The Arizona Wildcats defeated Colorado 43-20 Saturday night at Arizona Stadium. Here are some pertinent notes, quotes and statistics from the UA’s victory:
NOTES
* Arizona won a game by double figures for the first time since a 28-14 triumph over Texas Tech on Sept. 14, 2019. The Wildcats' last double-digit win in a Pac-12 game came against Oregon on Oct. 27, 2018 (44-15).
* Arizona had 673 yards of total offense, setting a school record for most yards in league play as a member of the Pac-10/12 Conference. The Wildcats had 691 yards against New Mexico in 1969 as a member of the WAC.
* Arizona scored 40-plus points for the first time since defeating NAU 65-41 in 2019. The Wildcats reached the 40-point plateau in a Pac-12 game for the first time since the 2018 finale vs. Arizona State.
* The Wildcats’ 26 points in the first half were the most they’ve scored in a first half since totaling 51 against NAU in 2019. It was their most in a Pac-12 game since also scoring 26 points versus Colorado in 2018.
* The Wildcats tallied 400 yards of offense in the first half, marking the team’s first 400-yard first half since that NAU game (517 yards).
* Arizona’s defense tallied three sacks, its most this season and its highest single-game total since notching four sacks against Cal in 2021.
* The Wildcats recorded their seventh takeaway of the season, surpassing last year's total of six.
* Colorado suffered its sixth consecutive defeat. The Buffaloes have been outscored 216-67. Colorado and Colorado State are the only winless teams in FBS.
* QB Jayden de Laura tied the Arizona school record with six touchdown passes, matching Tom Tunnicliffe’s performance against Pacific on Oct. 23, 1982. De Laura’s six touchdown passes were the most thrown by a Pac-12 quarterback since Washington State’s Anthony Gordon threw six against Oregon State in 2019.
* De Laura’s six TD passes matched team leader Will Plummer’s total from last year. De Laura’s 14 touchdown passes on the season are two more than Arizona had in 2021.
* De Laura’s 484 passing yards were a career high and the fifth most in UA history. De Laura also became the first Arizona QB with 400-plus passing yards in consecutive games since Matt Scott in 2012.
* Jacob Cowing finished with 12 catches for 180 yards and one touchdown, setting career highs in catches and receiving yards. He eclipsed the 3,000-yard mark for his collegiate career.
* Dorian Singer also topped the 100-yard mark, going for 163 yards and one touchdown on nine catches, all of which are career-high marks.
* Arizona has notched two games with a pair of 100-yard receivers in a single season for the first time since 2014. Cowing and Singer did it in back-to-back weeks.
* Saturday’s performance marked the first time since 2012 that two Wildcats had 160-plus receiving yards in the same game.
* RB Michael Wiley hauled in a career-high two touchdown receptions. He has scored at least one touchdown in nine of his past 10 games and 10 of his past 12 dating to last season.
QUOTES
UA coach Jedd Fisch on whether Arizona has the best receiving corps in the Pac-12: “I'm not been a general manager or a draft expert. I’m just looking at our team. I believe that our team has good receivers, and I really love coaching our receivers. I think Kevin Cummings does an amazing job with our wideouts. It is fun to watch Jacob Cowing and T-Mac (Tetairoa McMillan) and Dorian play. ... Jacob is a really good player. Dorian is a really good player. And we have a lot of young players that are really good as well.”
Fisch on Singer’s play and scoring his first career touchdown: “Dorian Singer has tremendous hands. He makes those catches in practice every day. He happens to just have ball skills that are tremendous. He had his first-ever career touchdown as a Wildcat. So that was cool. We thought that there was like kryptonite there for a while with the end zone. It was nice that we got through that barrier.”
Fisch on what was supposed to happen on the play where McMillan threw the ball to de Laura: “Not that. It was actually a double pass all week long that we talked about throwing to Mike Wiley. And every day Jayden reminded T-Mac, ‘Don't forget, I'm your checkdown.’ And amazingly enough, he was his checkdown.”
Fisch on the crowd and his expectations for next week’s game vs. Oregon: “I thought the ZonaZoo was great. It's great that they were there till the end. Next week, we need everyone. We need that place to be packed. We're hoping that is the case. We want the best home-field advantage we can have.”
De Laura on the pass he caught from McMillan for an 11-yard gain: “He should have thrown it to me earlier. I would have scored.”
Cowing on receiving a game ball for surpassing 3,000 career yards and showing it to his mother: “I've been talking to her since I was maybe 8, 9 years old that it’s something I wanted to do at the U of A. So now I'm here. I did that. We laughed and cried a little bit. Just shared that special moment together.”
DE Hunter Echols on the factors behind the defense’s improvement: “For us it was to play with passion and have fun. We kind of lose that sometimes in those big games. ... We know we're capable of. We know what we can do out there.”
Echols on Arizona’s receiving corps: “I've seen Amon-Ra St. Brown, Tyler Vaughns, Michael Pittman and Drake London (at USC) – this is the closest thing that I've seen to that. T-Mac is a beast; y'all seen it out there today. Dorian Singer is a beast. Jacob Cowing. We’ve even got more guys. They're incredible.”
Safety Christian Young on the defense’s performance: ‘I feel like we were very assignment-sound today. Coming from last week where we didn’t do a good job, we stepped up big. Our whole defense, trying to stay in our gaps, trying to execute what Coach (Johnny) Nansen wants us to do.”
Colorado coach Karl Dorrell on the loss: “It was a frustrating night, but we did some positive things. ... I do think our young quarterback (Owen McCown) is getting better. We have to continue to grow within our offense in terms of the younger receivers, backs, tight ends. We need to get more production out of our passing game. The flip side of that is, that was a very challenging offense, and we couldn’t slow down their quarterback. We just have a tremendous amount of work (to do). We're working hard in practice and trying to improve the fundamentals. It's just not showing up fast enough when we play. That's the unfortunate thing.”
STATS
* Arizona had 36 first downs; Colorado had 20
* Arizona had 178 rushing yards; Colorado had 154
* Arizona averaged 8.1 yards per play; Colorado averaged 5.6
* Arizona had 6 penalties for 60 yards; Colorado had 4 for 30
* Arizona possessed the ball for 35 minutes, 17 seconds; Colorado had it for 24:43
* Arizona converted 9 of 14 third downs; Colorado converted 5 of 12
* Arizona scored touchdowns on 6 of 9 trips into the red zone; Colorado went 3 of 4
* Arizona’s average starting field position was its 29-yard line; Colorado’s was its 24
* Wiley rushed 16 times for 77 yards and caught 5 passes for 34 yards
* McMillan had 5 catches for 90 yards and 1 TD
* Colorado’s Trevor Woods had 13 tackles and 1 pass breakup
* Colorado’s Josh Chandler-Semedo had 10 tackles, 2 TFLs and 1 sack
* Arizona’s Christian Young had 6 tackles, 1.5 TFLs and 1 PBU
* Echols had 5 tackles, 2 TFLs, 1.5 sacks and 1 forced fumble
* Arizona’s Paris Shand had 2 tackles, 1 sack and 1 fumble recovery
