Quick-read notes: Arizona Wildcats must continue resiliency at Cal

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>> Ever since the Arizona Wildcats trailed USC 28-3 in the first half Oct. 10, they have shown the ability to fight back, especially in the fourth quarter.

The Arizona Wildcats outscored the Trojans 28-10 in the second half in their 38-31 loss.

In the following game, the Arizona Wildcats were down 21-20 against Utah early in the fourth quarter and rallied to outscore the Utes 15-3 in the 35-24 victory at Arizona Stadium.

Last week at Colorado, the Buffaloes smelled upset cutting Arizona’s lead to 27-20 in the third quarter. The Wildcats responded by outscoring the Buffaloes 17-0 to win 44-20.

The fourth-quarter tally in those games — with each game in doubt in the third quarter: Arizona 39-10.

>> Ka’Deem Carey leads the nation in rushing at 153.3 yards per game. He’ll go against a Cal defense that allowed Washington’s Bishop Sankey to go for 241 yards last week.

Carey is 107 yards away from reaching Art Luppino for third place in Arizona’s career rushing chart. Carey has 3,247 career yards. Luppino had 3,381.

He needs 227 yards to catch Ontiwaun Carter at No. 2. Carter compiled 3,501 career rushing yards.

Trung Canidate holds the record at 3,824.

Carey is only five rushing touchdowns away from Luppino’s school record of 44. No reason to doubt Carey can achieve that today with Cal ranking second-to-last in rushing defense in the Pac-12. Colorado is last and the Buffaloes yielded four rushing touchdowns for Carey last week.

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In case you missed it Podcast breaks down Arizona vs. Cal football game http://t.co/pUUhMJFlJv via @247Sports #ArizonaWildcats

— Brad Allis (@WSRBrad) November 2, 2013

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>> Although the Cal defense is beset with injuries and has not held any FBS opponent below 37 points this season, a bigger concern for coach Sonny Dykes (formerly the UA’s offensive coodinator under Mike Stoops) is his offense.

Dykes was hired to bring life to the Bears’ attack. His Louisiana Tech team led the nation in scoring and total offense last season. But Cal ranks 94th in the nation in scoring, averaging 22.9 points overall and just 16.4 points in conference games.

Dykes has twice threatened to replace true freshman Jared Goff as the starting quarterback, but has stayed with him for all eight games. Goff will remain the starter and he’ll face a much improved Arizona pass defense.

>> The Bears are scheduled to start true freshmen at quarterback (Goff) and running back (Khalfani Muhammad) and could have as many as four freshmen on the offensive line.

With games against USC, Colorado and Stanford remaining after the Arizona game, the Bears are simply hoping to avoid becoming the first team since 2009 to go winless in the Pac-12/Pac-10.

WILDABOUTAZCATS.net publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He also writes blogs for Lindy’s College Sports, TucsonCitizen.com and Sports Illustrated-sponsored site ZonaZealots.com.

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