The Arizona Wildcats defeated No. 15 Washington State 58-37 Saturday night at Arizona Stadium. Here are some pertinent notes, quotes and statistics:
NOTES
* Arizona has won four straight conference games, its longest streak since the end of the 2014 regular season. The Wildcats haven’t had a five-game Pac-12 winning streak since 1998.
* The victory was Arizona’s first over a ranked opponent since the UA defeated No. 10 Utah on Nov. 14, 2015. It was the Wildcats’ eighth win over a ranked opponent under Rich Rodriguez.
* Arizona has scored 45 or more points in four straight games for the first time in program history. The Wildcats are averaging 45 points per game.
* Arizona went 4-0 in October, the first time the Wildcats have gone undefeated in October since 1992.
* QB Khalil Tate rushed for 146 yards, giving him four straight 100-yard games. He’s the first Wildcat with four in a row since Nick Wilson in 2014.
* Tate passed for a career-high 275 yards, the most by an Arizona quarterback since Anu Solomon had 329 in the 2015 New Mexico Bowl.
* Tate ran for 840 yards in the month of October, the most by any FBS player in 10 seasons, according to ESPN. Tate needs 24 yards to break B.J. Denker’s single-season school record for quarterbacks of 949 yards, set in 2013.
* Freshman Lucas Havrisik’s 57-yard field goal at the end of the first half tied the school record for longest made field goal. He shares the mark with three others.
* Tailback J.J. Taylor notched his second-career 100-yard rushing game, finishing with 152 yards on 13 carries. Taylor became the third different tailback to top 100 yards in as many weeks, following Wilson and Zach Green.
* Freshman linebacker Colin Schooler’s 66-yard interception return for a touchdown was the longest by a Wildcat since Will Parks’ 69-yarder in the 2013 Advocare V100 Bowl.
* Redshirt-freshman tight end Jamie Nunley (two catches, 116 yards, one touchdown) notched the first 100-yard game of his career and the first 100-yard receiving game by an Arizona player since Trey Griffey against Utah in 2016.
* Josh Pollack replaced Jake Glatting at punter and averaged 39.4 yards per attempt, dropping 3 of 5 punts inside the 20-yard line.
* The Wildcats forced four three-and-outs in the first half, giving them 31 for the season – more than they had all of last year.
* After allowing a 62 percent conversion rate in its previous three games, Arizona limited Washington State to 4 of 18 on third down.
* Three of Washington State’s five touchdown drives followed turnovers and covered 37 or fewer yards.
QUOTES
Rodriguez on being 6-2 and bowl-eligible: “This game we talked a little bit about redemption and relevancy. That was the last thing I said to them in the locker room coming out. We have a chance for redemption for the guys that were there for that debacle from last year. And a chance to be relevant if you beat a top-25 team. Every player wants that.”
Rodriguez’s on next week’s game at USC with first place on the line: “Southern Cal is going to be one of the most talented teams in the country every year. Everybody knows how many five-star recruits (they have). They’re well-coached. They play hard. We’re going to have to play better. But we know we’re capable of that. I think our guys know that we gotta do that next Saturday. I’ll start thinking about that in about 12 hours. Right now I’m going to enjoy this one.”
Schooler on his INT return: “Kylan Wilborn had a key block on that. I peeked up at the scoreboard, at the jumbotron, and I wasn’t the only guy on the screen. So I knew he was coming, and luckily I got in the end zone.”
Freshman linebacker Tony Fields II on being 6-2 and bowl-eligible: “I’ve always wanted to go to a bowl game. Being part of a team that went 3-9 last year, just changed our whole mindset, our whole record, everything like that, it feels great.”
Nunley on being wide open for two huge pass plays: “That’s all our run-pass plays, the O-line, the running backs and Khalil – they set that up for me. That’s the basis of our offense.”
Taylor on the team’s turnaround: “It shows that we came together as a team after what happened last year. We’ve been working on what we’re supposed to and become a better team. We’ve gotten to know each other, and it’s made team chemistry much better.”
WSU coach Mike Leach on changing quarterbacks from Luke Falk to Tyler Hilinski: “I wanted Falk to see the field because we weren’t pushing the ball down the field. Then Hilinski was hot, so we stayed with Hilinski. Hilinski does a good job of bouncing around and pushing the ball down the field, but he gets reckless. Falk tries to way over-analyze everything to the point where it can be counterproductive. If I could slice the two of them in half and mold them into one guy, we would have probably been in a pretty good situation today.”
STATS
* Washington State had 32 first downs; Arizona had 14.
* WSU had 44 rushing yards; Arizona had 310.
* WSU had 602 passing yards; Arizona had 275.
* WSU averaged 6.4 yards on 101 plays; Arizona averaged 11.5 on 51 plays.
* WSU had seven penalties for 50 yards; Arizona had two for 20.
* WSU possessed the ball for 38:53; Arizona had it for 21:07.
* WSU had eight tackles for losses; Arizona had two.
* Safety Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles had a team-high 13 tackles.
* Fields had 11 tackles and an interception.
* Safety Dane Cruikshank had eight tackles and a pass breakup.
* Safety Jarrius Wallace, in his first career starter, had seven tackles and a pass breakup.
