By
Maxx Wolfson
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Wildcat defense delivers in 17-3 victory against San Diego
In what would prove to be a defensive battle, the Arizona football team pulled out a 17-3 victory against non-conference opponent San Diego State (0-3 overall) Saturday night.
Arizona completed their non-conference schedule with a victory, improving to 2-1 before the start of the 2000 Pacific 10 Conference schedule, which starts Sept. 30 at Stanford.
"I just have a lot of respect for San Diego State," Arizona head coach Dick Tomey said. "They played so hard."
The Wildcat defense shone throughout the game, holding the Aztecs to just 196 yards of total offense before a crowd of 44,973 at Arizona Stadium.
"They had an outstanding defense," SDSU head coach Ted Tollner said. "We knew it would be tough to get yards."
Sophomore linebacker Lance Briggs and the UA defense shut down the SDSU running attack, holding their top running back Larry Ned to just 85 yards on 29 carries.
"We really put a spanking to them," Briggs said. "The (defensive) line played really good, and they put a shut down on Larry Ned, who ran pretty crazy against us two years ago."
Briggs recorded eight tackles - three of them for a loss - and managed one interception and one sack on Aztec quarterback Lon Sheriff.
Sheriff started the game for the injured starter Jack Hawley, who will miss the rest of the season due to cracked vertebrae suffered two weeks ago against Illinois.
"I didn't find out until Thursday that I would be the guy," Sheriff said. "I was put in a different situation, one that I was never put in before. We just have to drop back and throw balls down the field."
The Wildcats put the game away for good with 9:45 remaining in the fourth quarter when Brandon Nash blocked a Brian Simnjanovski punt.
Thurman picked up the blocked punt and ran the ball 34 yards for the game's final score.
"They opened wide and didn't pick me up, and I went through untouched," Nash said.
Both teams seemingly struggled on offense in the game's first half.
Unable to put the ball in the end zone, UA found themselves down by a field goal late in the second quarter following a 45-yard field goal by SDSU's Nate Tandberg.
The Wildcats finally got their offense going late in the quarter when they ran the two-minute drill to near-perfection, ending the quarter ahead, 7-3.
Jenkins connected with freshman wide receiver Andrae Thurman three times on the drive for 52 yards.
"Thurman is a natural receiver," Tomey said. "He is a 'run-after-the-catch' guy."
Thurman got more playing time Saturday due to an injury to starting wide receiver Bobby Wade, who is still hampered by an injury after getting hit on a punt return last weekend.
Wade should return in time to face the Cardinal.
To complete the drive, Jenkins threw a pass to another receiver, junior Malosi Leonard, for a touchdown.
Jenkins, facing a second-and-goal situation, connected with Leonard on a 14-yard floater to put the Wildcats up for good with 12 seconds left in the half.
The connection seemingly awoke a dormant UA offense.
After struggling in the first two games of the season, Ortege Jenkins put up good numbers, completing 19-29 passes for 200 yards and one touchdown to six different receivers.
"We had good pressure on him for the better part of the night," Tollner said. "Sometimes though it looked as though our guys' eyes were closed. He is a good athlete, and good athletes will do that to you."
Another standout for the Wildcats was freshman running back Clarence Farmer.
Seeing major playing time for the first time in his young UA career, the Texan ran for 95 yards on just 13 carries.
"Farmer is just a big tailback who doesn't go down," Tomey said. "On one play he took like five of them nine yards, and he was just really impressive."
Following the game, Tomey appeared happy with the running back situation. It seems a third back - Farmer - will now share time with sophomores Leo Mills and Larry Croom, who had split time in the season's first two games.
UA has a bye week this coming weekend, which could not have come at a better time for the Wildcats.
"We are taking a little different approach to the bye week this year," Tomey said. "After you play three games, there are certain guys who you need to rest."
