BURBANK, Calif. – Arizona coach Rich Rodriguez, owner of a sideline scowl that would make Bill Cowher cower, says he’s softened up on his quarterbacks the older he’s gotten.
His second-year starter, Anu Solomon, was not present at media day to verify the claim. So we’ll have to take his word that the coach who loves a “hard edge” has dulled slightly. A sideline shot of Rodriguez when Solomon throws his first interception will reveal the truth. So we'll have to wait and see.
For the first time in his coaching career at Arizona, Rodriguez has a returning quarterback. In 2012, he had Matt Scott for one season. Then it was B.J. Denker for a year. Now Solomon, after posting solid numbers as a redshirt freshman, is back for a second season.
By far, Rodriguez was the most charismatic coach at Pac-12 media days at Warner Brothers Studios. He was slinging one-liners like a standup comedian, but was also on point with his assessment of his quarterback and the super-competitive Pac-12 South. Asked if it was “refreshing” to have a returning quarterback, he quipped:
“Refreshing? I think a nice cold beer or a Bacardi and Coke, or maybe even a nice iced tea sweetened is refreshing. What was the question again?”
Your quarterback, coach...
“Oh, starting quarterback, yeah. It’s like I tell our players, having a starter return is good if he played well when he started, which Anu did, and if he’s better. I thought Anu played well for the most part and I think he’s better. So that part makes you excited. And the fact that every year there are more guys in the program that understand how we do things … we have more guys returning that have been in the program in any time I’ve been here.”
With that in mind, Rodriguez said he’ll be asking more out of his second-year starter.
“It all starts with what he can handle,” said Rodriguez, whose team won the South Division last season. “I always say our quarterback has to be like a point guard that can shoot the 3 and he’s leading the fast break every time. It’s either 4-on-3, 5-on-4, 2-on-1, whatever he can handle mentally. I do think we can add more, and we wanted to do that anyway. But sometimes as coaches we try to think we’re the smartest guys in the room and we do too much.”
In his first season, Solomon completed 313 of 540 pass attempts (58 percent) for 3,793 yards with 28 touchdowns and nine interceptions. And Rodriguez, as all coaches tend to be at media days, was enthusiastic about the future.
“He was a little bigger [in the spring], a little faster, little stronger,” Rodriguez said. “He had a better knowledge of the offense. I thought he did really well last year in his first year as a starter. I think the other part of it is we know what his strengths and weaknesses are at crunch time as well.”