A few things go differently, whether they be plays, calls or decisions, and Arizona is in the Top 25 after knocking off a ranked opponent on the road. Instead the Wildcats must learn from the 28-17 loss at BYU.
“I think it’s a lesson we know, and that is you got to finish,” UA coach Brent Brennan said. “Championship football is played in the fourth quarter, and when you’re playing one of the best teams in the conference on the road, you have to finish. You have to play your best football in the fourth quarter, and we didn’t
do that the last eight minutes. They finished the game. We went toe to toe. Our kids played physical. There were a lot of good moments in that game, but when it came down to it, the last eight and a half minutes, we didn’t finish, and that’s on me. And so we got work to do.”
The UA (1-1) is back home to take on Northern Illinois, which is 0-2 after losing to an FCS school last weekend. The Wildcats are massive favorites for the 7:30 p.m. PT Saturday night tilt that will air on TNT.
“I think when I look at this week, this is about us, not Northern Illinois coming in here, but this is about our team. Our team attacking the work, attacking our process, diving into the things that we think stopped us from getting it done on Saturday afternoon.”
Below is what Brennan discussed at his Monday presser to open Week 3:
On WR Giovanni Richardson’s status: “Gio Richardson has a lower extremity injury, and he’s going to be up for a little bit. That’s all I know today.”
On the receiver room as a whole: “I love that group. That group is deep. There’s talent there. The balance of running football and throwing it effectively, I think there’s some plays to be made for some of those guys. And I think when we look back at that at how it went on Saturday, we know that we want to get the ball in the hands of Tre Spivey and Chris Hunter. I thought Rodney (Gallagher) went in there and made some good plays and did some good stuff in the slot. And (Brandon) Phelps made some good plays in that game, and we feel good about the depth in that room. So I’m excited to see those guys attack practice tomorrow. I’m excited to see what they do on Saturday.”
On if Richardson’s injury will give more reps to freshman Caleb Smith: “For those young players that come in highly recruited, there’s always these massive expectations that they’re going to show up and they’re going to be Jerry Rice on day one, or whoever. And he’s doing great. He did a great job back there returning punts. He had a nice kick return, and he’s going to keep building more reps into that thing. It is unfair, in my opinion, to throw a freshman out there and say ‘go do it.’ The game is moving fas. Now, Jet’s fast, so that helps. But the game moves fast, and there’s a lot more scheme, and there’s side adjusts and coverage variation and way more volume and all that stuff. And so I think Bobby (Wade) is doing a great job with this process of developing those young players and how their role is going to continue to grow.”
On why slot receivers have been the main targets so far: “I think that first game he threw it to 11 different players, right? We completed balls to 11 players in the first game. We were playing a different group this weekend, with BYU, and I think that the the ball goes to where the defense tells them. I mean, that’s part of Noah going through his progression or delivering the ball to the right player.”
On the offensive line play at BYU: “I think the first thing that I need to remind myself is that we were playing a good football team. The first half—I felt like that was a tale of two halves—which is our ability to effectively run the football. We ran for 100 yards in the first half, effectively really did a great job moving the football in the first half, and then there were some things that stalled drives in a second. Some of those penalties were were timely and costly for us, and that put us really deep behind the chains and made some of that stuff a little bit different. But I got faith in that group. I got faith in Coach O(glesby). I believe that they’ll they’ll come back this weekend and attack the work, and I think we’re going to like how they look on Saturday evening.”
On if Ismail Mahdi will see action after regaining eligibility: “We’re going to see how that plays out in practice this week. That group is deep, and we feel really good about Ked and Q and Wesley and Antwan. I know that we’re going to need all those guys. I know the physicality and the nature of that position, the amount of hits those guys take. And really with the how involved Ked and Quincy are also in special teams and the impact they’re having there. So we’re going to need all those guys to play and how the rotation works out, we’ll develop that as we go this week.”
On having Mahdi and LB Max Harris back: “The best part about Max and Izzy coming back to this team is the human beings that they are, and how much the team loves them, and how much their energy, their practice habits, the juice they bring to this football team is like such high value to me, and so we’re glad they’re here. And obviously, their roles are going to increase as we go.”
On if the performance or the opponent factored more into the loss: “I think it’s both. I think you respect what the game was, knowing that we stood toe to toe with those guys for three and a half quarters, and then we aggressively attacked what we didn’t get done in that last eight and a half minutes. And I think that’s something that we can definitely build into our practice environment. And then I think there’s also things in everything that you look at and you say, ‘hey, we need to fix this. This isn’t exactly what we want to be.’ And I think when, looking at that tape, you know that there’s some lessons in that game that are some tough lessons, but we have to learn from (them) and we have to improve them.”
On the two 4th down decisions trailing 21-17: “When you are aggressive and you don’t get it, then it’s all bad. And I understand that. That’s the nature of making those decisions in those moments. The first one, the defense … just pinned them back there on a down and punt situation, and then we’d stop them and force the punt. I was thinking let’s get Noah another short field, let’s go for seven, and that was my thought process: A 53-, 54-yard kick, let’s give our defense another chance to stop them, give them a short field, and let’s go get seven. That was the first one, the kind of the field position decision of that. The next one was I was being aggressive. We had gotten down there, and the way we got down there was a big play, was a scramble play from Noah to Cole (Rusk), kind of up the seam that ripped down there. Once we got that that first down, I told Doege you got four here, because I felt like we needed to score. And in my head I was thinking momentum, game, take the lead, and (BYU) made a bang bang play, they made a great play, and we were short. That’s the hard part about making those decisions is, it was an aggressive call, we went for it, and we didn’t get it. And I got to live with that.”
On edge Tre Smith not living up to expectations yet: “That’s coming. He played his ass off on Saturday. Physical, violent against a really good team, really tough. Those expectations, that’s all coming. You’re gonna see it show up.”
On the secondary: “I think they’re making progress.You got to see Daylen (Austin) play a little bit the other night. I think we’ve gotten good reps from all those safeties back there. I think Malcolm (Hartzog) continues to show up with some physicality. I think Gavin (Hunter) did some really good stuff in that game. Jay’Vion Cole’s a good player, and (Dwight) Bootle played his tail off. He got beat on a couple plays, but with what we do, he’s on an island out there. That’s kind of how it’s built a little bit. But he played his tail off, and I know he’s disappointed slipping one of those plays. But like I’m encouraged by all those guys. Those guys are playing their tails off. They’re doing a great job coaching them. I mentioned the fourth quarter, the frustrating part is in that last eight and a half minutes both our offense and our defense had opportunities to help us win that game, and we didn’t. And that’s on me. And that’s what we’re going to work on.”
On being back home: “For our fans, to me, this is a Redline game. For our team, this is a Redline game. Like, how do we respond from what happened … Saturday, and how do we attack our process this week going into it? For us seeing last week, being at BYU and seeing the environment they create, that’s something that we want to do to take here in Casino Del Stadium. And our students and our fans and our alumni, we need you to Redline, so let’s get going.”
