Arizona Aftermath: Storylines, stats and quotes from the Wildcats' win over Weber State

In the final tune-up before the highly anticipated showdown with Kansas State, the Arizona Wildcats routed Weber State 48-3 Saturday night — and early Sunday morning — to move to 2-0.

Arizona head coach Brent Brennan “thought our team just did an incredible job throughout the week with their intentionality and living redline in the practice environment and living every phase of it.”

“We came into this game expecting to win and we did that,” Brennan added. “I thought the offense was rolling. Second week in a row the defense holds a team without a touchdown. You gotta be fired up about that. We’re excited, it was a good win, our fans are awesome and hung in there and it was a good night at Arizona Stadium. I’m fired up.”

Here are notable storylines, statistics and quotes, among other pertinent information, from Arizona’s win over Weber State.

Cats stay ‘mission-focused’ during lightning delay

The start of the Arizona-Weber State game was delayed over two hours due to nearby lightning. The delay went into effect less than an hour before kickoff. Fans and staffers in the stadium were asked to find covered shelter.

The game officially kicked off at 9:10 p.m. on Saturday and ended Sunday at 12:20 a.m. It’s the latest kickoff at Arizona Stadium since its 8:15 p.m. contest against Houston last season.

It was the first weather delay at Arizona Stadium since the season opener against Central Michigan in 2009.

Lauren Vossler, Arizona’s director of football operations, “snapped into action, making sure we had food when (the game) kept getting pushed,” Brennan said.

“You try to eat roughly four hours before kickoff,” Brennan said. “That’s the magic number, but then the kickoff keeps getting pushed and pushed and pushed. As you know, these guys are big dudes and they’re hungry, so you gotta make sure they have gas in the tank, because it’s a long game. With all the timeouts, you knew it was going to be a long game.

“I thought everybody did a great job. For the coaches, we’re kind of sitting around, waiting. We watched some football, talked about the game tonight. We were anxious to play. I kept asking (chief of staff Ben Thienes), ‘What’s going on? What’s going on?’ He was sick of me bothering him.”

Arizona linebacker Max Harris said the UA was “mission-focused” during the break.

“Adversity is going to hit and it comes in different ways,” said Harris, who had two tackles and a quarterback hit. “Just stay mission-focused.”

The good, the bad and the ugly

Following one of his most inefficient passing performances, Arizona quarterback Noah Fifita had one of his best passing performances as a Wildcat, completing 17 of 22 passes for 353 yards, five touchdowns (tied for a career high) and no interceptions.

In the first quarter, Fifita launched a 31-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Javin “Nunu” Whatley, who also hauled in an 85-yard touchdown reception with just under nine minutes left in the first quarter. Fifita’s 85-yard pass to Whatley is the longest of his career.

Dating back to his final possession against Hawaii last week, Fifita completed 14 straight passes, which is the longest streak of his career.

Fifita completed the first 10 passes on Saturday and then his streak ended with just over nine minutes left in the second quarter, when he attempted to flip a 3-yard pass in the middle of the end zone to tight end Sam Olson, who dropped the pass.

Fifita had more passing yards (196) and touchdowns (three) in the first quarter than he threw in the entire game against Hawaii. Fifita’s top eight pass catchers on Saturday were Whatley, Luke Wysong, Kris Hutson, Chris Hunter, running back Ismail Mahdi, Brandon Phelps, Tre Spivey and Gio Richardson. Phelps and Spivey both caught their first touchdowns at Arizona.

Whatley was Fifita’s top target with five catches for 168 yards and two touchdowns. It’s the most yards for Whatley since he had 10 catches for 168 yards and a touchdown for Chattanooga against Furman. Whatley became the first Arizona receiver not named Tetairoa McMillan to have 150-plus yards in a game since Dorian Singer against Washington State in 2022.

In Arizona’s eight drives with Fifita under center, the Wildcats scored five touchdowns and two field goals. The only possession that didn’t result in points was when Arizona kneeled to end the first half.

“I thought it was great the way we executed the first half on offense,” Brennan said.

Fifita passed Anu Solomon for the fourth-most career touchdowns in UA history. Fifita is eight touchdowns away from passing Khalil Tate. Fifita recorded his first 300-yard passing performance since the Texas Tech game last October. Fifita’s 77% completion rate on Saturday is the best since he completed 78% of his passes against UCLA in 2023.

Fifita could’ve also contributed two rushing touchdowns; however, both of Fifita’s touchdown runs were nullified due to holding penalties, which resulted in Arizona settling for field goals. Arizona had 10 penalties for 80 yards against Weber State. Arizona was also penalized twice for offsides and had a false-start penalty.

“There were also some good runs in there that penalties negated,” Brennan said. “That’s obviously going to be a huge point of emphasis for us as we get back to work.”

Arizona has the fourth-most penalty yards (134) in the Big 12, ahead of West Virginia, Arizona State and UCF.

Added Brennan: “We have some work to do in the accountability space, because we were heavily penalized tonight. It was just too many. Some of them are avoidable and some of them are football. But we’re going to dive in hard on that and make sure we’re not putting ourselves in a situation where we’re hurting our chances to get the results we want.”

As a team, Arizona had 150 rushing yards and averaged 3.8 yards per rush. Senior running back Ismail Mahdi led the Wildcats in rushing with nine carries for 51 yards. Arizona only had 52 rushing yards in the second half on Saturday.

“As we look as a staff, I think we’re going to be disappointed that we didn’t run the ball better tonight, to be honest with you,” Brennan said. “I think we can be much better in that regard. It was fun to see us be that explosive offensively. ... I thought Noah had great command of the offense the entire game. That was really good to see him operating and executing at such a high level.”

Defensive masterclass

Arizona defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales often preaches all 11 defensive players swarming to the football “with bad humor” and “keep them out of the freaking end zone,” he said.

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In two games, Arizona’s defense has done exactly that. In eight quarters this season, Arizona has surrendered nine points — 1.1 points every quarter. It’s the first time Arizona hasn’t allowed a touchdown in back-to-back games since it beat Toledo and Citadel in 2010.

“I feel like we’ve shown that we fly to the ball,” said Harris. “We try to get as many heads to the ball as possible before the whistle is blown. I feel like we’ve shown that we’re relentless.”

Arizona safety Genesis Smith, who recorded his first interception of the season on Saturday, said Arizona has “honed in on swarming to the ball” this season. Weber State’s 11 offensive possessions resulted in seven punts, two interceptions, a missed field goal and a made field goal.

Between the first two games, Arizona didn’t allow a point for five quarters. Before Weber State’s 33-yard field goal in the fourth quarter, the last time Arizona allowed a point was Hawaii’s field goal to end the first half last week. Arizona went 77 minutes and 16 seconds without giving up a point. Brennan said, “there definitely was some disappointment” that Arizona didn’t pitch a shutout against Weber State.

“I think part of that was we gave some other guys a chance to play, so we didn’t have the same group out there,” Brennan said. “But that’s OK. I think those guys were more happy to see some of those guys play. ... That part was more exciting.”

By the numbers

500: Saturday marked the second time Arizona had at least 500 yards of total offense under Brennan. Arizona is 2-0 in those games.

7: Arizona has seven takeaways in two games. The Wildcats had 16 last season. Cornerback Jay’Vion Cole returned an interception 27 yards for a touchdown — Arizona’s first pick-six since Anthony Pandy against USC in 2021.

24: Arizona’s 24 first-quarter points against Weber State are the most since it scored 24 points in the opening period against Washington State in 2014.

88-9: Arizona outscored its first two opponents 88-9. Last season, Arizona outscored New Mexico and Northern Arizona 83-49.

93.3: Whatley’s offensive grade for Saturday on Pro Football Focus. Fifita received a 91.7 grade.

2: Arizona is 2-0 for the second straight season. The last time Arizona went 2-0 in back-to-back seasons was in 2014 and ‘15.

They said it

Brennan, on his message to redshirt freshman linebacker Jabari Mann, who was ejected in the first half for targeting: “’Don’t do it. Keep your head out of it. You know better.’ That’s an easy one. He knows better. He’s been playing football for a long time. Targeting is not a new rule.”

Brennan, on walk-on quarterback Mason Bray — who is the son of the late former UA standout Heath Bray and the grandson of former Arizona head coach Larry Smith — playing five snaps: “It was fun. Mason Bray is an awesome young man and he has worked incredibly hard. He’s doing a great job. He’s doing a great job learning the offense and playing quarterback here. He’s doing good in school and he’s having a great experience. He’s someone on the team who is respected and valued. It was awesome to see him get the chance to play quarterback.”

Brennan, on freshman running back Wesley Yarbrough, who had seven rushes for 37 yards in the second half: “He ran with confidence, he ran with physicality, he seemed to have really good vision out there, so I’m excited about that.”

Injury report

Arizona had an abundance of players return to action on Saturday, including offensive tackle Rhino Tapa’atoutai, who started at right tackle in place of Michigan transfer Tristan Bounds.

Tapa’atoutai, who played his first game in 322 days after suffering a season-ending knee injury against Colorado last season, started alongside left tackle Ty Buchanan, left guard Michael Wooten, center Ka’ena Decambra and right guard Alexander Doost. Tapa’atoutai exited the game in the second quarter.

Hutson and Montana transfer linebacker Riley Wilson made their Arizona debuts. Hutson was third in receiving with two catches for 51 yards. Wilson didn’t play until the second half, but finished third in tackles (six).

Arizona defensive back Treydan Stukes, who is recovering from a knee injury he suffered nearly a year ago, remained sidelined. Cornerback Marquis Groves-Killebrew made his season debut on Saturday and played 22 snaps, according to PFF.

Tight end Keyan Burnett made his Arizona debut and didn’t have any receptions, but played 21 offensive snaps. UA running back Kedrick Reescano missed Saturday and was seen wearing a walking boot on the sideline.

Arizona defensive end Tre Smith left the game with an injury. Brennan didn’t have any updates on Smith and Reescano’s statuses.

“I don’t know about Tre,” Brennan said. “Ked, we’ll see.”

Looking ahead

For the first time this season, the Arizona Wildcats are dogs.

Arizona (2-0) opened up as a 2.5-point underdog for its highly anticipated matchup with Kansas State (1-2), according to DraftKings. As of Sunday, Arizona is a 1.5-point underdog on DraftKings and a 1.5-point favorite on FanDuel.

Arizona recently beat Weber State 48-3 and picked up its second win of the season. Kansas State was upset by Army in Manhattan on Saturday, after falling to Iowa State in Ireland two weeks prior.

The nonconference battle of the Wildcats at Arizona Stadium is on Friday at 6 p.m. on Fox. Arizona lost to Kansas State 31-7 in the first game of the home-and-home series in Manhattan, which snapped Arizona’s nine-game winning streak. Friday night will be a homecoming for former UA safety and Alamo Bowl Defensive MVP Gunner Maldonado, who transferred to KSU in December. Arizona added Spivey, the former Kansas State wide receiver, this past offseason.

Arizona has a chance to start a season 3-0 for the first time since 2015.

Photos: Arizona smothers Weber State 48-3, NCAA football