Arizona Aftermath: Storylines, stats and quotes from the Wildcats' loss to BYU

Big 12 After Dark, anyone?

Arizona’s 33-27 loss to No. 18 BYU in double-overtime on Saturday was a Pac-12 After Dark-esque special, which featured wild plays and momentum swings — and it ended up being a late-night game due to the effects of Tropical Storm Priscilla that made its way through Southern Arizona over the weekend.

The Wildcats overcame a two-touchdown deficit in the early stages of the game and even held a double-digit lead in the fourth quarter. But in the end, the Cougars prevailed to preserve their unbeaten record — and winning streak over Arizona, which fell to 4-2 on the season.

“We just battled the first-place team in the Big 12 for four quarters and two overtimes and we never backed down,” said Arizona head coach Brent Brennan. “We didn’t get the result we wanted, but those kids played their hearts out and that’s something to be excited about. The goal is to win, and I understand that. We’re a better football team. We’re halfway through the season and we have a lot work on, but we have a lot to feel good about. ... The thing that’s so hard about it is that we were unable to get it done.”

Here are notable storylines, statistics and quotes, among other pertinent information, from Arizona’s loss to BYU.

The comeback, Pt. I

BYU initially appeared to be in position to control the game and win in dominant fashion, especially how its offense was effectively running the football.

BYU star running back LJ Martin and freshman quarterback Bear Bachmeier combined for 47 carries, 251 rushing yards and three rushing touchdowns. BYU had 51 rush attempts for 258 yards as a team on Saturday. The Cougars averaged 7.3 rushing yards per carry in the first quarter.

BYU wide receiver Parker Kingston took advantage of Arizona’s busted zone coverage and scored a 75-yard touchdown to grab a 14-0 lead. Kingston’s touchdown ended Arizona’s streak as the only team in college football that hasn’t allowed a passing touchdown.

The Wildcats answered with a scoring drive capped by Arizona quarterback Noah Fifita throwing a 17-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Kris Hutson, who had a season-high nine receptions for 106 yards and a touchdown. Hutson had three catches for 42 receiving yards on Arizona’s first scoring drive of the game.

After Arizona got back within a possession, nearby lightning put the game into a weather delay that lasted roughly 75 minutes. It’s the second UA home game this season that had a weather delay. The start time of Arizona’s 48-3 win over Weber State last month was delayed two hours.

Arizona focused on “just trying to stay in it” during the delay, said defensive back Treydan Stukes.

“It was at least 30 minutes regardless of how many lightning strikes it was,” Stukes said. “We knew we were going to be in there for a second. We were looking at plays, looking at things to clean up and refocusing, staying loose and looking forward to getting back out there.”

Added Fifita: “We had three drives to watch film on, so we watched film, made adjustments to our game plan and just kept the guys in it mentally and physically.”

Play resumed at 7:05 p.m. and Arizona forced its first punt of the game. The Cougars attempted a fake punt, but punter Sam Vander Haar was tackled short of the line of gain by safety Dalton Johnson on the 44-yard line. Johnson and Stukes both intercepted Bachmeier, who entered Saturday with one interception.

Arizona trailed 14-0 and then scored 17 straight points to take the lead at halftime. Fifita — who completed 25 of 45 passes (55%) for 219 yards and two touchdowns — also had a 35-yard over-the-shoulder touchdown pass to wide receiver Chris Hunter with 40 seconds left in the first half.

“Response has been a big emphasis for us not just this week but all year,” Fifita said. “This is a brand new team. Last year is behind us. This is this team. We have some great leaders on this team, some great people and we responded well. We gotta be able to finish though.”

Arizona running back Kedrick Reescano, who missed three games with a leg injury and was limited last week against Oklahoma State, had a 36-yard touchdown run up the middle on fourth-and-1 in the fourth quarter. Reescano led the Wildcats in rushing with 13 carries for 90 yards.

Brennan said Reescano and Hutson “are real positives” from Saturday.

“Ked has been sidelined with some injury stuff, but it was great to see him run the ball with physicality and the playmaking we think he’s capable of,” Brennan added. “Kris Hutson, it was great to see him get going. He’s also had some injury stuff that slowed him during training camp and throughout this season. Tonight is the night where I was like, ‘Whoa, there he is. That’s the playmaker we know you to be.’ I expect more from Kris Hutson going forward.”

In hindsight, Arizona could’ve had a 27-14 lead if the Wildcats kicked a field goal inside their own 5-yard line on fourth down. Instead, the Wildcats went for it and Fifita threw an interception to BYU linebacker Isaiah Glasker, who also intercepted Fifita in Provo last season.

“I liked how our defense was playing at the time,” Brennan on the decision to go for the fourth-down conversion instead of the field goal. “It’s a combination of analytics and a combination of feel. You also saw us benefit from going for it on fourth down on multiple drives in this game. That’s the hard part about it. If you get it, everyone is like, ‘Yay!’ If you don’t get it, people are like, ‘What are you doing?’”

The comeback, Pt. II

Arizona held BYU to touchdown-less second and third quarters. Bachmeier completed just nine of his final 23 pass attempts (39%). In the fourth quarter, BYU kicker Will Ferrin made a 24-yard field goal to get the Cougars within a possession, 24-17.

With a one-touchdown lead and 4:08 remaining, Arizona went three-and-out and was forced to punt. Australian punter Isaac Lovison’s tackle on Kingston saved a potential touchdown, however, the Cougars started their final drive of regulation on the UA 47-yard line.

Between runs by Bachmeier and Martin, along with a pair of passing interference calls on UA cornerback Michael Dansby, BYU tied it up and extended the long night at Arizona Stadium. Arizona safety Genesis Smith forced Bachmeier to fumble on the 4-yard line, but BYU recovered and scored five plays later.

With 19 seconds remaining, Arizona had two timeouts with the ball on the 25-yard line. Arizona could’ve had passes into BYU territory and either set up a Hail Mary or a game-winning field goal by kicker Michael Salgado-Medina, who made both of his field goal attempts on Saturday, but “in that moment, I was like, ‘Let’s go win it in overtime’” instead of risking a costly play against BYU’s prevent defense, Brennan said.

“You never want to lose and it hurts, but at the end of the day, football is a game of momentum and there were momentum shifts in the game,” Fifita said. “We had chances to ice the game and keep the momentum on our side or bring the momentum back, and we missed those opportunities.”

Red zone struggles

Arizona’s performance against BYU was akin to a golfer losing a tournament because of missed gimme putts.

Even though overtime periods don’t count towards red zone statistics, the Wildcats only scored one touchdown in the five times they were within the 20-yard line. The miscues in the red zone were “a combination of BYU being a really good football team and a combination of us not executing on the level we need to when we get down to the red zone,” Brennan said.

Reescano’s 9-yard touchdown run in the first overtime period was nullified due to left guard Chubba Maae getting called for holding. The Wildcats settled for a field goal.

“Those are things we can’t do if you’re going to win big-time football games like tonight was,” Brennan said,

Both of Salgado-Medina’s field goals were just over 20 yards out because BYU prevented the Wildcats from scoring. Fifita threw three straight incomplete passes on the BYU 6-yard line before Salgado-Medina’s 24-yard field goal in the second quarter.

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“In the red zone, everything gets faster, so you have to be super detailed and you gotta be on time with steps and footwork, timing and ball placement,” Fifita said. “I think we missed a lot of opportunities, especially on my part. ... Those are opportunities you can’t miss and at the end of the day, the red zone told the story.”

In the second overtime, Fifita perfectly placed a pass in the corner of the end zone to wide receiver Javin Whatley on fourth down from the BYU 10-yard line, but the ball went off Whatley’s fingertips.

“We just need to complete the ball,” Brennan said.

Meanwhile, BYU scored nine points and didn’t have any passing yards in two overtime periods.

The Wildcats were in position to pull off the biggest home win of the Brennan era and win their first overtime win in Tucson since the Utah game in 2015 and it slipped through their fingertips — literally.

“It’s incredibly disappointing,” Brennan said. “We’re down 14 points, we make some plays and we rally back. We come back after the weather delay and really dig in. The interesting thing about the weather delay is that when it happened, there were still three quarters, so there was so much football to play and I thought our team did a great job of answering the call in that moment.

“The hard part is that at the end of the game, we had a chance to end it offensively and we had a chance to end it defensively — and neither side of the ball did.”

By the numbers

0: Arizona’s offensive line didn’t surrender a sack against BYU.

3: Touchdowns Kingston has scored on Arizona the last two seasons. In BYU’s win over Arizona in Provo last year, Kingston had a passing touchdown and receiving touchdown.

4: The Wildcats were 4 of 17 on third-down conversions against BYU. Arizona was also 4 of 6 on fourth down.

5: BYU has beaten Arizona five straight times. Since Arizona beat BYU in the 2008 Las Vegas Bowl, the Cougars have beaten the Wildcats in 2016, ‘18, ‘21, ‘24 and ‘25.

9: Arizona has nine interceptions in six games this season, which passes its season total last year. Johnson’s interception on Saturday was his first since the 2023 Territorial Cup. Stukes grabbed his second interception of the season.

14: Tackles by Arizona linebacker Taye Brown, which is a career high. 

58: Career touchdown passes for Fifita, which puts him ahead of Khalil Tate for the third-most touchdowns thrown by an Arizona quarterback.

They said it

Brennan, on the silver lining of the loss: “As disheartening as tonight was, to me there’s a lot of positives in that game, and we need to be excited about that, too. I want us to be pissed off about how that thing ended — we should be. We should also be excited that we stood toe-to-toe with one of the most physical teams in our conference and slugged it out into double-overtime.”

Stukes, on the loss to BYU: “Definitely a little sick. We had a lot of chances to finish the game how we wanted to. We left some stuff on the field, but you can’t go back in time. We’re going to watch tape, clean it up and get back to work (on Sunday) and get ready.”

Brennan, on Johnson’s performance: “He’s just one of those guys that continues to show up every day, continues to lead, continues to be a positive voice for the football team, continues to make plays on game day. I can’t say enough positive things about Dalton. He’s an awesome player and an awesome human being. The great thing about who he is, he’s going to be upset about how this thing ended and he’s going to push the team to go to work and get to fixing it. I can yell and scream all day, but we need the guys in the locker room to say, ‘We’re not letting that happen again,’ and go to work on fixing it.”

Stukes, on Arizona’s defense at the halfway point of the season: “For us, I know we’ve had some good games, we’ve had some games where we gave up more yards than we wanted to. At the end of the day, it’s about holding the other team to one less point than we score. We’re just going to go back to the drawing board, keep trusting our coaches and trusting the people on the field and I think we’ve shown flashes that we can be a dominant defense. We just need to keep executing at a high level to get there.”

Fifita, on Arizona’s offense at the halfway point of the season: “Our goal is to score one more point than them, so that’s our mission and that’s our goal each and every day. At the end of the day, the biggest thing is to win. We’ve had our glimpses, as well. A lot of inconsistencies on our side of the ball, a lot of ups and downs, so we have to be able to find that consistency and be able to grow with each other and grow within the scheme. We’ve taken steps, but I don’t think we’re close to the potential of this offense.”

Injury report

Maae exited the game in the third quarter with an injury. Maae was helped off the field and replaced by redshirt junior Michael Wooten. Maae returned to the game in the fourth quarter.

Arizona defensive lineman Chancellor Owens was sidelined with an undisclosed injury. Arizona punt returner and wide receiver Jeremiah Patterson missed the second straight game with an undisclosed injury. Backup safety Jack Luttrell was also held out on Saturday.

BYU star linebacker Jack Kelly was initially labeled doubtful, but was moved to a game-time decision on Saturday and didn’t play.

With Arizona defensive end Tre Smith out for the season, the Wildcats relied on linebackers Riley Wilson and Chase Kennedy as stand-up defensive ends. Wilson played 58 defensive snaps and had Arizona’s best tackling grade (80.3) of the night, per Pro Football Focus.

What’s next

Arizona’s hits the road to face the Houston Cougars on Saturday at 9 a.m. on FS1.

It’s the fifth consecutive game with a kickoff time before 7 p.m. It’s the first morning kickoff for Arizona since its last game in Houston in 2018.

The Wildcats open as 1.5-point underdogs, according to Action Network.

Arizona is 2-3 all-time against Houston since their first contest in 1969. The Wildcats won the first Big 12 matchup with the Cougars, 27-3, last season. In Arizona’s last trip to Houston in 2018, which was former head coach Kevin Sumlin’s inaugural season at the UA, the Wildcats lost 45-18.

Houston is 5-1 this season and it’s only setback is against ninth-ranked Texas Tech. The Cougars routed Oklahoma State, 39-17, on Saturday in Stillwater.

“I’m proud of this football team,” Brennan said. “I think we’re making progress. I’m sick about the result tonight, but I believe in these players, I believe in these coaches and I’m excited what’s coming the next couple of weeks.”

Fifita said there’s a “24-hour rule” to sulk over the setback.

“The loss is going to hurt, but at the end of the day, we’ve got another opportunity,” said the Arizona quarterback. “We’ve got a road game against another good opponent. It’s back to the drawing board for us. We come back in (on Sunday) to recover and put this game behind us mentally and then get a head start on Houston.”

Photos: Arizona loses lead in final seconds, game in double overtime to BYU