The Arizona Wildcats lost to USC 41-34 on Saturday at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum. Here are some pertinent notes, quotes and statistics from the UA’s latest setback:
NOTES
* Arizona suffered its 20th consecutive defeat, a program record and the longest active losing streak in the nation. The Wildcats last won a game on Oct. 5, 2019. Arizona and UNLV are the only winless teams in FBS.
* Arizona has lost its last nine meetings with USC, equaling the longest streak in the series.
* The Wildcats’ seven-point margin of defeat marked the second consecutive time and fourth time overall this season that they have lost by one score or less.
* Arizona outscored USC 20-6 in the second half and 13-3 in the fourth quarter. The Wildcats had been outscored 48-0 in the fourth quarter in their first four Pac-12 games.
* Arizona set season highs with 466 yards and 34 points. The Wildcats scored 20-plus points for the first time since Week 2 of 2020. They scored 30-plus points for the first time since last year’s opener vs. the Trojans.
* USC’s 547 yards were a season high for a UA opponent. The Trojans had 360 yards in the first half, 187 in the second. USC also had 27 first downs in the first half.
* Arizona matched its season high with 12 penalties. Its 130 penalty yards set a season mark. The Wildcats’ previous high was 81 yards.
* Arizona converted 8 of 15 third downs for a season-best rate of 53.3%. The Wildcats’ previous best was 46.7% (7 of 15 at Oregon).
* Arizona allowed five sacks, a season high. It was also a season high for USC. Tuli Tuipulotu led the Trojans with two sacks.
* QB Will Plummer passed for a career-high 264 yards and rushed for a touchdown, the first of his UA career.
* Jamarye Joiner’s 73-yard touchdown pass to Tayvian Cunningham in the first quarter was Arizona’s longest play of the season and the Wildcats’ longest play since Cunningham caught a 75-yard touchdown pass against USC in 2020.
* The Joiner-to-Cunningham connection also marked Arizona’s first opening-drive touchdown of the season and its first since Week 2 of the 2019 season against Northern Arizona.
* Freshman WR Dorian Singer made his first career reception in the second quarter on a 19-yard pass from Plummer. Singer finished with three catches for 65 yards.
* Linebacker Anthony Pandy’s pick-six was Arizona’s first interception returned for a touchdown since Scottie Young Jr. and Azizi Hearn (fumble recovery after Colin Schooler INT) logged pick-sixes against Cal in 2018. It was the fourth interception of Pandy’s career.
* Safety/linebacker Christian Young led the defense with 15 tackles, a career high that more than doubled his previous best of seven.
* Safety Jaydin Young also logged a career high in tackles with 11, besting his previous mark of seven.
* USC tailback Keaontay Ingram rushed for a career-high 204 yards, becoming the first Trojan to eclipse 200 yards since November 2018.
QUOTES
UA coach Jedd Fisch on the loss and the idea of earning the right to win: “It’s too bad we didn’t put the first half of Washington with the second half of USC together. Then we would have earned it. We need to just continue to battle, and I think we're taking steps. But ‘earn the right to win’ isn't necessarily the game. ‘Earn the right to win’ is, how are you handling meetings? How are you handling your schoolwork? How are you handling the classroom? How are you handling community service? How are you handling yourself off the field? If you do all those things right for six days, then the seventh day you earn the right to win. Our guys are getting there, and they're beginning to see it and feel it.”
Fisch on Jaxen Turner being disqualified for targeting in the first quarter: “I’m not supposed to talk about officiating, so I'm not going to do that. What I will say is this: What hurts the most is when you have a penalty that takes a player away from playing the whole football game. ... The fact that he can't play the final 56 minutes of an ’SC game, I just hate that. We'll work on fundamentals, and we'll continue to embrace whatever the rules are. But the idea is just a tough one for me to swallow.”
Fisch on what he liked about Plummer’s outing: “His grit. His toughness. He took one or two sacks, then he ran off the field. He said, ‘Coach, I know, don't even tell me. I know. Those are the sacks I can’t take.’ But other than that, his decision-making with the ball (was sound). I called the screen at about the minus-25 to start the two-minute drive. I looked at him and said, ‘Are you good with this?’ He goes, ‘Yeah. If it's not there, I'm going to dirt it.’ He's a freshman. He has to learn things. If we just hide every play and just try to protect the kid, we’ll never be as good we know we're gonna be.”
Fisch on Pandy’s performance: “Proud of Anthony Pandy as always. That kid ... I tell him after every game how much I love him. I think I tell him I love him as much as I tell my wife. That guy just gives everything, every day at practice. He's been through a bunch.”
Plummer on staying motivated down 35-14 at halftime: “It's not really difficult. This is what you dream of, playing in the Coliseum at USC. If you have to get motivated to play in that game, there’s something wrong with you. So I think everybody just kind of understood the assignment that was ahead of us. We just fell short.”
Plummer on his progress since his college debut at UCLA last year: “I got thrown into that game on the second play, whether I was ready or not. I feel like the game has just gotten way slower for me. I'm seeing defenses. I'm understanding the concepts. Trying to be better at understanding what Coach Fisch wants to do with the football at certain times. It's been huge.”
Plummer on throwing more deep passes: “Coach Fisch met with me this week. He was like, ‘We gotta take shots, man. Don't be reckless, but you gotta take shots.’ He was like. ‘I trust you to take them.’ So at that point I was just like, ‘If I have a one-on-one, I gotta throw it.’ What he stressed on me was, ‘Let your guys make plays. Your receivers came here to make plays.’ Hopefully we can build on that.”
Pandy on his 32-yard run on a fake punt: “We've had it all season. It was just the perfect time to run it. We had a look on the punt return that we needed, that we liked. Called the play. Thanks to the punt team there. Everybody had a good block.”
USC interim coach Donte Williams on the outcome: “Hard-fought game. Like I said before, Arizona has no quit in them. Hats off to them, because they won the second half of the football game.”
USC CB Chris Steele on WR Drake London’s game-ending injury: “Drake is a competitor and somebody that I genuinely care about. I look at him as a leader on the team, and obviously I compete with him every single day. So to see a player like that go down, especially when he’s having the year that he’s having, it never looks good.
STATS
* USC had 35 first downs; Arizona had 24
* USC had 234 rushing yards; Arizona had 127
* Each team averaged 6.6 yards per play
* USC possessed the ball for 32 minutes, 58 seconds; Arizona had it for 27:02
* USC scored 4 touchdowns in 5 trips to the red zone; Arizona scored 2 in 3 trips
* USC’s average starting field position was its 28-yard line; Arizona’s was its 25
* USC QB Kedon Slovis completed 15 of 21 passes for 204 yards with 2 TDs and 1 INT
* USC QB Jaxson Dart completed 12 of 18 passes for 109 yards with 2 TDs
* Arizona TE Alex Lines caught 4 passes for 56 yards
* Arizona WR Tayvian Cunningham caught 3 passes for 116 yards and 1 TD
* Arizona DE Jalen Harris had 6 tackles, 1 sack and 1 pass breakup
* Arizona defensive linemen Leevel Tatum III and Paris Shand each had 4 tackles and 1.5 TFLs
