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CATCH UP ON THE COUNTDOWN BY VISITING: ARIZONA’S TOP 100 INDIVIDUAL RECORDS
Only 56 days separate us from the start of Rich Rodriguez’s fifth season, when the Arizona Wildcats football team plays 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.
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Nick Foles’ ability to complete passes under duress was one of his strengths as a quarterback at Arizona.
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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.
In past years, we have counted down the top games and highlighted players and some of the top plays in Arizona Wildcats football 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. 56
Highest Completion Percentage, Career (Min. 500 att): 66.8, Nick Foles, 2009-11 (933 of 1396)
NCAA record: 70.4, Colt Brennan, Hawaii, 2005-07 (1,115 of 1,584)
Nick Foles completed nearly 2/3 of his passes at Arizona, a record clip for a career.
Nick Foles threw more passes than any other quarterback in Arizona history and he also completed the highest percentage in a career at 66.8. That indicates the Wildcats’ spread “Air Raid” offense under offensive coordinators Sonny Dykes, Bill Bedenbaugh and Seth Littrell got the most out of Foles’ potential in his three years at Arizona.
He is the most impeccable quarterback to ever play at Arizona. Foles also has the Arizona records for highest completion percentage in a game and season and fewest passes had intercepted, among many others (listed below and coming up in the countdown).
Foles’ completion percentage for a career is more than five points higher than Willie Tuitama’s mark of 61.6 from 2005 to 2008.
Through his first two seasons, junior quarterback Anu Solomon has completed a respectable 59.6 percent (518 of 869) of his passes. At the same point in his career at Arizona, Foles, a Michigan State transfer, was at 65.3 percent (546 of 836). Foles had the ability to increase his career completion percentage as he went along.
ARIZONA HIGHEST COMPLETION PERCENTAGE
CAREER (MINIMUM 500 ATTEMPTS)
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This is now Nick Foles’ seventh entry in the Arizona Wildcats individual records ranking and he will have more.
The others to date in our Arizona Wildcats football individual records ranking:
71. Highest Completion Percentage Season, More than 200 attempts: 69.1, Nick Foles, 2011 (387 of 560)
77. Most Passes Completed, Season: 387, Nick Foles, 2011 (12 games, 560 attempts)
81. Highest Completion Percentage, Game: 78.4, Nick Foles, vs. Stanford, Oct. 17, 2009 (40 of 51)
82. Fewest Passes Had Intercepted (Pct. of Attempts), Career (500 att): 2.36 percent, 2009-11 (33 in 1,396 attempts)
91. Most Pass Completions, career: 933, 2009-11
97. Total Offense in Career — 9,712 yards, 2009-11 (10,111 passing/-290 rushing/-9 receiving)
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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