It was far from a perfect performance, but after rallying from an early 14-0 hole Arizona beat Washington State to improve to 3-1. The games only get tougher, though, as unbeaten Cincinnati comes to Casino Del Sol Stadium on Saturday night.
The Wildcats broke down the good and bad of the WSU game on Sunday and will fully dive into the visiting Bearcats when practice resumes Tuesday morning. In between, UA coach Brent Brennan had his regular Monday press conference that often serves as a postmortem
on the previous game.
“There was some pressure upstairs from some of the guys in my staff to come in here and just hit you guys with the Bill Belichick ‘we’re on to Cincinnati, and we’re on to Cincinnati, and we’re on Cincinnati,’” Brennan joked. “And I was tempted.
Brennan said there were plenty of positives from the win, which was just the second nonconference road victory for the Wildcats in the past nine seasons.
Below is what Brennan said at his presser to open Cincinnati week:
On another slow start: “First play the game you give up a sack, and then drop a 35-yard pass, and so to me there’s like some mistakes there. It’s kind of that simple, right? Like we’re a rhythm offense, and we need to get into that kind of momentum. I think for our defense, there’s always going to be a little bit of a learning curve for our defensive staff because we are different. There’s no opponent film that they can watch and say, oh, that’s what they’re going to do against this, because no one plays what we play.”
On freshman Caleb ‘Jet’ Smith starting to break out: “Let’s see what he does at the end of the season. Let’s see what that thing looks like as time goes. Like that’s the hardest part for freshmen, the season’s longer, the practices are longer, everything’s more intense, the reps are way more intense. But I’m so excited for Jet. He’s worked super hard. He’s a very mature young man. It’s important to him right away. He had the respect of the team because of how hard he worked. When he got here, he was just like that. And then the plays he made in critical situations were just tremendous. A week ago we had a big punt return from him. But the the two plays that he made (at Washington State), the acceleration, leaving his feet for that ball, technically as a receiver coach, is fantastic. Leaves his feet, catches the ball, gets it on his body, rotates so he doesn’t land on it.”
On safety Cam Chapa’s recent play: “I think he’s just playing with confidence. I think he knows what to do. I think there’s always some of that when a new player that hasn’t played the game yet for you, and I think that is showing up for him. He’s playing with confidence and he’s playing fast, and that’s showing up to a lot of positive plays for him.”
On personal fouls: “We can’t do that in Big 12 games and expect to have a chance to win their game in the fourth quarter. And so we have to be smart about that. That was one of those those things in our battle of discipline that day that we did not handle, because we also had Quincy’s retaliation after the pick six when the defender for Washington State stood over Noah, so it was going to be a 15-yarder. That’s something we have aggressively addressed and will continue to do so with what we show on film, how we practice, how we talk, all those things.”
On if he talked to Michael Salgado-Medina between or before FG attempts: “No, it’s like talking to a pitcher during a no-hitter. The first one the snap was funny, but the second one he mis hit, and he’ll tell you. But for him, I let the guys that coach that coach that. Coach (Mike) Nesbitt kicked in the NFL, I’m letting him and Naivar handle that. I’m just there, in my opinion, I’m just there to support Michael and let him know that I have confidence in him, and I’m putting him back out there. You go win this game for us, and that’s what we did, and that’s what Mike did.”
On getting Ismail Mahdi more involved: “There’s been a lot of conversation about it, but the guy’s been like making barbecue for seven months, and so there was a little bit of a time for him just getting kind of comfortable. ‘m excited that I feel like the process is accelerating, and we’re starting to see better versions of them. And I think the timing of that is good with where we are in season right now.”
On if Tre Spivey has benefitted from Giovanni Richardson’s injury: “I think yes and no because I think we expect Spivey to go when Gio’s going. We’ve talked about this receiver group ad nauseum, and I think any kind of negative conversation about that was really just came out of the BYU game. When we were playing against a really good team, and the margins were really tight, and we missed a deep ball to Chris Hunter on the sideline, and we missed Gio on a deep ball for a touchdown. Spivey is a threat because he’s a big play guy. He’s strong. He can play the football. But we’ve seen the other guys in that room make plays, too.”
On milking a clock late in a game: “There’s a fine line there between staying in rhythm offensively and getting first downs and burning as much play clock as you can. That’s a fair question. I get it. If it doesn’t work, then everyone’s like, ‘oh, they snapped it too fast’ Some of that stuff is just how long are you sitting on the ball, waiting for it to be snapped.”
On Cincinnati: “We’ve got a big time opponent coming to town. Got a lot of respect for Coach Satterfield and Cincinnati. Excellent on offense. They’ve been running the ball basically at will. It’s going to be an incredible challenge for our defense. And then defensively, they’re extremely opportunistic, high pressure, playing out of an odd front. They play extremely hard.”
On Brandon Manumaleuna being honorary captain this week: “Brandon’s a guy that I’ve known for a long time. He was a player here when I coached here forever ago.lHe’s been a high school coach for a really long time, so I’ve got to spend a lot of time with him over the years. So I’m excited to see him.”
On Family Weekend: “I think it’s really special the way the U of A does it with the students and their families, and it’s always a great environment for us. It’s a night game, which to me gives the parents and our students a great opportunity to enjoy the day. All the stuff that people do leading up to game, and then there’s plenty of time for tailgates. There’s plenty of time for enjoying family and friends, and I just expect us to have an incredible crowd on Saturday night.”
On the passing of ex-UA swim coach Frank Busch: “Our thoughts and prayers are with Coach Busch and his family. Just such a legend, such a good guy. He’s always been such a nice guy to me i the limited time that I got to see him or be around him since I’ve been back here.”
