By Scottie Bricker
Arizona Daily Wildcat
September 22, 1997

Wildcats "Hurry-up" to produce late surge

The hurry-up offense that worked so well for NFL quarterback Jim Kelly and the Buffalo Bills, found its way into the Arizona Wildcats repertoire in the fourth quarter of Saturday's 28-20 loss to No. 9 Ohio State.

The Wildcats scored 20 fourth-quarter points and nearly pulled off one of the biggest comebacks in school history, falling short in the waning minutes.

Arizona's 20 points are the only fourth-quarter points allowed by the Buckeye defense this season.

"We did some real good things there at the end," Arizona quarterback Keith Smith said. "The last 9-10 minutes of the game is some of the best football this offense has played."

The Wildcats again showed signs of the high powered offense that so many Arizona fans have come to hope for, but have yet to put together a solid game from beginning to end.

"I like the no huddle," Smith said. "When I get to call the plays on the run at the line of scrimmage I feel real comfortable. We just need to put it all together like we do in practice."

Arizona head coach Dick Tomey didn't seem to be so thrilled with the idea of using the offense more often. A Columbus reporter asked if the Wildcats had run the offense in the past and would they continue to use it in the future.

"Sure we've used it," Tomey said. "We used it last week (Against UAB), went three plays and out and took 20 seconds of the clock. I don't know how often we will use it the rest of the year."

Brad Brennan had a career day, catching six passes for 106 yards and one touchdown, his second of the season.

Senior Jeff Nadeau caught his first touchdown of the season during the Wildcats fourth quarter outburst.

Sophomore Trung Canidate gained 85 yards on 26 carries, while the team rushed 44 times for 170 yards, against an Ohio State defense that coming into the game, had yielded only 102.5 yards per game on the ground.

"Trung continues to run the ball well," Tomey said, "but this offense still has some things to work on. We are not we want to be at this point in the season."