Football runs ‘Beanie Bowl’ scrimmage

Lights lit up Arizona Stadium, the Pride of Arizona marching band played the school’s fight song and the ZonaZoo filled up to about half capacity. All eight days early.

Arizona football hosted its annual Beanie Bowl on Wednesday night, a limited contact scrimmage that gave UA students their first taste of the upcoming gridiron season.

The scrimmage, which lasted a little over an hour, pitted the Arizona varsity team against the practice squad, which is made up mostly of walk-ons and freshmen. Not surprisingly, the guys with names on the back of their jerseys had no trouble on both sides of the ball against the much smaller and less athletic practice team.

Wildcat quarterback Anu Solomon started the game and played for most of the first half. Facing an undersized defense, Solomon threw the ball plenty and connected on a couple long passes.

Solomon’s highlights included a 55 yard down-the-sidelines touchdown pass to receiver Tony Ellison as well as another 50 yard pass to Johnny Jackson. While no statistics were provided, Ellison appeared to have the most prolific night out of the wide receivers. This will be Ellison’s first year competing for the Wildcats on game day, as he redshirted last year.

Arizona’s first-string offense didn’t run the ball as frequently as Solomon passed it. Running back Nick Wilson did get a couple reps in the backfield and caught a swing pass from Solomon.

On defense, the Arizona secondary had its away against the practice-team offense.

Cam Denson, a sophomore who is expected to start at cornerback, intercepted two passes. One of those interceptions was returned for a pick-six.

Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles also intercepted a pass. The free safety out of Mountain View High School has been one of the top freshmen performers all fall and should see playing time right away this season.

A few projected starters did not suit up for the scrimmage. Wide receivers Trey Griffey and Tyrell Johnson both stood on the sideline, as did linebacker Cody Ippolito.

Arizona will not release its first official injury report until sometime next week.

Scooby gaining more national nods

2014 All-American linebacker Scooby Wright III keeps getting named to preseason All-American lists. Weird, right?

So far this week, ESPN and Sports Illustrated have both tabbed Wright as a preseason All-American at the linebacker position.

Wright, only a junior, is coming off one of the greatest defensive seasons in Arizona program history. “Two-star Scoob” ranked in the top five nationally in total tackles, tackles for loss, sacks and forced fumbles. The pressure will be on Wright to repeat, or even improve from his prolific sophomore campaign.

Pac-12 Roundup

UCLA made news on Wednesday when it announced that freshman Josh Rosen will start at quarterback for the Bruins. A five-star recruit out of high school, Rosen is now tasked with leading an explosive offense.

Rosen’s first big test of the season will be against — you guessed it — Arizona. The Bruins travel to Arizona Stadium on Sept. 26 in a matchup that marks the start of Pac-12 Conference play for both programs.

Here’s to guessing that Rosen never faced a crowd in high school that matches the noise level of the ZonaZoo.

Follow Ezra Amacher on Twitter.