Our 2014 season Pac-12 team-by-team grades continue. If you want to check out last season's reviews, click here.
Offense: Needing to replace star running back Ka'Deem Carey and quarterback B.J. Denker, Arizona’s offense was one of the more intriguing units in the Pac-12 entering the season. With no obvious candidate to replace Carey, and several players vying for Denker’s job, it was difficult to project how things would evolve in coach Rich Rodriguez’s third year in Tucson. Then came the opening-week blowout against UNLV in which freshman quarterback Anu Solomon threw for 425 yards and four touchdowns, running backs Teris Jones-Grigsby and Nick Wilson both ran for more than 100 yards, and receivers Samajie Grant and Austin Hill both had more than 100 yards receiving. Granted, UNLV’s defense habitually made offenses look better than they were, but the Wildcats’ school-record 787 yards of offense were more than enough to indicate good things were coming. Naturally, things leveled off -- the Wildcats finished fifth in the Pac-12 in total offense (463.6 yards per game) and scoring (34.5 points per game) -- but this offense remained one of the more explosive units in the country when things were ticking. Grade: B+
Defense: It will be remembered as the breakout year for linebacker Scooby Wright III. A lightly recruited player (as you might have heard a time or 12) who was solid as a true freshman, Wright went full-on superstar in 2014. He won several awards (Bednarik, Nagurski, Lombardi, Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year, etc.) and was the lone defensive player to finish in the top 10 in the Heisman voting. Without him, Arizona’s Pac-12 South title and berth in the Fiesta Bowl seem far-fetched, because with him, the defense was still among the bottom half of the conference in yards per game (451.0), yards per play (5.7), and scoring defense (28.1). Take away the final two games of the season and it might have felt like a step forward, but from a statistical standpoint, Arizona regressed across the board compared to 2013. Grade: C+
Special teams: Kicker Casey Skowron had his good moments (see: Washington) and bad (see: USC), but was relatively reliable, finishing the season 20 for 28 on field goals -- including four of five from 40-plus yards. Punter Drew Riggleman upped his average distance per punt by six yards compared to last season (up to 46.1), which ranked second in the Pac-12. In the return game, Arizona ranked ninth in the conference in yards per kickoff return (21.5), and third in punt returns (12.3). Its coverage units ranked 10th (kickoffs), and 12th (punts), respectively. Grade: B-.
Overall: As the champion of the most competitive division in college football, Arizona can look back fondly at the 2014 season. Though losing its final two games could understandably leave a sour taste in the short term, the season was wildly successful as a whole. Perhaps more exciting for Wildcats fans is that this doesn’t feel like a brief punch-out-of-weight-class season. The foundation is there for Rodriguez to field a consistent winner for years to come. Not once has Arizona won more than eights games in consecutive years since leaving the WAC after the 1977 season, but the expectation next season should be for that to change. Grade: A-
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