Two weeks to the day after quarterback Anu Solomon announced his decision in December to leave Arizona, he watched with interest as Baylor beat Boise State in the Motel 6 Cactus Bowl up the freeway from Solomon’s home for the past 3 1/2 years.
Zach Smith threw for 375 yards and three scores in the Bears’ 31-12 win that ended a six-game skid. Solomon was impressed. So was Matt Rhule, of course, but the new Baylor coach — on the job for three weeks — wondered if the big performance by Smith, a freshman, might work against Baylor in its bid to land Solomon as a graduate transfer in 2017.
New Baylor assistant Shawn Bell, a former quarterback at the school hired by Rhule from Cedar Ridge High School in Round Rock, Texas, spoke often to Solomon in December and early January as the QB shopped for a spot to land. And when Solomon told Bell that Smith’s big night in Phoenix only heightened his excitement in the Bears, well, the Baylor coaches felt the same way about Solomon.
“I told them I don’t need to be wined and dined,” Solomon said in an interview last week. “I don’t need to be sold, because I’ve been through the recruiting process. I’ve hosted players. I know the whole deal there. I’m just here for business. I’m here to win games.”
And so here he is, on campus in Waco since the spring semester began last month. To graduate five months early at Arizona, Solomon took a heavy course load in the fall and three classes in the shortened winter session.
“Man, let me tell you,” he said, “that was a challenge.”
He has conquered a series of challenges in his football career and faces yet another in this final season of collegiate eligibility after setting passing records at Arizona in a four-year stay that peaked early, then fizzled amid a string of injuries over the past two seasons.
Solomon dreams of an NFL career. “If it’s in God’s plan,” he said, “hopefully.”
He picked Baylor, in part, because of the professional experience on Rhule’s staff. But his focus for the next 10 months, Solomon said, is on bringing wins to a Baylor program that buckled, after a 6-0 start in 2016, in the fallout from a sexual-assault scandal that continues to simmer in Waco.
At Baylor, Solomon said, he’s “looking forward, ignoring all the negative and just staying positive.”
Upon arriving last month, he said he congratulated Smith, who started the final three regular-season games after senior Seth Russell went down in Week 11 at Oklahoma. Smith returns as the top QB entering spring practice, but Solomon, who threw for nearly 7,000 yards and 49 touchdowns at Arizona, will get a strong look, Bell said. Early enrollee Charlie Brewer out of Austin’s Lake Travis High School also enters the picture.
“I’m not going to be the guy who hides the answers to the playbook or anything,” Solomon said. “I’m going to continue to share my knowledge of the game.”
Solomon lived in Honolulu until age 10, then won four Nevada state titles at prep powerhouse Bishop Gorman in Las Vegas. After a redshirt season at Arizona, he threw for 3,793 yards in 2014 as the Wildcats won the Pac-12 South. In 2015, he suffered the first of two concussions in a loss to UCLA and missed a pair of games.
Coach Rich Rodriguez opened the QB competition last spring between Solomon and Brandon Dawkins. Solomon won the job but tore the MCL in his left knee four days after a season-opening loss to BYU. He returned to play as a backup in three games and started against Oregon State in Week 12 but injured his foot, throwing for just 462 yards and one touchdown all season as Arizona finished 3-9.
“It’s depressing to see it all wash away like that,” said Solomon, who left Arizona with records for the most passing yards in a game and the longest streak of throws without an interception.
Solomon said he felt he received a fair shake at every turn in Tucson but that he lost confidence after the knee injury. The experience, he said, strengthened his faith and sharpened his leadership skills. He said he feels “great” as his first practice in a new uniform nears.
Solomon was drawn to Baylor, he said, because of the success of former quarterbacks Robert Griffin III, Bryce Petty and Russell, in addition to wide receiver Corey Coleman. So he opted to broaden his search for a new school beyond UNLV, Hawaii, Fresno State and Nevada of the Mountain West, looking at North Carolina in addition to Baylor.
“Athletic and academic excellence,” Solomon said of Baylor. “And they have a Raising Cane’s. That’s a big deal.”
Since his time at Bishop Gorman, Solomon said, he has approached football with a chip on his shoulder, always bidding to prove the doubters wrong.
It’s no different at this last chapter of college.
“I’m the same guy as Day 1,” he said. “No matter what I did, the past is the past. I’m still going to be that hungry and humble kid from Hawaii — and continue to fight.”
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