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Arizona would rather have a season-high 11 helmet stickers after the ASU game instead of leading up to it, but at least Rich Rodriguez knows the Wildcats are playing well at the right time.
The ankle injury of Anu Solomon casts a question mark over Arizona’s potential performance level against the Sun Devils Friday afternoon at Arizona Stadium. He was responsible for some, but not all, of the 11 stickers earned in the 42-10 win over Utah last week in Salt Lake City.
The most significant part he played in the win over Utah was producing big plays — a void in two of the previous three games — for Arizona’s offense in the first half against the Utes. He helped produce seven plays of 12 yards or more. The Wildcats reached the goal of 10 such plays with backup Jesse Scroggins engineering the offense in the second half.
Arizona finished with 11 plays of 12 or more yards. The 10th such play came on Nick Wilson’s 75-yard touchdown run in the third quarter. Wilson added the 11th on his 19-yard touchdown run on the ensuing possession.
Other helmet-sticker notes:
— For the sixth time this season, Arizona won the turnover battle with Utah having four to the Wildcats’ one. Arizona is plus-10 in turnovers heading into the ASU game.
— Arizona earned a sticker for the first time for holding an opponent to 13 points or less in a victory. Over the last four games, opponents are averaging only 18.3 points against Arizona’s opportunistic, bend-but-don’t-break defense.
— Arizona scored twice on defense, on an interception return by Tra’Mayne Bondurant and a fumble recovery return by Dan Pettinato. Bondurant, who scored on a fumble return against Colorado earlier this season, caused the fumble that led to Pettinato’s score.
— Arizona’s defense produced six three-and-outs agaisnt Utah’s defense, four of them in the Utes’ first four possessions. That set the tone for the rest of the game.
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HELMET STICKER RESULTS
HS: Helmet stickers
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Arizona senior Tra’Mayne Bondurant is stepping up big as his Wildcat career comes to an end
— The Wildcats tallied the minimum of three sacks to earn another helmet sticker. It’s the seventh time they have earned a sticker in that category and the fourth time in the last five games. William Parks and Jourdan Grandon recorded sacks on defensive-back blitzes and redshirt freshman lineman Calvin Allen had his first career sack. Twelve different Arizona players have recorded a sack this season, led by Scooby Wright’s 12.
— Drew Riggleman, who matched Utah’s All-Pac-12 punter Tom Hackett punt-for-punt, contributed to a sticker with his punt inside the 10-yard line twice (to the Utah 7 and 1) in the third and fourth quarters.
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HELMET STICKER CRITERIA
The Wildcats earn cat claws for the Arizona helmet if they achieve these following marks. This helmet will be updated weekly as the Wildcats attempt to fill the helmet with the cat claws:
LAST SIX GAMES
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[table “” not found /]ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He also writes articles for Bleacher Report and Lindy’s College Sports.
