After dropping a double overtime heartbreaker to unbeaten BYU, Arizona players and coaches had the luxury of another game the following weekend to focus. That’s not the case following another crushing
defeat, one that ended with a walkoff field goal for Houston after the Wildcats had rallied from down two touchdowns in the fourth quarter.
The UA (4-3, 1-3 Big 12) enters its second bye week with plenty of question marks, most of them revolving around whether this team is capable of winning two of its final five games to become bowl eligible. Staying committed to the process is the first step, coach Brent Brennan said Monday.
“The thing that we talked about with the players is, what choice do you have?,” he said. “I mean, really, what choice do you have? You want to choose to believe, either you can or you can’t. And so with this team, this team believes they can, and that’s the way they showed up for work yesterday, and that’s the way they’ll show up for work tomorrow.
“And I understand everyone’s frustration, because everyone here is frustrated too. No one puts more into this thing than the players and coaches do that are in the building. The care factor in this space right here is incredibly high, incredibly high. And so are the disappointments when you don’t get the results you want.”
Arizona’s next game is Nov. 1 at Colorado. Between now and then Brennan said the time will be split between practicing fundaments, keeping banged up players healthy and the plan for the Buffaloes.
“We’re playing better football, and if we stay the course we will get it,” Brennan said. “We have to keep we have to keep pounding the rock, eventually it’s going to break.”
Below is what else Brennan said at his Monday presser at the outset of the bye week:
On keeping fan criticism from affecting players: “That is an incredible challenge, and it’s an incredible challenge in the world that these young people are growing up in. Because the public scrutiny is so much more than when I played, or any generations of the past played in, because everybody has access to them through their phone. Tag them on social media, that kind of thing. I think the important part for us moving forward is that we need to focus on the good things that we did in those two games and realize that … two weeks ago, that was the first place team in the Big 12 that we went toe to toe with for four quarters and two overtimes, and had a chance to win, and we didn’t, but we were there. And last weekend, we were on the road against a 5-1 team, and we’re down two touchdowns in the fourth quarter, and this team battled back and found a way to battle back and tie that game late. I think there’s so many positives. What are you going to choose to focus on? There’s details, there’s things that we need to fix as a coaching staff, and emphasize and get tightened up with our players. But then there’s also so many good things that we have to be excited about in that game. We have to be excited about the BYU game, and help the players see that.Look at all the positive things that are happening. Stay the course. It’s going to work for us. Because, again, what choice do you have? Like, how do you want to live?”
On fixing the run defense: “I think that’s a huge point of emphasis for us, just really because we were so good earlier in the season in our run defense. What we’ve seen is that people have been attacking us with a bunch of quarterback around the last two weeks, and that’s obviously a huge point of emphasis as we get going here. I think if you look at that game last week, one of our reasons for returning to fundamentals in the practice environment this week is that we missed too many tackles. Those numbers shouldn’t have been what they would have been if we would have made the tackle or gotten the guy down when we had a chance to.”
On why designed quarterback runs are difficult to defend: “Running the football is all, do you have more blockers than they got defenders, or you do have more defenders than they have blockers. So you’re always trying to get plus-one on either side of the wall, whatever. Normally, the quarterback is just a guy handing the ball, and so he’s a non factor in the count, that makes sense? I think that’s one of the things that’s challenging, I think both those guys are good runners too. Both the BYU quarterback and the Houston quarterback were both powerful, strong kids. That’s a situation where you have to have population at the football and we have to get people on the ground.”
On 3rd down defense struggling last 2 weeks: “It’s a combination of couple of those things, missing tackles or maybe us not executing the exact details of what we’re supposed to get done. And then I think we’re also playing against good football teams.”
On making decisions to go for it on 4th down: “It has to happen pretty fast. It has to happen pretty quickly when you got a play clock burning. But lots of times it’ll happen on the previous play. So we’re third and long or third and medium and I’ll say, hey, you got two downs here so that Seth (Doege) can make the play call before fourth down, basically knowing he’s got another shot at i. The other person that’s been great with that, his name, Danny (Gonzales), because sometimes when you do those things, if you don’t get it, you’re putting the defense in a tough situation. But Danny’s ready to play defense anywhere. So the conversation between three of us have been really, really positive.”
On getting Tre Spivey more involved: “His production has been off the charts. There’s a lot of people that can contribute in a meaningful way. And I think the more you see Tre play, the more confidence he plays with, which is really, really kind of what you would hope. Without like saying we’re going to throw it to Tre Spivey every play, obviously, we want to put the ball in his hands.”
On if Arizona submitted certain plays from the Houston game to the Big 12 office: “We did submit them, and they got back to us. Honestly, we’re talking too much about the officials the last two weeks, and really, I just want to focus on what’s next, and that’s the University of Colorado.”
On the failed 4th down conversion late in the first half: “It was a straight hand off, we missed the block. It was a huge momentum play in the game. That was not a called RPO, that was a straight called run, very different. RPO is run pass option, you can do either, and (Noah) is really good at that stuff. I think that’s why you see him hitting some of those throws, 24 of 26, it’s him making good decisions with the ball in his hand. Pulling it and throwing it are two different things, because on that play there was not a pass (option). He could have pulled it.”
On practice during the bye week: “The big part of this week also is that we need to get fresh. We’ve been at this for a few months now. Guys are beat up, and so we need to get our bodies fresh also, so we need to be smart about the intentional work that we get done in practice environment, getting fresh, returning to fundamentals, then also introducing the preliminary Colorado game plan stuff.”
On Riley Wilson’s role: “I think Riley Wilson is playing exactly where he should be. We’re getting a lot of production out of him and Max (Harris). It’s hard when you don’t get the results you want, because then everybody needs to blame something. But we’re playing good defense, and obviously it wasn’t good enough on Saturday, but I’m confident that coach Gonzales and that defensive side of the ball, those guys will get that going, they’ll get that thing on track.”
On Noah Fifita: “I think Noah’s on a great track. When you when you complete 24 of 26 that’s a pretty special day in football anywhere. One of the two, one was batted, one was dropped. His relationship with Coach Doege, I think his comfort in the offense. I think you see him improving and growing week by week. It also speaks to just what a competitor and what a hard worker he is. It’s so important to him, and so when you see somebody invest that level of time and effort and energy into being really good, then you can start to see the results. It’s awesome to see that for that kid.”
On Cam Barmore’s development: “It’s really exciting to see Cam playing the way he is. And it’s really fun, because what we asked him to do when he came here is so different than kind of what he was used to doing. And so that part of it is, it’s exciting to see him become an effective blocker and play with physicality. That’s part of his developmental process. I think that’s something that all of our coaches are excellent at, is developing players. And I think that’s part of the college process. Everybody wants the freshman to show up and be the best player on the team and all that stuff, or the transfer to come in and instantly light the world on fire. But there’s a developmental process towards getting good at college football, or getting good in this scheme, in this situation, at a different institution. And to Cam’s credit, he just leaned into it. He’s leaning into the coaching. He’s leaning to the hard work, and you’re seeing him play his best football.”
On Rhino Tapa’toutai’s progress: “I think Rhino has been moving in a good direction, and I think there’s been a lot of positive growth and development with that offensive line. I think Coach Oglesby is doing a great job with those players, and I think we’ve seen that production. Rhino is coming off that injury, basically we’re right at the line where he got hurt a year. It’s just now a year. And so for a big person like that, with the movement that he has to do and those kind of things, I think his progress has been good. But also we’re being smart with him in terms of, like, making sure his path back to playing full time and his back his path back to being a consistent contributor, that he’s ready for that. Because he was a register freshman, started six games and then tore his ACL, so in truth, he hasn’t played a lot of football. And so I’m excited about what he’s doing and the path that he’s on, and I think we’re just going to continue to see more and more good things from him throughout his career.”
On Lucas Havrisik giving Arizona 3 kickers in the NFL: “I think anytime you have players come from your program and are playing in the National Football League, that’s a great thing for the program. It’s really cool to see all that. And his story is such an interesting story. The kicker path is normally not like Tyler Loop, like normally those guys aren’t getting drafted. Normally they’re getting signed and they get cut and they get picked up. To his credit, he’s just stayed with it right. And now he’s really kind of establishing himself as a good player now in that league at that position. Anytime you have a Wildcat playing in the National Football League that’s good for us.”
