Grant Gunnell Archives | AZ Cats Zone

Arizona 20 UCLA 17

zonecats September 29, 2019 2019 Games Tagged AZ vs UCLA, Colin Schooler, Darrius Smith, Grant Gunnell

Arizona pulls off the victory over UCLA. This was a game that was very interesting to watch. The Wildcats starting QB Khalil Tate and starting running back J.J. Taylor were both out with injuries.

Grant Gunnell had to step up and make his first start as QB for this game. Overall, he did a decent job and threw for 352 yards and made an incredible pass to Darrius Smith that resulted in a touchdown.

You could tell Gunnell was a little nervous in his first start, but he put up some big numbers and did not throw any interceptions.

The defense stepped up again and were able to get decent pressure on UCLA QB Thompson-Robinson. Colin Schooler had an incredible hit on a UCLA Running Back. The Wildcats need more of this – check out this clip:

Towards the end of the game Arizona had an incredible TD run by Brian Casteel, but it was waived off when it looked like his knee touched the ground.

The next play Gunnell was sacked and the Wildcats had to punt it to UCLA with plenty of time on the clock.

UCLA was then able to easily go down the field and get into field goal range. The first attempt was good, but Sumlin wisely called a timeout to ice the kicker. It worked and the next attempt was wide right and this sealed the victory for Arizona.

Overall, this was a hard fought and gritty win for the Wildcats. They need to build from this win because the upcoming games are going to be huch harder to win.

Here are the AZ vs UCLA highlights:

Next Game: AZ vs Colorado

Wildcats Beat NAU 65-41

zonecats September 9, 2019 2019 Games Tagged AZ vs NAU, Gary Brightwell, Grant Gunnell, J.J. Taylor

The Wildcats offense dominated NAU right from the very beginning of this game and set a school record by scoring 51 points in the first half.

The defense on the other hand struggled for most of the game.

A major factor is the lack of discipline on defense. Penalties on 3rd down are a huge problem and when the Wildcats get into conference play it will be a major issue.

In fact, if this isn’t corrected soon it will be very hard for the Wildcats to win anymore games.

Arizona had 11 penalties for 127 yards compared to NAU’s 4 penalties for 15 yards. If this continues against more difficult opponents they simply will not win games.

Another major issue is the amount of points Arizona is giving up. They gave up 45 against Hawaii and 41 against NAU. This needs to be fixed.

Even though the defense struggled, there were some real bright spots on offense. The rushing was amazing during this game with Gary Brightwell and J.J. Taylor having over 100 yards. Brightwell had an incredible 94 yard rushing touchdown.

Since this game was a blowout after the first half a lot of 2nd and 3rd team players got a lot of playing time.

Backup QB Grant Gunnell looked amazing and he had an incredible perfectly thrown touchdown pass. The future looks bright with Gunnell.

Overall the offense was impressive in this game, but defense is going to be a major problem this year.

The Texas Tech game is going to be real test to see if the Wildcats can move forward this year. If the defense can be fixed they will be very competitive, otherwise this will be a long losing season.

Here are the AZ vs NAU highlights:

Next Game: AZ vs Texas Tech