Arizona Football

Social media reactions, best Rich Rod quotes from Pac-12 media day

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Rich Rodriguez was a popular draw during Thursday’s start of the Pac-12 media days.
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NOTABLE RICH RODRIGUEZ QUOTES FROM TODAY’S START OF THE PAC-12 MEDIA DAYS

ON QUARTERBACK SITUATION

“Okay, our quarterback situation, we have in my opinion two returning starters. One that’s more established in Anu Solomon, really good player, particularly when he’s healthy. Last year he had some injuries. But he’s got a challenge with Brandon Dawkins who played a little bit at the end of the year, has gotten better. So I think we’re in a good situation where we have two guys competing for the starting job. We’ve got a young guy Khalil Tate who’s got on outstanding future, we think, and we’re recruiting well at that position. But Solomon, Dawkins will go into camp splitting first-team reps, and we’ll see who wins the job. I hope both of them prove that we can win with them and we’ll play both of them throughout the year. I’m not typical where I think you’ve got to name a starter. We treat the quarterback position pretty much like the rest of them. Just compete and play the best guy at the time.”

ON EXPECTATIONS OF SOLOMON

“The next step for Anu is simply be more consistent. Certainly health is an issue with that, but there are so many more things that we can do in our offense if the quarterback can handle it mentally, and he can handle a lot mentally, and we’re going to put more on him. Now, we’re still going to call the plays just because I’ve always said we watch more film as coaches than the players do. They might be watching Sponge Bob Square Pants or something, I don’t know, on Saturday mornings. But Anu is a really — is a more competitive guy than sometimes he lets on. He’s calm and you look at him, it doesn’t look like he gets that excited, but he does. So it’s important to him, but we’re going to push him and have pushed him since the spring to take his game to another level, and I think he’ll do that.”

ON NEW DEFENSE UNDER MARCEL YATES

“Oh, yeah, I know what we’re going to do on defense. In fact, when I hired a coordinator, which was a little bit unique, I wasn’t looking so much for a scheme, because I think schemes are overrated, as much as I was looking for a personality and attitude. And I kind of set the parameters, this is what I want him to do. But I’m not going to coach it or teach it, I’m going to let my defensive staff to do that. But I hired Marcel Yates who scheme-wise was really good, but more than anything I liked his personality, I liked the personality of the defense, and I know what we’re going to do, I’m just not — why tell anybody until we have to. I mean, it’s not like it’s a big secret, but for the first couple teams, they’ll have to figure that out. … The first person has got to take responsibility, that’s me. As the head coach, I’m responsible for all phases of the team, and so I looked at myself and say, geez, I’ve got to do a better job of making sure we’re getting better defensively. There’s going to be some growing pains, but the future of our defense is going to be really good.”

ON POTENTIAL INDOOR FACILITY

“At Arizona, I think they were going to build that (Lowell-Stevens) complex whether I came or not. It’s just my timing was pretty good. My second year, we got to move in the new facility, and the only thing we need now is an indoor. I was a little naïve. It never rains, why did we need an indoor. But you spend a couple summers in Arizona, you realize what an indoor could do for you. So I think that’s next. I’m not sure when, but hopefully soon we’ll get an indoor built, and then you’ve got everything you need.”

ON AN OPEN DATE THIS YEAR AFTER NONE LAST YEAR

“Well, we have an open date this year. How about that? So the next time we will not have an open date is in 12 years, so that will be the next poor coach’s problem, not mine. Toes in the water, butt in the sand is where I’ll be, or somewhere like that.”

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Plenty of Arizona personnel news offered by new Arizona Daily Star beat writer Michael Lev, a veteran who covered USC’s program for the Orange County Register before moving to Tucson..


OTHER TWEETS INCLUDING SOME OF MY OWN ..

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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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