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

SALT LAKE CITY — Arizona made history on Saturday to begin its new era in the Big 12 and took down the 10th-ranked Utah Utes 23-10 at Rice-Eccles Stadium.

Here are notable storylines, statistics and quotes from the UA’s latest victory over the Utes:

Wildcats out-Utah the Utes

Arizona entered the season with an expectation to beat a high-caliber team like Utah and compete in the Big 12. But how the Wildcats beat Utah was arguably the most staggering part about Saturday.

Under Kyle Whittingham, the Utes have a reputation for playing a physical and disciplined brand of football, dominating the line of scrimmage, running the football effectively and winning the turnover battle.

Arizona outclassed Utah and beat the Utes at their own game. The Wildcats out-Utah’d the Utes and out-rushed Utah 161 yards to 84, a first for the Utes since the loss to Oregon in October of last season. It was the first ranked opponent Arizona kept under 100 yards rushing since the 38-point over Washington State last season.

Utah was also 0 for 4 on fourth-down conversions, the best mark for Arizona’s defense since a win over Oregon in 2006. Two of the fourth-down stops happened on Utah’s first two drives inside the red zone, which prevented the Utes from scoring. Arizona nickel back Treydan Stukes had a tackle for loss with Utah on the UA 2-yard line, then star cornerback Tacario Davis, who had five pass breakups on Saturday after a relatively quiet start to the season, had a pass breakup in the end zone. Three of Davis’ pass breakups were on fourth down.

“It was great to see (Davis) smiling and having fun playing,” Brennan said. “It’s a really fun group of kids. ... It was nice to see that show up in a big-time game and a big-time moment like it did tonight.”

Playing physical and keeping the ball out of receivers’ hands was “really important” this week, said Arizona linebacker Jacob Manu.

“I know they have a lot of good receivers on that team, so we couldn’t let them get the ball in their hands,” Manu said. “That was a big emphasis on the game plan.”

Arizona’s defensive secondary was also responsible for two takeaways — both in the second half. Sophomore Genesis Smith intercepted Utah quarterback Isaac Wilson, who replaced the injured Cameron Rising (hand) in the starting lineup for the third straight game, in the third quarter and senior Gunner Maldonado’s game-sealing interception was the final takeaway of the night for the UA.

“I thought our defense was incredible,” Brennan said. “If you take the four (fourth-down) stops with the turnovers, we would count that as six (takeaways), which is what you have to do to win a game like that on the road.”

The Wildcats were also noticeably more aggressive at the line of scrimmage between the defensive line and blitzing linebackers to put pressure on the true freshman Wilson. Arizona blitzed on nearly 46% of Wilson’s pass attempts, according to Pro Football Focus. Arizona had three sacks on Saturday, while Utah didn’t have any sacks for the first time in nearly a year; the Utes lead the Big 12 in sacks.

“I think we were getting after it a little bit more,” said Manu, who finished with eight tackles. “We were getting in the backfield more.”

Arizona didn’t convert every defensive stop into points, however the UA offense took a page out of the ol’ Utah playbook with running backs Quali Conley and Kedrick Reescano combining for 145 yards and junior tight end Keyan Burnett breaking out for five catches for 76 yards and a touchdown — his first score as a Wildcat. Burnett had three catches for 49 yards on the season entering Saturday night. His last reception, a well-placed 35-yard pass in the back of the end zone from quarterback Noah Fifita scrambling to his right, was the final haymaker. Burnett “kind of saw the play break down a little bit and Noah likes to scramble a lot and he ended up throwing a great pass to me,” he said.

“I cut back to the opposite side of the defense in the back of the end zone,” Burnett said. “Great ball by him.”

“I thought it was top-notch the way Noah went out there and the poise he had. Shoutout to our O-Line,” Burnett said. “The play-calling overall, I think that was a huge difference. I’m proud of it.”

A strong defensive performance, running the ball and using tight ends? Altogether, not only did Arizona play its best game of the season, it was against the Big 12 preseason favorite.

“I was proud with how they just kept believing in each other,” Brennan said. “Football is the best team game ever created in my opinion. As long as it’s not about you, as long as you’re playing for the guy next to you and not yourself all the time, you have a chance. I thought they did that so well tonight and I think it showed up in how we collectively played in all three phases.”

Kicker Loop ‘is really special’

Whenever the Wildcats cross the 50-yard line, they’re in field goal range for Tyler Loop.

“That’s an insane conversation,” Brennan said of Arizona’s kicker. “That speaks to his talent and the hard work he puts in.”

Loop matched his career-high three made field goals on Saturday and nailed a 33-, 47- and a 53-yarder with ease. He barely missed a 56-yard attempt in the fourth quarter. His two field goals this season from over 50 yards matches his season total from last year.

“Loop is special for us,” Manu said. “No matter how far we are, we think we can make it. We got trust in Loop and we love him.”

Even though Arizona failed to score touchdowns to finish some drives, Loop extended the Wildcats’ lead to 16-3 with two third-quarter field goals.

“Loop is really special. He’s a great player and a great dude to be around,” Burnett said. “His consistency and ability to stay in the moment is something I’ve never seen before. Great player to have on our team.”

‘Made the most out of a complicated situation’

Arizona’s flight to Salt Lake City out of Tucson International Airport on Friday was delayed several hours due to a mechanical issue.

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“I heard something about a tire, but I’m glad they figured it out before we took off,” Brennan said.

Brennan and the Arizona staff, accompanied by late Arizona coach Dick Tomey’s wife, Nanci Kincaid, found a silver lining to the delay. Kincaid saidm “’This is a Coach Tomey moment, if there ever was one!’”

“He loved that kind of stuff,” Brennan said.

Then “so many people snapped into action just to get us here,” said the UA head coach.

After a team meeting at the UA football facility at 9 p.m., the team flew out late Friday night and landed in Salt Lake City early Saturday morning, about 20 hours from kickoff.

“Everybody made the most of a complicated situation.,” Brennan said. “The people who did the best part of it were our players. They were like, ‘Let’s go!’ We knew there’d be some adversity on this trip; we didn’t know it’d be the flight, but it turned out to be that way to start it off. It put us in a good headspace.”

Added Brennan: “How about those kids and how amazing (they are), right? I went to bed at like 2:45 a.m. Those kids handled it and I’m so proud of them.”

Manu said, “as soon as it happened, everyone said it was just a little bit of adversity.”

“We like going through that,” Manu said. “We handled it well and we executed the game plan.”

By the numbers

1: Saturday marked Brennan’s first win over a Top 10 team as a head coach.

11: Defensive linemen used not including nose tackle Chubba Ma’ae, who was held out with a leg injury.

-9: Wilson rushed for minus-9 yards after Arizona surrendered 279 rushing yards to quarterbacks in the previous three games.

3: Northwestern transfer and Phoenix-area native Alexander Doost became the third starting right guard for Arizona this season. Ryan Stewart and Leif Magnuson have also started this season.

4: Home losses for Utah since 2018, including Saturday.

41: Second-year receiver Devin Hyatt’s 41-yard catch in the fourth quarter set up Burnett’s touchdown. Hyatt had more yards in one catch than in his entire Arizona career leading up to the game.

They said it

Manu, on playing against former UA receiver Dorian Singer, who finished with nine receptions for 155 yards: “I loved it, man. We were talking back-and-forth, smiling. That’s my boy at the end of the day.”

Burnett, on how the win propels the team moving forward: “I think it sets us up for the trajectory of the rest of our season to go the way we wanted to. Coming in here and winning a game like that is a big deal, but at the end of the day, it’s on to the next week. We gotta do the same thing again.”

Manu, on ignoring criticism and doubters leading into the Utah game: “We just blocked out the outside noise, all the media, all the fans and everything. We just relied on one another and trusted one another.”

Injury report

Stukes left the game with a leg injury and his status for this week is unknown. Second-year cornerback Emmanuel Karnley started in place of Marquis Groves-Killebrew. Ma’ae had a walking boot on while roaming the UA sidelines. Wide receiver Malachi Riley, after suffering a leg injury at Kansas State, was not active.

Looking ahead

Arizona is tied for fourth in the Big 12 standings, along with Iowa State and West Virginia. BYU, Colorado and Texas Tech are all currently tied for first with 2-0 conference records.

Despite a win over a Top 10 team on the road, it wasn’t enough to move into the Associated Press Top 25 Poll. With UNLV and Texas A&M tied for 25th, Arizona is 27th in the AP poll with 106 votes.

Arizona (3-1) faces Texas Tech (4-1) for its Big 12 home opener at Arizona Stadium on Saturday at 8 p.m. on Fox. The Red Raiders have three straight wins over North Texas, Arizona State and most recently, Cincinnati. The Wildcats are 4.5-point favorites, according to Action Network.

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