By
Maxx Wolfson
Arizona Daily Wildcat
It seems Jason Johnson's ability to learn an offense is finally paying off for the junior quarterback from Puyallup, Wash. A backup for his first two seasons as a Wildcat, Johnson has now been given an opportunity to become the starter, following the departure of senior Ortege Jenkins.
For the first time since spring practice started two weeks ago, UA head coach John Mackovic has announced that Johnson emerged as the early favorite.
Johnson has more experience than the rest of the group, playing sparingly in four games last season.
Saturday, the junior shined in the team's scrimmage at Arizona Stadium, completing 7-of-14 passes for 101 yards and a touchdown. On his lone touchdown pass, Johnson connected with senior wide receiver Brandon Marshall for a 20-yard strike, the only touchdown of the day for the offense.
"As of right now, I think it's fair to say that Jason Johnson shows the experience of being in a college football program," Mackovic said. "When he doesn't do so well, most of it's because of some other breakdowns. He is going to be given a lot of the work."
Johnson, who is known as a drop-back passer, worked with the first-team offense during the Wildcats' second scrimmage of the spring. Following the workout, he said that little things hampered his total performance.
"I think I threw the ball well today, but at the same time I am kind of upset that I missed a few things that I should have hit," Johnson said. "I definitely feel confident working with the first team, and I think all the guys have confidence in me when I step up in the huddle."
With the question of who has emerged as the early favorite for the No. 1 quarterback position becoming clearer, the order of the rest of the group is still undetermined.
All six Wildcat quarterbacks saw action during the scrimmage, but Johnson and sophomore Cliff Watkins received most of the snaps.
Watkins completed 9-of-18 passes for 120 yards in the scrimmage.
"Overall I thought I did all right," Watkins said. "I need to get faster and work on my quickness. I just need to keep studying the offense."
Freshman John Rattay, a redshirt transfer from Tennessee, saw limited action during practice, completing only 1-of-4 pass attempts.
Mackovic said the offense looked a step behind the defense during the scrimmage. On defense, UA's three senior defensive ends led the UA attack.
Defensive end Alex Luna had six sacks, while Austin Uku added 4.5 sacks and Eli Wnek sacked the quarterbacks three more times.
"I thought the defense went about (the) scrimmage like a game, while the offense just seemed to go at it like a practice," Mackovic said. "The defensive line is playing better, but they did not recognize some of the traps and draw plays."
Mackovic said the lack of offensive production was due to a lack of blocking up front.
"The quarterback play today ... I didn't see a whole lot of improvement from last week and I was hoping for a little better showing," Mackovic said. "Though a lot of it had to do with the fact that we didn't do a better job protecting the passer."
The lack of protection led to a total of 20 sacks.
"I wasn't very pleased with our offense because of our pass protection," Mackovic said. "That's an area we definitely have to spend a lot of time on. We were down numbers (because of injuries) and our poor offensive line was going double and triple duty. That makes it even harder, but we still should be doing better."
