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CATCH UP ON THE COUNTDOWN BY VISITING: ARIZONA’S TOP 100 INDIVIDUAL RECORDS
Only 82 days separate us from the start of Rich Rodriguez’s fifth season at Arizona, when the Wildcats play Brigham Young on Sept. 3 at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale.
As is customary on this Web site, we will count down the days with an interesting element associated with each day. This year the topic is the top 100 individual records in Arizona’s storied football past.
Compiling the list was no easy task, but it was feasible to do with the information provided in the record books by the Arizona media relations department, and we appreciate that.
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Nick Foles‘ career record of lowest percentage of passes intercepted is being challenged by junior quarterback Anu Solomon.
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In past years, we have counted down the top games and highlighted players and some of the top plays in Wildcat history. A couple of years ago in our top 100 countdown, we showcased the 1914 team that was responsible for Arizona becoming the “Wildcats”.
Back to this year’s countdown of the top 100 individual records in the 117 years of Arizona football:
No. 82
Fewest Passes Had Intercepted (Pct. of Attempts), Career (500 att): 2.36 percent, Nick Foles, 2009-11 (33 in 1,396 attempts)
Nick Foles was known for throwing the ball quite a bit during his three-year Arizona career. His 1,396 attempts is the record for most in a career among Arizona quarterbacks.
If a quarterback throws that many times the prevailing thought is he will throw more interceptions. Not so with Foles or some of the more prolific passing quarterbacks in Arizona history. Only 2.36 percent of Foles’ attempts were intercepted in his career from 2009-11, which amounts to 33 picks.
Junior quarterback Anu Solomon, known for his long stretches without throwing an interception, is in contention to break Foles’ mark. Here is a rundown of the top five Arizona quarterbacks (in terms of passing yards) with their interception percentage per attempt:
[table “” not found /]An argument for Tunnicliffe and Jenkins with this list: They played in run-oriented offenses under Larry Smith and threw downfield quite a bit more than the short reads implemented in recent years by offensive coordinator Sonny Dykes and coach Rich Rodriguez. In other words, Jenkins and Tunnnicliffe played in offenses with a riskier passing game.
ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He is a former Arizona Daily Star beat reporter for the Arizona basketball team, including when the Wildcats won the 1996-97 NCAA title. He has also written articles for CollegeAD.com, Bleacher Report, Lindy’s Sports, TucsonCitizen.com, The Arizona Republic, Sporting News and Baseball America, among many other publications. He has also authored the book “The Highest Form of Living”, which is available at Amazon.
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