After two quarters of action, Arizona football trails the Utah Utes by a score of 14-0 on Senior Night at Arizona Stadium. Shocking the crowd, Head Coach Kevin Sumlin decided to give true freshman Grant Gunnell his third career start in place of senior Khalil Tate on what was supposed to be his night to shine.
As it was Senior Night, it would have been more fitting to see Tate start against the Utes; however, he didn’t end up seeing action until 5:52 remaining in the second quarter.
In total, the Wildcats saw minimal yardage in the first two quarters and, if they want to have a shot at advancing to a bowl game, they need to make something happen sooner than later.
After 30 minutes of play, Gunnell threw for a measly 29 yards on 3-for-8 completions and Tate, not too surprisingly, threw for a grand total of three yards on 1-for-2 completions.
Leading the way in rushing for Arizona is JJ Taylor, who had 21 yards on a total of six carries, averaging 3.5 yards per carry.
Utah quarterback Tyler Huntley has completed 13 of his 15 throws and has a total of 137 passing yards and zero interceptions. Huntley has been playing like he has all year, and if he is unable to be contained in the second half, the score margin will only become increasingly bigger as the game progresses.
As a team, Arizona has a total of 56 yards compared to Utah’s 291 in the first half. The story of the first half has been Arizona trying to find a way to progress down the field, but ultimately being unable to. The Wildcats have only had 19 plays after two quarters, compared to 44 plays in total by the Utes.
The Wildcats are running out of time to secure only their fifth victory of the season. With only two quarters left to play, the Wildcats are in a dire situation to save their chances at playing in a post-season game.
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