ORLANDO, Fla. — The Arizona football season hasn’t panned out the way many thought it would in the offseason, when the Wildcats returned with a plethora of starters and contributors from last season, including multiple NFL Draft-eligible players that will most likely hear their name called in the spring.
A season that started with College Football Playoff hopes for Arizona has turned into the Wildcats fighting for a bowl berth. As Arizona (3-5) prepares to face UCF (3-5) on Saturday for the “Space Game” at FBC Mortgage Stadium, the Wildcats will either keep their bowl hopes alive or take another step towards the Territorial Cup game being their last contest of the season.
For UCF and Arizona, “both of us have struggled at times this year, so this is going to be a hard-fought battle,” UA head coach Brent Brennan said.
Arizona tight end Sam Olson (84) gets congratulated after getting wide open in the end zone for a Wildcat touchdown in the third quarter of their Big 12 game against West Virgina on Oct. 25.
The four straight losses haven’t spoiled Brennan’s eagerness to lead the UA football program in his first season at the helm.
“I’m still excited about this team,” he said. “I’m still excited to be here. We have four games left. If we play well, we get to play five. ... When you’ve had an injury situation like we’ve had, you have to get guys ready to play. ... I’m still excited about this team, and I love the University of Arizona. I know we’re building a program and I know there are tough days when you have young people in the game.”
Arizona’s season is déjà vu for UA defensive coordinator Duane Akina.
“I’ve been through this before,” he said.
Arizona head coach Brent Brennan has some encouragement for the offensive unit after they put together a scoring drive in the third quarter. The Wildcats have dropped four straight games.
After former UA head coach Dick Tomey was hired as the successor to Larry Smith, the last head coach to leave the Arizona program before Jedd Fisch, he inherited a nine-win team that went 4-4-3 the following year in 1987. Two years later, the Wildcats went 8-4.
Akina’s message to Arizona fans or anyone doubting the state of the program: “Just give this staff a chance. We’ve been dealt some tough cards, and you can’t use that, because that’s the nature of the game. This has been a unique year. ... Just be patient and give this staff a chance.”
As Arizona heads into its second-to-last road game in the regular season, with a bye week on the horizon, here are three things — defense, special teams and offense — to monitor on Saturday, Nov. 2.
West Virginia wide receiver Justin Robinson, left, stiff-arms his way past Arizona defensive back Genesis Smith to pick up more yardage after a catch in the first quarter.
‘Race to maturity’
With Arizona dealing with a substantial amount of injuries, mostly with defensive starters, Brennan referred to the number of developing players in larger roles as the “race to maturity.”
It’s a double-edged sword for the Wildcats. Players like redshirt freshman safety Jack Luttrell, sophomore defensive back Genesis Smith and sophomore linebacker Taye Brown don’t have nearly the same amount of experience as linebacker Jacob Manu, nickel back Treydan Stukes and safety Gunner Maldonado, who all three have season-ending leg injuries. The aforementioned underclassmen are gaining experience that could help the Wildcats later this season and beyond.
“We’re building a football program, and every day there are some challenges that pop up with young players, but it’s also a learning opportunity for them,” Brennan said. “It’s also valuable experience that they’re gaining in the process.
“As tough as some of those moments are, we have to find the good as we try and correct what’s not good. ... We gotta help them fix the things that aren’t exactly right, so hopefully they can continue to develop into the players we think they can be.”
To maximize the players in Arizona’s defense, the Wildcats are expected to use their dime defense, which has three down defensive linemen and six defensive backs — daring run-heavy teams to run the football.
After allowing 204 rushing yards against West Virginia, the Wildcats will play UCF, the fourth-best rushing in team in college football. UCF has a potential All-Big 12 choice in running back RJ Harvey, who is the only player in the conference with over 1,000 rushing yards. Plus, UCF could start Jacurri Brown, a dual-threat transfer from Miami, the style of quarterback Arizona has struggled with.
“We do have other directions we can go, but we have to stay within the base,” Akina said. “You can’t reinvent the wheel every week, so we still feel like we can stack reps from what we saw a week ago.”
Arizona tight end Keyan Burnett (88) and long snapper Justin Holloway (31) congratulate kicker Tyler Loop (33) after a field goal during the Wildcats’ win over New Mexico on Aug. 31 in Tucson.
Cats ‘need to improve’ on special teams
Arizona kicker Tyler Loop will statistically go down as one the best kickers in program history. Loop is 52 points away from becoming the Wildcats’ all-time leading scorer, a record currently owned by former kicker Max Zendejas, who scored 360 points.
Loop’s 84% field-goal rate over his five-year career is currently the best in Arizona history, and he’s the only Wildcat to make field goals in a game, which he did earlier in the season in the upset win over 10th-ranked Utah.
Beyond Loop?
“I think we need to improve there,” said Brennan. “I think that’s obvious.”
The Wildcats have dealt with special teams blunders periodically throughout the season, especially in losses. Arizona allowed a 71-yard punt return for a touchdown against Kansas State, gave up a 2-point conversion to Texas Tech on a “swinging gate” PAT, then a fake field goal for a touchdown last week against West Virginia.
“In the games where we’ve had issues with that, I think there have been small details or trying to find the best guys available to execute those things for us considering the amount of players that are unavailable to us, so that has presented some challenges in that space for our football team,” Brennan said.
Loop ended his perfect PAT streak at 119, after punter and field-goal holder Michael Salgado-Medina held the snap “kind of sideways.”
“Michael has been doing a really good job with that all year. He’s still a true freshman. ... He’s the guy Tyler has the most confidence in, and he’s the guy that we have the confidence in.”
Arizona wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan (4), left, and wide receiver Devin Hyatt (13) celebrate McMillan’s touchdown in the fourth quarter against West Virginia.
Offense playing ‘freely’
Maybe the CFP expectations going out the window and the pressure off the Wildcats is what they need at the moment?
Once Arizona appeared doomed and trailed West Virginia by 18 points in the fourth quarter, the Wildcats scored touchdowns on their final three drives, which hasn’t happened since the season opener.
Arizona wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan, who is 266 yards away from becoming the UA’s all-time receiving leader, said the offense “had a lot of trust in everybody, (and) we were confident in our play, because at that moment, we had nothing to lose.”
“Obviously we were on the comeback and had to try and do everything we could to win the game,” said McMillan, who had 10 catches for 202 yards and a touchdown last week. “If we start like that at the beginning, our record will be a lot different.”
Arizona quarterback Noah Fifita had his highest completion percentage (65.6%) since the Northern Arizona game in September, and played a game this season without an interception.
Despite the Wildcats rushing for less than 100 yards, the late spark against WVU could be the offensive momentum Arizona needs if the UA wants to stop the bleeding before entering the fourth quarter of the season.
“Us being able to play freely, that’s when we play our best,” McMillan said. “Play free, trust each other and play confident, it’s going to be hard to stop us.”
