Arizona Aftermath: Stats, storylines and quotes from the Wildcats' win over Utah

The 17th-ranked Arizona Wildcats capped their home schedule with a 42-18 rout of No. 22 Utah on Saturday in Tucson, snapping their six-game losing streak to the Utes.

Here are notable storylines, statistics and quotes from the Wildcats’ home-finale win over the Utes on Saturday:

Wildcats are winning — and possibly better than record shows

Everything that could’ve went right, did go right for the Wildcats in the opening period on Saturday.

The Wildcats set the tone with a screen pass from quarterback Noah Fifita to wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan, who launched it 21 yards to running back Michael Wiley, who was wide open in the corner of the endzone. McMillan is the first UA player in the “StatPass” era (1996-current) with a passing and a receiving touchdown in the same game. McMillan also had eight catches for 116 yards and a touchdown on Saturday — his fifth 100-yard performance as a Wildcat.

Arizona linebacker Anthony Ward had a scoop-and-score touchdown after blocking a punt, then UA wide receiver Montana Lemonious-Craig bolted for a 32-yard touchdown off a screen for the final score of the first quarter. UA led 21-0 after the first quarter and had 196 yards of total offense, while Utah had 23. The Wildcats had 10 first downs, while Utah had one.

“We came out and we didn’t let our foot off the gas,” said safety Dalton Johnson.

Arizona had several slow-starting games this season and was outscored 31-7 in the first five contests. Sluggish starts played an essential factor in the Wildcats dropping games at Mississippi State, when they committed four first-quarter turnovers, and against Washington — the only home loss of the season — when Arizona fell down 14-0 early. Arizona’s only other setback of the season was a triple-overtime loss to USC in Los Angeles.

Considering the circumstances, like a 2-point conversion decision at USC or a fourth-down ruling at Mississippi State, in both overtime games, the Wildcats could conceivably be 10-1 entering this week — and a legitimate College Football Playoff contender from the Pac-12 alongside Washington and Oregon.

Not only does Arizona have eight wins, the most in a season since it played for a Pac-12 championship in 2014, but the Wildcats’ three losses are by a combined 16 points. Since falling to USC, the Wildcats have rattled off five straight wins over conference opponents for the first time since 1998.

“You get to a point where you look in the mirror and feel you’re good. When you’re on a good team, you do expect to win; that is what you should expect to do,” said Arizona coach Jedd Fisch. “You shouldn’t be scared to win. You shouldn’t play scared. You shouldn’t have fear crossing your mind when you’re out there, and I don’t think our guys do. I think our guys came out from the get-go and attacked this game from the very start.”

From the national scope, Arizona is one of the biggest surprises of the college football season. Not to Fisch.

“During training camp, we just thought we were good. You could just get a sense when you think you’re a good team and feel like you’re a good team, you can see it,” he said. “Our guys play confidently. They believe in one another. They believe in what the mission is. The mission is to go out there and play next week. I feel like we built it the way we wanted to build it.”

Senior sendoff

Saturday was sentimental to the group who participated in the pregame Senior Day ceremony, but for some, like left tackle Jordan Morgan and running back Michael Wiley, beating Utah in their final home game “means so much.”

“Finally got to finish off with a bang like this at home for the last time of my career,” Morgan said. “I really enjoyed it.”

Since signing with Arizona in 2019, Morgan and Wiley have been subjected to coaching changes, a pandemic, a 20-game losing streak and a 63-point beatdown by Arizona State on national television.

In Fisch’s first season in 2021, or as he’s dubbed it “Year Zero,” “I felt like we had to really figure out who we were going to beat,” he said.

“What did we want the program to look like?” Fisch said. “How were we going to lay the foundation?”

Arizona went 1-11, but constructed a 2022 recruiting class, between the transfer portal and high school ranks, with offensive playmakers and budding defensive players.

“Then last year we took a huge jump. I don’t ever want to not give credit to last year’s success. I know we only won five games, but when you can go from 120th in (passing) offense to sixth, people want to come here,” Fisch said. “We became exciting. People wanted to watch us. People wanted to be a part of it. Defensive players wanted to transfer in and young players wanted to keep coming. That bridge allowed us to get to where we are today.”

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Through the adversity and trying times, “the whole team has been confident since Fisch got here,” said Morgan.

“He instilled the confidence in us,” Morgan said. “For us to finally get out there and play together as a team and play as confident as we were today, it meant a lot for everybody and you can see that on the team.”

For the first time in five years, Morgan and Wiley, among others, are winners.

“The guys that are here have been with us for three years (and) have dealt with some adversity in the early part of their career. They dealt with adversity as we’re trying to build this program to where we want it to be,” Fisch said. “Now hopefully they’re feeling the fruits of their labor. But we obviously know the season is far from over. We have 11 games down and know we have an enormous game coming up on Saturday.”

Setting up for 2024

Between 1978 and 2023, Arizona bookended its tenure in the Pac-12/10 era with home wins over conference opponents.

As Arizona closes its chapter in the “Conference of Champions,” the Wildcats could be even better when they join the Big 12, when the return a lion’s share of offensive and defensive stars. Arizona is expected to return its top passer (Fifita), top rusher (running back Jonah Coleman), top receiver (McMillan), top tackler (linebacker Jacob Manu) and the entire secondary.

Maybe the Wildcats will have more than two sellouts next season?

Said Fisch: “I think we might as well put the season tickets for sale next year on Monday and let’s see if we can get six sellouts and see if we can have one heck of a home-field advantage again.”

By the numbers

6: Arizona is 6-2 in Pac-12 play, marking it the sixth time in program history the Wildcats have won six or more games in their conference schedule. The other seasons are 1993, ‘94, ‘98, 2009 and ‘14.

7/11: The Wildcats converted 7 of 11 (63.7%) third-down attempts against Utah, which entered Saturday as the top third-down defense in college football and only allowing teams to convert 25.6% on third down.

3: Three Wildcats (Fifita, McMillan and Jayden de Laura) threw touchdown passes. It’s the first time since at least 1996 the Wildcats had three players throw touchdown passes in a game.

They said it

Fisch, on Arizona going 5-1 at home this season: “Proud of our guys for that. They did a really good job of taking care of the desert, taking care of our stadium.”

Fisch, on the decision to install former starter de Laura to launch a deep touchdown pass to McMillan with 32 seconds left: “(Utah) went for an onside kick with 43 seconds left, down 17 points, and I wanted Jayden to go out with a touchdown pass this season. I think he deserves that. ... I thought it was pretty awesome that he could go out there and throw a touchdown.”

Looking ahead

After climbing three spots to No. 16 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll, Arizona (8-3) will end the regular season against Arizona State (3-8) on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. on ESPN. Besides reclaiming the Territorial Cup for the first time since the 2008 and ’09 seasons, the Wildcats could punch their ticket to the Pac-12 championship game at Allegiant stadium in Las Vegas on Dec. 1 with a win over ASU and Oregon State beating Oregon on Friday.

“Our team will be very excited about the game against ASU,” Fisch said. “There won’t be a question about that.

“We understand the importance of the game. We want to keep the Territorial Cup here in Tucson, and our guys understand that and recognize that.”