For those of you tuning in to Thursday night college football looking for an upset, you may be in luck.
Thanks to the game being played in the Alamodome, as well as the hosts riding a six-game winning streak into the contest, Arizona was placed on upset alert for their game against UT-San Antonio even before the ball was kicked off. At least through the first two quarters, that’s proved to be a prescient line of thinking as the Roadrunners trail the Wildcats by just four, 20-16, heading into the locker room.
UA scored on its first play from scrimmage, an 85-yard touchdown pass from freshman Anu Solomon to Cayleb Jones and his powerful stiff-arm. The next offensive series, set up by a long punt return, netted a field goal, pushing the lead to 10-0 and setting up what had the looks of a blowout.
Instead, UTSA scored a touchdown on a lengthy drive at the end of the first quarter. On the ensuing possession, Arizona kicked a field goal to stretch the lead to 13-7; on UTSA’s next possession, the Roadrunners scored their second touchdown to take their first lead of the game.
A safety on a botched snap with under five minutes remaining in the second quarter pushed UTSA’s lead to 16-13. A late UA drive, aided by a pair of costly UTSA penalties that extended it, ended in a touchdown to give the Wildcats a hard-fought 20-16 lead going into halftime.
The Wildcats outgained the Roadrunners 293-184, with a combined 170 of those yards coming on the first and last drives of the half.
UTSA, incidentally, is looking for its first-ever win against a Power Five conference team. If they can clean some of the penalties up in the second half -- and some tackling -- they certainly have a shot at that program-first event.
