At 5-1, Arizona is off to its best start in 12 years. But the second half of the season, which features two games against unbeaten opponents and the Territorial Cup, figures to be a much bigger challenge.
“My dad used to always say nothing’s less important than the score at halftime, and that’s true,” UA coach Brent Brennan said Monday. “That’s where we’re at right now.”
The Wildcats are on a bye this week, giving them time to rest and recover after a successful first half of the season and be prepared
for the stretch run that begins Oct. 24 with Iowa State coming to town for Homecoming. The team will practice Tuesday through Thursday then take Friday and Saturday off to let the coaching staff hit the road and recruit.
“Now we’re shifting gears to the bye week, and really for me, it’s how do we improve?,” Brennan said. “How do we keep moving forward as a football team where we keep doing the things we need to do to continue to elevate every time we step on the practice field or step into the meeting room, and that’s really really our focus this week. We need to get our bodies fresh and our minds fresh a little bit. There needs to be a reset and a recharge for us a little bit, but then also, how do we continue to attack the work that gives us a chance to play the kind of football that we feel great about and think we’re capable of playing.”
Here’s what else Brennan said at his Monday presser:
On buying 1,000 tickets to the Homecoming game for local youth groups: “Homecoming is such a cool thing, everywhere I’ve ever been. I don’t know if it’s like so cool for the coaches, you don’t necessarily get to engage in a lot of that activity, but it’s an amazing thing for everybody that went to school here. It’s really that one thing that everybody circles on their calendar when they come back, get to see their old friends. A bunch of our former players can come back and lie to each other and tell each other how good they were back in the day. How do we continue to invest in the community here?
“Those groups that we’re working with, the Boys and Girls Club, that was a part of my youth. The Ronald McDonald House has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember, my parents were involved me with the Ron McDonald House in the Bay Area when I was growing up. Kids of Steel, we have our annual camp with that organization and those young people, which I think is a really, really great thing. And then youth football in the area. We just want to make it available to as many people as we can. And I thought this was a really easy way to engage some groups that are important to me, but also give some people a chance to see this football team play.”
On having such a major discrepancy in plays vs. West Virginia: “Coach Doege sent me in a funny interview with Mike Leach last week about Mike Leach talking about people complaining about scoring too fast. There’s no such thing. I thought it was great, I thought we had some really explosive plays on offense, which was really fun to see. I just think that part was was awesome to see. The throws Noah made, or the catches the receivers made, or the runs all the backs made. I just thought that was really exciting.
“And then we knew that they were going to be a tempo team. We knew that was going to be part of it. I thought we handled the tempo well. Talking with Danny (Gonzales), I think … he feels like we could have played better. That part of it is just obvious. But going in the game, I told you guys that the running back and the quarterback were a problem, and like we knew that was going to be a very, very real challenge for us, and it was. Those guys leave the conference and rush for a reason. Defensively it was five stops on fourth down, five turnovers down on downs over seven tries, and then also the amount of times that they got into the low red or the red zone, and I think it only translated to (a few) points those times. So there was a lot of really good stuff from our defense in terms of answering in the moment when they had to play their best, and I was excited about that. So there’s a lot to coach off there, but there’s also a lot to feel good about.”
On the team wearing UA dog tags: “We were traveling a long way. We had a very specific mission. We had a very specific game plan, how we were going to execute that mission from start to finish. I just think it’s a cool partnership that that we have here with the Air Force Base, and just also with our the ROTC groups on campus, and so the dog tags were a fun way, I just thought, to tie the team together on on the trip.”
On Noah Fifita being able to pick up blitzes: “We talk about Noah a lot, and rightfully so. He’s unbelievable, and his preparation just is so thorough. I mentioned it to you guys last week, just the way he takes notes and meetings, just like how every part of his process he is so engaged in, and I think you’re seeing the benefit of him having a coordinator for a second year now, his relationship with Coach Doege, their communication, the consistency of what we’re doing offensively from the carryover from last year to this year. And so now for Noah, he’s playing in something that he has some comfort, some familiarity, and then going into games, his ability to either redirect protection or control that or know where to go with football really fast, and then on some of those plays that you’re talking about, there’s also some like really heroic pass protection from our running backs. Those things don’t happen without them stepping into a 240-pound person trying to run through their body.”
On Arizona’s passing attack without 3 starters: “It speaks to the confidence and the chemistry (Noah) built with those guys in the offseason. He doesn’t just build that chemistry with Spivey and Gio and Chris Hunter, right? All those receivers are part of those throwing sessions when Noah says, ‘hey, let’s go throw.’ They all show up for that, and he takes those reps just as serious as he does a rep with Tre Spivey. And I also think Bobby Wade did a great job … of getting those guys ready to play, and it was exciting because when they got their opportunity, they they made the most of it, and that’s one of those things. Every year, every year when the freshmen come in, I have a very similar conversation. I tell them the fastest way they can get on the field is to know what to do. It sounds so simple, right? But for a lot of them, it’s hard because they’re dealing with like way more volume, and everything is moving way faster. And so you know there’s there’s a little bit of a learning curve there. There’s some growing pains of getting up to speed and taking in all the volume and having to understand all the adjustments and all the coverages that you’re seeing.”
On the timing of the bye week: “We don’t make the schedule, like it happens where it happens. And so all we can handle, or all we can focus on is what we’re doing right now. So what the players have today, what they have, what we have tomorrow as a team collectively, and that’s where the focus is. I mentioned at the beginning of this press conference, how do we find ways to improve and continue to move forward as a football team, even though we don’t have game this week? And to me, that’s intentionally attacking all parts of our process, and that’s what we’ve been talking about now for the last month. Every step of the way, just how intentional can we be with our focus in our meetings, our focus in our lifts, and our energy in the practice environment? And I’m excited to see the guys tomorrow. I’m excited to see how we show up, and I promise you, the coaching staff will be ready for this. But I think this team is resilient. I think they care about each other. I think it’s important to them. I think they’ll show up ready to work, too.”
On the number of defensive snaps some Wildcats played at West Virginia: “I think that speaks to Coach Carroll and his staff and what a great job he does. Also, I think that also speaks to Geronimo in the training room and just kind of a collaborative effort between our coaches, our strength staff, and our training staff to get our players in a physical condition where they can play that many snaps, but but also play at a high level and stay healthy. And so that that part of it, I give a lot of credit to those people in the strength and conditioning world and also in our training room.”
On holding a walkthrough in a hotel parking lot: “I’m not sure how the other residents or the other guests at the hotel we were staying in appreciated Metallica on the speakers at 7 in the morning. But our players loved it, and that’s all that matters. It actually ended up great. Sometimes when you go to places that are a little bit hard to get to, you end up not having—they don’t have the big convention center meeting rooms or the big ballrooms where you normally have walkthroughs. Like we do here in Tucson, we have a huge ballroom at our hotel where we can have all these walkthroughs and these meetings and run full field special teams plays because they’re so big. So we just find a space and go to work. But I will tell you this: our players were locked into those walkthroughs.”
On the recruiting plan for the weekend: “I think we’re gonna have 16 on the road and, shoot: we’re going all over, buddy. Arizona, California, Utah, Texas, Florida, Oklahoma. Yeah, so a whole bunch of places. It’s gonna be a great week. It’s gonna be a super busy week, but it’s gonna be great.”
On players posing with ex-Wildcat Kayden Luke after the West Virginia game: “I think it speaks to our culture. I think it speaks to what this program is. Like, we still love that kid. He obviously has love for us, and I think we all understand the the world of college football and the way it works and the way it moves, and we’re all okay with that. I think that just speaks to to the love in the building and the connection our players have as being part of the Arizona football program.”
