Arizona passing attack has 'room to grow' after lackluster performance against Hawaii

Based on the several examples over the years, Arizona’s 40-6 win over Hawaii on Saturday wasn’t Noah Fifita’s best passing performance.

Some could make an argument it was one his worst performances as a passer, albeit some of the incomplete passes were drops by the pass-catchers.

More importantly, Fifita ended the night with a zero in a pertinent statistic in the box score: turnovers, even though he came very close to throwing an interception on the first offensive play from scrimmage, when he completed a 27-yard pass to wide receiver Tre Spivey in triple coverage.

Fifita ended the night completing 13 of 23 passes for 161 yards and a touchdown. It marked the fifth time Fifita passed under 200 yards in a game, and his 56.5% completion rate on Saturday is his third-worst at Arizona, ahead of the Arizona State (48.3%) and the BYU (50%) games.

Fifita’s time-to-throw average on Saturday was 3.38 seconds, which is more than his average (3.14 seconds) last season. Part of it was protection on the offensive line, the other part was Fifita “scanning people a little bit too much,” said Arizona head coach Brent Brennan.

Brennan said Fifita “missed a couple of throws,” including two in the red zone.

“He’s such a great leader, he’s so accountable and he’s so willing to admit, ‘Yeah, I jumped that progression and I went to this other end,’” said the Arizona head coach. “’I should’ve just fit the ball right there.’”

Fifita and Arizona offensive coordinator Seth Doege have “consistent open conversations and dialogue about either redlining the problem and being accountable and owning it and fixing it.”

Brennan is also confident the kinks in the passing game will get resolved sooner than later considering “three of our starting skill players were out,” he said.

Washington State transfer receiver Kris Hutson was held out for injury, while returning starter Chris Hunter played six plays in the first half and missed the remainder of the game. Starting tight end Tyler Powell also exited the game in the first half with a leg injury. During his Monday news conference, Brennan didn’t have an update on Powell’s status. With Keyan Burnett working his way back from an injury he suffered in training camp, the Wildcats relied on tight ends Sam Olson and Cameron Barmore.

Brennan shot down speculation of Arizona pulling players and preserving them for future games.

“No way,” Brennan said. “I’m not doing that. If they can play and help us win, I don’t care who we’re playing, they’re in the game.”

Seven of Fifita’s 23 targets were to freshmen Isaiah Mizell and Gio Richardson. While Mizell has a reputation as arguably the fastest player on the team, the freshman from Orlando wasn’t expected to play significant snaps. In 42 snaps, Mizell had two catches for 23 yards on four targets. Mizell’s playing time wasn’t planned, it was a “result of the circumstances” with injuries to Hutson and Hunter, two likely starters for the Wildcats this season.

Between Arizona’s pickups in the transfer portal in Hutson, Spivey, Javin Whatley and Luke Wysong, the newbies had five catches for 82 yards — Whatley was responsible for 38 of those yards, including a nifty 27-yard catch near the left sideline. Hunter didn’t have any targets. Richardson, Mizell and redshirt freshman Brandon Phelps combined for six catches for 87 yards.

Brennan chalked it up to Fifita not having “as many reps (in-game) on task with some of those guys,” he said.

“Some of it was we had a couple of freshmen out there and we’re trying to help them accelerate their learning curve as fast as they can,” he added.

Considering the Wildcats were limited at receiver and tight end, Brennan gave Fifita and the passing attack the benefit of the doubt, especially considering it was Fifita’s first game since the seventh grade without star receiver Tetairoa McMillan. Still, “we have some room to grow there,” Brennan said.

“That part of it, we had a couple of guys who were out (Saturday) who are impactful players at that position, but I think you also saw some (other) guys do some stuff,” he said. “You saw some freshmen get in there, mix it up and make some plays. The more people we can get on the field and the more confidence Noah has distributing the football, it makes it hard to defend us. I thought there were some good moments there.”

UA encouraged by effort, physicality on O-Line

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Some Arizona players were held out on Saturday. One notable starter who didn’t play, but was dressed for the game was offensive tackle Rhino Tapa’atoutai, who hasn’t played for the Wildcats since the knee injury he suffered against Colorado last October.

Why was Tapa’atoutai in full uniform if he didn’t play?

“With Rhino, we wanted him to get the reps of pregame and get through some of that,” Brennan said. “He’s still coming back from that injury. With (Hutson), we knew his injury was on the mend, so we weren’t going to push that envelope at all. But it’s each guy. It’s not this group or that group, it’s every player.”

Arizona’s starting offensive line against Hawaii was left tackle Ty Buchanan, left guard Michael Wooten, center Ka’ena Decambra, right guard Alexander Doost and right tackle Tristan Bounds. Brennan said he “liked how we ran the football.” The Wildcats had 183 rushing yards, the most since the Northern Arizona game last September, and four rushing touchdowns — the first time Arizona had four players rush for a touchdown since 2019.

Arizona surrendered two sacks and 10 quarterback pressures, including six from Bounds, according to Pro Football Focus. Buchanan had the highest overall offensive grade (76) on PFF and was the Wildcats’ best pass blocker with a 77.2 pass-blocking grade.

Arizona’s offensive line “was good at times and then I think it was inconsistent at times,” Brennan said.

“I thought we were physical in the run game with our front, the offensive line,” Brennan said. “I thought that was really exciting. What do we need to work on? People got to Noah too many times. I think that’s easy to see on the tape.”

On running back Quincy Craig’s 54-yard touchdown run in the second quarter, Buchanan and Wooten pulled and sealed the defenders on the right, creating a gap in the middle for Craig to cut right and burst to the front pylon for the longest touchdown of the night for Arizona.

Even after Buchanan made the block, the Texas Tech transfer sprinted upfield towards Craig to finish the play; ditto for Bounds.

“I was giving Quincy a hard time, like, ‘Hey, man, Ty almost caught you on your long touchdown,’” Brennan joked.

Added Brennan: “If it’s offense or defense, it’s just having as much population on the football as we can. And I think that when that happens, good things happen to your football team, and I think it’s contagious.”

Tapa’atoutai’s status for Saturday against Weber State is still questionable. Whether he plays or sits out again before Arizona’s highly anticipated matchup with 17th-ranked Kansas State, “we obviously have some work to do there” on the offensive line, Brennan said.

“We knew coming into the season that we wanted to be more effective running the football,” Brennan said. “Week 1, we ended up running the football the way we wanted against a stout front that’s always plus-one in the run game, so we feel good about that. Those guys continue to grow and continue to improve. (Offensive line coach Josh Oglesby) is a fantastic football coach. He’ll get them right.”

Extra points

– Brennan, on the decision to keep Fifita and other starters in when the Wildcats led 34-6 with just under nine minutes left to play: “We were still playing football. We were trying to get everybody to settle in and give us a chance to maximize the reps in-game and the live bullets they get.”

– Brennan, on defensive tackle Tiaoalii Savea, who had two tackles and a quarterback hit in his first game at Arizona since 2023: “It was fun to see Tia play and I think he’s just going to get better as time goes. It’s been a while since he played that many meaningful snaps. ... He’s a big body that was a part of our offseason recruiting challenge. We knew we needed to add big people to our football team, just because we’re playing in a conference that’s big. He’s been a great addition.”

– Brennan said Arizona’s offense is hopeful about cleaning up its third-down efficiency. The Wildcats converted three of 11 third-down plays. On defense, Arizona “lost the edge a couple times” on the line of scrimmage. Added Brennan: “You have to keep (the quarterback) contained. You saw the guy the other night have some success once he got outside of us. We gotta fix that.”

– Brennan showed up to his postgame press conference on Saturday with a lei, which he didn’t wear during the game. Saturday was the first game Brennan coached without the lei. He was given a lei by Decambra after the game. Said Brennan: “That was a very nice gesture. Also, (McMillan’s) grandmother gave me one before the game that I was wearing pregame. In honor of Pacific Islander heritage night, that made it pretty special.”

– The ESPN+ announcers for Arizona-Weber State on Saturday will be Ted Emrich (play-by-play) and Jeff Woody (color analyst).