Arizona head coach Brent Brennan hasn’t experienced many happy flights back home to Tucson following a road game. Before Saturday, the Wildcats were 1-6 on the road under Brennan.
Then came a 52-17 beatdown of the Colorado Buffaloes in Boulder, a victory that moves Arizona (5-3, 2-3 Big 12) to one win shy of bowl eligibility. Brennan made it a point that he and the team were going to enjoy every last bit of the two-hour flight to Tucson.
“We’re gonna have a fun plane ride, damn it,” Brennan said. “We’re gonna enjoy
the plane ride home, and I’m looking forward to that, but the joy in that locker room, the hugs, the smiles, how it felt, just fantastic, and we’ll get to Kansas tomorrow.”
The win is a relief for players and coaches alike after back-to-back close losses to BYU and Houston.
“This is a huge win. This is a huge win coming off two heartbreaking losses,” Brennan said. “And you know, it gives us a chance to be excited and now have some momentum to attack the work going into this next week.”
Our full recap of the game can be found here, and our grades to the game here. Below is what Brennan, defensive back Jay’vion Cole and receiver Nunu Whatley had to say postgame.
Brennan’s opening statement: “I want to thank our families and our friends for making the trip out to Colorado, but before I get to the game, I just want to say that we’re all thinking of the families and the friends of the young people whose lives were lost in the collision on campus over the weekend. Anytime anything like that happens on a college campus, it’s incredibly sad, and everybody is feeling just really, really hurting about that. So we just want you to know you’re in our thoughts and prayers and we’re thinking about you.”
On what he liked about Arizona’s performance: “As I turn my energy to the game, there was a lot of good stuff in that game. And I thought our defense was lights out, forcing five turnovers and at least one fourth down stop, which for us, that’s another takeaway. I thought the physicality that we played with was outstanding offensively. I thought Noah operated on a really high level, so that was just a lot of fun to see. And I’m really excited about the forward progression of our football team. When we went into the bye week, we knew we had to return to fundamentals. We had lost two heartbreaking, gut wrenching games, and our players responded. We believed we had a good football team, and I think that showed up tonight, so I’m incredibly proud of our progress. I know we still got work to do, but I’m excited about this win. Bear Down.”
On the strip sack that led to Arizona’s second touchdown of the first quarter: “Well, any takeaway in a football game is a momentum changer. And then where it was in the field position and (Fifita) followed it up on the next play by a deep ball for a touchdown is big time. I thought the throw was an absolute dime from Noah, and then Kris (Hutson) made a great play. So just really exciting to kind of get that momentum and then capitalize on it.”
On whether he thought Colorado’s defense would give up nearly as many points as it did to Utah: “No, I think when we looked at Colorado, we didn’t spend as much time with the Utah film, because I just feel like they’re a much different team at home. I just see how well they played over the course of the year here at Folsom. We were just focused us and our program and our process to get ready to play.”
On how positive field position from turnovers fueled Arizona’s offense: “Anytime you get positive field position from a turnover or big punt return, or any of that stuff, it definitely changes the game, right? Shorter fields are better than long fields. And so I thought that was great. I thought Coach Doege called a great game, and I thought Noah executed at a high level in those situations.”
On how much the receivers have progressed over the course of the season: “You see more guys making plays now, which is exciting. I think anytime we can be that explosive in the pass game, where we become incredibly hard to defend, you also saw some great runs pop there in the second quarter. So tonight, I think in a lot of ways, we were firing on all cylinders in terms of our run and pass game and just Noah Fifita just brilliant.”
On Fifita’s outing: “I think those those big, explosive plays where getting through his progression and hitting Gio on that dig that split got housed. It was great to see Gio Richardson, true freshman, make a play like that for us. But the ball was a dime, as was the big ball to Nunu (Whatley) right before halftime. Absolute dime from Noah. And so just to see him play at that level, and just to play with that confidence, I think his relationship with Coach Doege, him trusting coach Doege and executing the offense at a high level makes a lot of fun to watch.”
On whether he’s ever had a game where he’s faced four different quarterbacks: “I don’t think so.”
On whether he was surprised by Colorado’s quarterback progression: “I don’t even think we thought of it that way. We kind of spent the week preparing, thinking that we might see at least three of them. And really for us, it was much more of a focus on us and how we play. Do we play with red line? Do we execute the defense? And I thought they did.”
On trusting Coach Danny Gonzales’ gameplan: “Those are their decisions to make. Not ours. I thought Coach G and our defensive staff did a great job getting our defense ready to play, and I thought they executed. And so that’s red line. And we’re excited to see it.”
On whether this was one of the better performances by Arizona’s defensive backs: “Yeah, I think that. I think they were lights out. You know what I mean? That many turnovers, that many takeaways in a game. And I think, the more they play, the more those guys get confidence, right? And I think, a lot of that has to do with our ability to pressure the quarterback, remove him off his spot. But I thought those guys did a great job all night.”
On getting a big road win: “Oh, it’s big time. You know, it’s big time. I think just seeing the excitement and the enthusiasm and just how we started when coming out, guys were ready to play. They were excited. We hadn’t played for two weeks, and we had to sit on the tough loss of Houston for two weeks. And guys had to sit in that. We had to practice with that. And everybody was pissed off and bent out of shape. So we attacked the work. Like, what else can you do? Sit around and feel sorry for yourself? Are you going to go to work? And those guys went to work. And then you see the results of that, right? You see the results of that hard work. You see the results of that consistency. You see the results of that extra that they’re putting in, and I’m excited about that.”
On the offense’s balance and whether that’s what he expects to see: “That’s what I hope to see.You know? But I do think, like I said, I think Coach Doege has done a great job and our offensive staff preparing those guys. But those players got to make the plays when they get the opportunity to do so, and that’s what that was really exciting, really, really fun.”
On the significance of the win: “This is a huge win. This is a huge win coming off two heartbreaking losses. And you know, it gives us a chance to be excited and now have some momentum to attack the work going into this next week.”
On being a win away from bowl eligibility: “We live in a one week vacuum, man. We don’t think about any of that stuff. Like, you know, we’re going to celebrate the hell out of this. We’re gonna have a fun plane ride, damn it. We’re gonna enjoy the plane ride home, and I’m looking forward to that, but the joy in that locker room, the hugs, the smiles, how it felt, just fantastic, and we’ll get to Kansas tomorrow.“
Whatley on how Arizona spent the bye week: “We had two losses, so we really attacked the bye week and worked on the little things. I feel like everything just translated over today.”
On what Arizona’s offense worked on over the past week: “I feel like offensive wise, we kind of did the same, just stuck to our bread and butter, and just try to do everything that was good at and perfect it.”
On the development of the wide receiver room: “Each week we come in and we got everybody to work hard. I feel like each we got better at something, it don’t matter what it is. Like route running, releases. I feel like each week we’re getting at something just so that we can transfer that over to Saturday.”
On Gio Richardson’s progression: “He’s always had the skills, so I’d say just him getting comfortable and coming off his injury he had in high school. I would say just getting comfortable and feeling himself again.”
On his relationship with the younger receivers: “I like playing with them. They actually listen to the older guys, so that, when I tell them, Listen, but yeah, my little buddies right there.”
On his 34-yard touchdown catch: “The whole week we’ve been talking about playing fast and slit Cover 2 and basically just making the right read. I felt like it was open, so I just ran. That’s what I do best, run, so I just ran.”
Cole on Arizona’s mentality over the bye week: “I feel like coming off those two losses, those are two very great teams, two hard fought losses, and then with the bye week coming off of Houston, I feel like it was just a great week for us to go back to work and just put all the hard work back to work.”
On what the process was like during the bye week: “I feel like as far the defensive side, I feel like we got back to what we do originally, what got us to the four wins that we had in the past, which was running to the ball, playing physical, and just doing what we do, detail in everything we do.”
On the message when Arizona went up multiple possessions: “The biggest thing, especially going up big on the road in the Big 12, especially, was just finishing. I feel like we didn’t do a great job of that today. We played a very great football team who gave us a challenge, honestly. We we just really need to work on finishing in the future.”
On what worked defensively that helped Arizona separate in the first half: “I feel like on the defensive side of the ball, we just out physical’d them. We stuck to what we did, which is being detailed, getting to the ball as a team. Making plays on thefootball when they presented themselves.”
On whether he thought the win would be this easy: “Honestly, no. We knew that the team that we saw play last week versus Utah was not the team that we’re going to get today. They’re a very great football team. The team that we saw last week was not Colorado.”
On the significance of the win: “It’s a very big win, especially on the road in the Big 12 at a challenging place like this. Great fan base. Great football team that we just played. So for us to come out on top was amazing.”
almost a very big win, especially on the wall, on the road, in the big show at a challenging place like this, great fan base, great football team that we just played. So for us to come out on top was amazing.“
