss" and he will be able to get a big play.
The option part of the Zone Read is whether or not the quarterback keeps the ball. The defense has all the say in this decision. If the defensive end stays tight to the line of scrimmage, the quarterback will keep the ball and run or roll out towards the sideline. If the defensive end steps deep into the backfield, the quarterback will hand the ball off to the running back who will run through the space the defensive end has created.
In the moment of decision below, we can see that the defensive end has headed into the offensive backfield. The quarterback will hand the ball off.
You will notice that the other Nevada defenders on that side of the field are occupied by covering receivers. There is no clever blitz or scheme that can get the two defenders the defense would need into position to tackle the quarterback and the running back.
The Offensive line does a great job on this play of blowing the defensive line off the line and getting to the middle linebackers before they can make an impact. The result...
Here is another iteration of the Zone Read. Arizona is in a similar formation as the previous play except wide receiver #29 Hill is on the wide side of the field, lined up as an H-back with two wide receivers outside of him. One wide receiver is to the short side of the field (top of screen). Nevada's defense is going to run a slant. Last week I talked about gap assignments on defense. On this play each defender will slant into the gap to their right.
The quarterback is reading the defensive back circled in white. If that DB comes to support the run the quarterback will keep the ball and throw a flare to the slot receiver towards the bottom of the screen. The quarterback hands off to Wilson when that route is well covered.
The play is designed for Wilson to run to his left, but the defense is slanting that way. Wilson makes one quick cut right and before the unblocked linebacker on that side can react, Wilson is past him into the open.
What has impressed me about both Nick Wilson and Terris Jones-Grigsby are their ability to make one cut and head "North-South" (toward the end zone, not toward the sideline) and how well they run through arm tackles. I do not know if Jones-Grigsby will be suited up for the game but this is what he looked like week 1.
The Quarterback Keeper
When he was coaching West Virginia and Michigan RichRod had quarterbacks who were the best runners on their respective teams. This year Arizona's quarterback, redshirt freshman Anu Solomon, is not the best runner on the team but that does not mean he won't run...
This time the unblocked Defensive End stays tight to the line taking away the handoff to Wilson (most likely because Nevada realized that Wilson was gashing them on the ground and at that point they preferred Solomon to be the ball carrier). The results were not much better for Nevada...
The Passing Game
Through the first two games Anu Solomon was consistently over throwing his receivers or just plain missing them. Against Nevada however, he found his accuracy and #1 Cayleb Jones emerged as his favorite target. The 6'3'', 215 lb redshirt sophomore sat out last year after transferring from Texas. He is not just big but physical.
Here is how the play turned out:
He uses his body to shield off the defender on this slant route (Jones in the receiver at the bottom of the screen):
And in what I hope is the last touchdown I see Cayleb Jones catch this week, is a pass where Solomon shows the touch he was missing in his first two games.
Thoughts...
It is amazing that Arizona has had three quarterbacks in the last three years. That Ka'Deem Carey seems to have been so seamlessly replaced. Oregon is the only other Pac-12 team who has been able to consistently replace high performers on offense like this. That said, this is a young team at the skill positions on offense and they are prone to making mistakes. The Arizona defense is porous at best: they have some standout performers but have not been able to put together a great game as a unit.
Cal is going to need every bit of defensive improvement to show on the field Saturday night and the offense is going to have to execute well. UTSA showed that a team that executes well can score and hold the Wildcat offense in check. The Golden Bears are going to have to play that well in a hostile environment.