When offensive lineman Cayman Bundage wasn’t celebrating a touchdown with Ka’Deem Carey, he was helping clear space for him up front. Photo by Matt Kartozian-US PRESSWIRE

Ball at the 25. Three-point lead. Four minutes and 40 seconds left against USC.

A true freshman is at left guard. The left guard is at left tackle. The center and right guard are injury replacements. Arizona’s backup quarterback, B.J. Denker, had just come into the game for an ailing Matt Scott.

No way were the Wildcats going to pass the ball.

“When everyone in the stadium knows you are going to run it, that’s the time you have to do it,” Arizona coach Rich Rodriguez said.

For a team that plays fast and ranks high in all the national stats in offense, it was the ensuing 19-yard drive — before a delay-of-game penalty at the end — that will go down as one of the season’s highlights.

“It’s satisfying for the offensive line because we pride ourselves in getting better in the run game,” said starting junior guard Chris Putton, who also has been rotating at left tackle with Mickey Baucus.

“We put our minds to it. Come off the ball. Whoever wants it more is going to win it.”

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Solomon Hill displayed fine 3-point form in the second half of last season. Photo by Chris Morrison-US PRESSWIRE

Arizona Wildcats forward Solomon Hill has a lot to say. He’s a senior. This is his team. He might be the best player in the Pac-12.

It’s his time to be a leader.

“That’s somebody who can do it on and off the court,” Hill said.

“Somebody who can talk to the players and make them understand you. And not just say it, but do it on the court and they can watch it. That’s the biggest part of it. If somebody says something to you, and they can’t do it themselves, you don’t respect that.”

So, Solomon Hill has a lot to do, not just say.

And he’s been doing it.

Coach Sean Miller raves about Hill’s offseason and his work through preseason camp, and all that will be on display tonight when the Wildcats play their first exhibition game, against Humboldt State at McKale Center at 6:30 p.m. (The game will be streamed live at www.Pac-12.com.

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Mike Thomas couldn’t catch another former Arizona Wildcat — Chicago Bears linebacker Lance Briggs — during an interception return for a touchdown on Oct. 7. Photo by Phil Sears-US PRESSWIRE

Former Arizona Wildcats receiver Mike Thomas is on the move to Detroit, while ex-UA quarterback Nick Foles is going to stay right where he’s been — on the Philadelphia bench.

Thomas, a fourth-year pro, was traded Tuesday from Jacksonville to the Lions, with an official announcement pending as of Wednesday morning until he passes his physical.

“Money Mike” (5-8, 198) caught 158 passes for 1,688 yards in his first three seasons with Jacksonville, but his role had been diminished this season, even after signing a five-year, $19 million contract extension after last year.

After catching a Pac-12 career record 259 passes with the Wildcats, Thomas was a fourth-round pick of Jacksonville in 2009. The Jaguars reportedly received a fifth-round pick for Thomas in the trade with Detroit, where he could work in the slot and as a returner. Some of the early buzz has him as a possibility to be a multiple threat lined up in the backfield.

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Rich Rodriguez is trying to become the first coach to lead Arizona to a bowl in his first season. Photo by Matt Kartozian-US PRESSWIRE

Let’s talk Arizona Wildcats football, big picture. Four games left. The bowl possibilities.

Arizona is 5-3 overall. It needs to get to six wins to be eligible for one of the Pac-12′s seven guaranteed bowls. The league could have eight bowl slots if it sends two teams to the BCS.

With Colorado still on the schedule — a home game on Nov. 10 — the chances of the Cats getting to six victories is the barest minimum of expectations. The question isn’t really whether the Buffs are the worst team in the league (their shocking comeback win at Washington State notwithstanding), but one of the worst since the Oregon State teams of the early 1980s.

(The 2008 Washington State Cougars say hello. So do the winless 2008 Washington Huskies, who lost to that 2008 WSU team.)

Anyway, it’s probably time for a refresher course on which bowls select Pac-12 teams in what order. Here it is:

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Matt Scott took a hit from USC’s Dion Bailey (behind Scott on the ground) and T.J. McDonald on this play in the fourth quarter. Photo by Matt Kartozian-US PRESSWIRE

Arizona Wildcats quarterback Matt Scott, saying “I don’t really think I had a concussion,” appears good to go for Saturday’s game at UCLA.

Scott took a couple of shots to the head at the end of a run in the fourth quarter against USC last Saturday, vomiting on the field soon after the play. Officials flagged the Trojans for a personal foul.

Scott said he was “winded” after keeping the ball on consecutive plays. Saturday’s game, only the second played under the sun this season for Arizona, marked the most Scott has rushed the ball since early in the season.

“I ran two plays and got winded, honestly,” he said at the football team’s weekly news conference Monday.

“That’s why I threw up. I felt it coming on two or three plays before that. I was trying to hold it down, but eventually it came up. All summer, when we were working out with the strength coaches and everything and running outside, I was throwing up all the time.

“I was probably throwing up every time we ran. That’s just me. It wasn’t because of the hit or anything like that.”

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Arizona’s Homecoming game against Colorado on Nov. 10 will be an afternoon event. The game will begin at 11:30 a.m. and be televised nationally by FX.

That leaves only one UA game with a start time to be determined — at Utah on Nov. 17.

This Saturday’s game at UCLA will start at 7:30 p.m. on the Pac-12 Networks. The regular-season finale, at home against Arizona on Friday, Nov. 23, will start at 8 p.m. on ESPN.

Colorado is 1-7 overall and 1-4 in the Pac-12 heading into this Saturday’s game against visiting Stanford.

The Arizona Wildcats’ big recruiting weekend, and the team’s 39-36 upset of USC, netted a commitment from a junior college speedster.

Mario Alford, a versatile offensive skill player from Georgia Military College, committed before he returned home with three of his teammates who also were on official visits. One of those, linebacker Brandon Golson, said earlier this month he would be a Wildcat (more on him below).

Alford (5-9, 170) was timed in 4.43 seconds for 40 yards at the Atlanta MVP Camp in April 2010.

“He has been exceptional any time we get the ball in his hands — out of the backfield, as a receiver, on reverses, on sweeps,” GMC offensive coordinator Ross Robinson said Monday morning.

“From everything I have been told, Arizona is going to use him like we use him, as a ‘package’ guy. We use him in all different ways.”

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Arizona’s victory over USC on Saturday launched the Wildcats into the BCS standings released Sunday afternoon.

The Cats are 22nd, the only three-loss team in the BCS standings.

Arizona (5-3) is not ranked in the Top 25 of the two human polls that make up two-thirds of the BCS formula, although it is receiving votes in each. The Cats are 29th in the Harris Interactive poll and 33rd in the USA Today coaches poll.

The computer average is what boosts Arizona’s overall BCS ranking. UA’s average in the six BCS computers, which are more in tune to the Cats’ strength of schedule, is No. 14 nationally.

Arizona is the fifth Pac-12 team in the BCS standings. The others are Oregon at No. 4, Oregon State at No. 11, Stanford at No. 14 and USC at No. 17.

Oklahoma State, which lost at Arizona in September, is 24th in the BCS. Louisiana Tech, coached by former UA offensive coordinator Sonny Dykes, is No. 25.

The BCS standings, largely designed to identify the top two teams for the national championship game, have Alabama and Kansas State at the top.

(Arizona is ranked No. 24 in the AP poll and No. 22 on my AP ballot).

Rich Rodriguez’s team was ranked for two weeks in September before losing at Oregon on Sept. 22. Photo by Matt Kartozian-US PRESSWIRE

The media is smarter than the coaches.

The Arizona Wildcats, following their 39-36 victory over USC, climbed back into the AP poll on Sunday, ranked No. 24.

UA is the only three-loss team in the Top 25, but as I explained here in posting my ballot, that makes perfect sense given the strength of schedule and quality victories.

The USA Today coaches poll, on the other hand, puts the Cats a distant 33rd, not even getting as many votes as three teams they have defeated — USC, Oklahoma State and Toledo. And UA’s rout of Washington isn’t shabby, considering the Huskies have defeated Stanford and knocked off previously unbeaten Oregon State on Saturday night.

Arizona’s game this week at UCLA (7:30 p.m., Pac-12 Networks) will be a battle of ranked teams. The Bruins (6-2) moved into the AP poll at No. 25.

The Wildcats appeared on 26 of 60 AP ballots this week, with a high ranking of No. 15.

Arizona players celebrate after beating USC 39-36. Photo by Matt Kartozian-US PRESSWIRE

The best three-loss team in the country.

Nobody aspires to be that, but that’s what the Arizona Wildcats can claim to be. Let’s just say they have the best resume of any three-loss team — and that resume is better than many teams with one or two losses.

It’s good enough, to me, to put Arizona at No. 22 on my AP ballot this week.

Strength of schedule, quality victories and no “bad” losses lead to picking the 5-3 Cats over teams with better records. The combined mark of Arizona’s seven FBS opponents is 43-12. Take out UA’s results against those teams, and those seven foes have gone 39-9 against the rest of their schedules.

Arizona’s 49-0 loss at Oregon looks bad, but the Ducks do that to a lot of teams, and the game was closer the score indicated for through much of three quarters at least. The Cats were within a whisker of beating two other ranked teams — Oregon State and Stanford.

Meanwhile, Arizona’s season-opening win against Toledo continues to look better (the Rockets have won eight in a row, including a win over then-ranked Cincinnati). Oklahoma State is 5-2 and working its way back to relevance after solid wins over Iowa State and TCU in the past two weeks. USC is still USC.

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