Iowa State scored all five of its touchdowns on Saturday on short run plays, those plays combining for seven total yards. The Cyclones finished the game averaging 2.36 yards per carry, their lowest in a Big 12 game in almost two years.
But because of a handful of explosive plays through the air what could have been one of Arizona’s best defensive performances ended up being a dud.
“You give up 39 points, you stink,” defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales said Tuesday. “That’s my opinion. If you would
have told me going into the game that they were going to average 2.4 yards per carry, and their tight ends were going to have four total catches for 29 yards, I would have said that was probably the right score. The other way around.”
Gonzales pointed to six plays, which produced almost half of Iowa State’s 399 yards of total offense, that determined the outcome. That included some long passes from Rocco Becht to Chase Sowell and a quick slant to Sowell that could have been stopped for a short gain but instead included 45 yards after the catch.
Those all came with Arizona in man-to-man coverage, which has been the staple of Gonzales’ scheme this season. In the first three games that only resulted in four receptions of 20 or more yards and one going for 30-plus, and for the season opponents have just 24 completions of 10-plus yards which is tied for 16th-fewest in FBS.
“Personally I love man coverage, so (Gonzales) calling that is a blessing, honestly,” cornerback Michael Dansby said. “Every time he calls it, it puts a smile on my face. Man coverage is a thumbs up for me all day.”
Dansby, a transfer from San Jose State, was only targeted once against Iowa State and it didn’t result in a completion. In four games his assignments have been targeted 15 times with only five catches for 54 yards.
Gonzales said he’ll continue to put his cornerbacks on an island, thus allowing him to keep loading the box to stop the run. If he ever noticed his corners coming off the field looking shell-shocked he would switch to zone but that hasn’t happened.
“They all hold each other to a really high standard,” Gonzales said. “And we got four corners that I think are elite. And the message was, you gotta make plays on 50-50 plays. You don’t have to make every single one, but if he makes two of them the game is different. If he makes all three the game is completely different. If you don’t have good enough players to do it, then you have to change. We have elite players.”
Doege owns poor offensive performance
After the loss at Iowa State, quarterback Noah Fifita told reporters that offensive coordinator Seth Doege took the blame for the offensive issues but “respectfully, I disagree.” Fifita felt he didn’t put Arizona in good situations with his play.
Doege doesn’t disagree—“there was plenty for him to clean up,” he said of Fifita—but the coach still felt the buck stopped with him in terms of preparing his players for all possible scenarios.
“My job is not to coach them harder, it’s to coach them better,” Doege said. “I take a lot of pride in putting our guys in positions in practice to overcome and respond to adversity. Also pride myself on teaching and coaching detailed fundamental football. But at the end of the day, we didn’t get it done. And ultimately that falls on me, because I didn’t think I had them prepared to dig ourselves out of the hole and dig ourselves out of those momentum swings.”
Doege said the game plan was the right one, it just wasn’t executed properly. Much of that lack of execution was on Fifita, who was 24 of 38 for 253 yards and two TDs but also threw his first two interceptions of the season, but Arizona receivers also dropped three passes (the Wildcats have 11 drops in four games after only 20 all of 2024). Minor mistakes with blocking schemes or route running also contributed to going 4 for 13 on third down with four of those failures coming with four or fewer yards to go.
“I thought we had some people open that we didn’t get (the ball) to, whether we’re going off our spot from a protection standpoint or just not getting to the right progression from a quarterback standpoint, or maybe they’re dropping the football when the ball hits the hands,” Doege said. “Ultimately, that’s not the standard that we expect offensively. It’s not the standard that I coach at. I took that one for them. And the reason why I took that one is because they played their tails off. I mean, the effort was not that was not the question. The execution wasn’t there, and why was the execution not there? Well, I gotta look in the mirror.”
As for Fifita, who was often behind on throws including the second interception, Doege attributed some of that to rhythm and footwork. He said he wants his quarterbacks to throw on the “first reset” of their feet but instead Fifita was occasionally doing so after the second.
“It’s almost like a right, left at the top of the drop, the ball should be out on that right left,” Doege said. “Well, there was a couple times when he went right, left, right, left. When you do that, it can kind of feel like you’re a little bit late, so you’re kind of aiming the ball, trying to get it there. And so now you’re trying to … make it right, versus trying to be in rhythm.”
Fifita is completing 61.9 percent of his passes this season, up slightly from 2024 (60.5) but still way below his school-record mark of 72.4 percent in 2023.
Riley’s rise
Riley Wilson looked like a surefire starter at linebacker, and possibly a centerpiece of the defense, at the end of spring ball. But he missed significant time during training camp and did not appear in a game until the second half of the second game, getting 15 snaps in the blowout win over Weber State.
The Montana transfer recorded six tackles in those 15 plays.
Wilson missed the Kansas State game but returned to action at Iowa State, logging 27 snaps and getting three tackles including both of Arizona’s sacks. In 42 defensive plays this season he’s tied for the team sack lead.
“His energy, he brings it every day, every game,” Dansby said of Wilson. “You can see it on the field, on the practice field with him. He’s 100 percent all the time.”
Gonzales said the lack of practice time in camp and since the season began has led to Wilson’s lack of playing time, but the former has increased of late and so will the latter.
“You can’t cheat football and not practice and play well and execute, especially if you got some adjustments week to week in the position that he plays,” Gonzales said. “So limited practice times kind of limited his reps. He gained more practice last week, so he’s able to play more and gain more this week and keep evolving and hopefully be a full-time player.”
Gronk back!
The honorary captain for Arizona on Saturday is Rob Gronkowski, who was last in town for the 2023 spring game. Two years before that he set a since-broken Guinness World Record by catching a football dropped from a helicopter.
No word on if Gronk, who played for the UA from 2009-11, has any other activities planned while in the Dirty T, but he’s sure to spend some time with the current roster. Fellow tight end Sam Olson can’t wait.
“It would be awesome to meet him,” Olson said.
If given a microphone there’s a nonzero chance Gronk might utter one of his many famous lines, one that would be apropos for the Hispanic Heritage game.
Another award nomination
Safety Genesis Smith, who is tied with Dalton Johnson for the team lead with 26 tackles, has been named to the Jason Witten Collegiate Man of the Year watchlist. The award is given annually to the FBS player who has “demonstrated a record of leadership by exhibiting exceptional courage, integrity and sportsmanship both on and off the field,” according to a news release.
Smith, a junior, has his own charitable organization (the Genesis Smith Foundation) that has done local initiatives such as Christmas Cats and R.I.S.E. Camp.
