Arizona Wildcats shake off sloppy start to hold off Northern Arizona

The longest active winning streak in college football was threatened Saturday night, but the 20th-ranked Arizona Wildcats overcame a sluggish start to beat Northern Arizona 22-10 at Arizona Stadium. 

With No. 10 Michigan's loss to third-ranked Texas in Ann Arbor, the Wildcats' nine-game winning streak, which includes the last seven games of last season, is the longest in college football. The nine straight wins for Arizona is tied for the longest winning streak in program history. 

The winning streak "is a testament to everyone who joined the program as the years have gone, and just trusting the process, trusting the brotherhood, believing in one another," said Arizona senior nickel back Treydan Stukes, who had six tackles and a pass breakup on Saturday. 

"We've had a couple of new (coaching) staffs and it doesn't matter," said Stukes, who has been at Arizona since 2020 and was a part of the 20-game losing streak between the '20 and '21 seasons. "The guys in that locker room are high-level guys and high-quality people. It's just a testament to that." 

Arizona won on Saturday with several notable players out: running back Jacory Croskey-Merritt, left tackle Rhino Tapa'toutai, free safety Gunner Maldonado, wide receiver Reymello Murphy and center Josh Baker, who dressed out but didn't play. After rushing for 106 yards and a touchdown last week, "there was a concern raised about (Croskey-Merritt's) eligibility," so the Wildcats were "overcautious" and sat the New Mexico transfer, said Arizona head coach Brent Brennan.  

Baker made 28 straight starts (26 at center, two at guard) before Saturday. Redshirt sophomore and Chandler native Grayson Stovall made his first-career start at the UA. With two starters out, Arizona shook up the offensive line with Jonah Savaiinaea making his first start at left tackle in place of Tapa'toutai, with left guard Wendell Moe, Stovall, right guard Leif Magnuson and right tackle Ryan Stewart, who started at right guard last week. NAU put pressure on Arizona's reshuffled offensive line — and Arizona quarterback Noah Fifita, who was hit three times and sacked twice. 

"I think we need to evaluate on film and see how we looked, see if there's anything we can do schematically or formationally to give us a better chance to find rhythm," Brennan said of Arizona's offensive line. "I also thought they did some good stuff and made some plays. We popped some runs when we needed to and had some good protection, hit some throws. But the consistency wasn't what we liked it to be."  

After producing the eighth-most offensive yards (671) last week against New Mexico, the Wildcats offense struggled in the first half on Saturday with just 55 passing yards in the first two quarters. Arizona ended with 361 yards of total offense. Arizona had more rushing yards (188) than passing yards (173) for the first time since the 2022 Territorial Cup game against Arizona State. 

"We gotta put it together, huh? That's what I would say. We struggled to find a rhythm offensively tonight, which is something we're going to work on," Brennan said. 

Arizona star receiver Tetairoa McMillan, who had 10 catches for a school-record 304 yards and four touchdowns in his record-setting performance last week, had just two catches for 11 yards on six targets. McMillan's second target, quarterback Noah Fifita's first incompletion of the night after completing his first six throws, was lobbed into double-coverage near the NAU sideline for an interception. Fifita completed 18 of 26 passes for 173 yards, one touchdown and an interception. It's the fewest yards for Fifita as a starter — and the first time the Arizona star has thrown fewer than 200 yards since taking over the reins of the offense.

Brennan said "it did seem the protection (for Fifita) was a little less clean." 

"Was he getting off his spot too much? Did he have to make some movements before he could settle in and make some throws, and so we'll look at that and get back to work," Brennan said. "The kid is an awesome player. I'm not worried about Noah at all." 

Arizona bookended its first-half offensive possessions with field goals by Tyler Loop (33 and 48 yards), but had three punts and an interception in between. Arizona running back Quali Conley's 58-yard run in the first quarter was the only over 20 yards for the Wildcats. The Wildcats were 0-for-10 on third-down conversions on Saturday, the first time Arizona went O-fer on third down since 2003, when it went 0-for-13 against Washington State.

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"Oh my goodness, I didn't know it was that bad. That hurts," Brennan on the UA not converting a third-down play against NAU. "Obviously we're going to have trouble beating anybody if we're that (bad.) That's something we have to go to work on."

Conley, who had 166 all-purpose yards on Saturday, said the Wildcats' failure on third-down plays was because Arizona "wasn't playing hard enough." 

"The defense took control of the game and I just feel like the offense can do better. ... We weren't connecting on nothing," he added. "There's room to improve." 

With the help of a trick play, a jet sweep hand-off to wide receiver Isaiah Eastman, who completed a wide-open pass to receiver Xander Werner for a 25-yard touchdown, and a 38-yard field goal, NAU jumped out to a 10-6 lead at halftime.  

Arizona caught a defensive spark in the second half with a fourth-down stop by linebacker Jacob Manu and edge rusher Chase Kennedy at the line of scrimmage on the NAU 34-yard line. The Wildcats converted the turnover on downs into a touchdown after junior-college transfer receiver Jeremiah Patterson caught a swing pass near the UA sideline, broke through two NAU defenders and ran in for a 17-yard touchdown in the third quarter to take a 13-10 lead. 

With freshman punter Michael Salgado-Medina limited to field-goal holding duties, walk-on and Phoenix product Jordan Forbes manned punting duties. Forbes, who averaged 46.3 yards per punt on Saturday, kicked a 46-yarder that was stopped at the NAU 1-yard line by Colgate transfer defensive back Owen Goss. 

With NAU's heels in the north end zone of Arizona Stadium, UA defensive tackle Chubba Ma'ae and linebacker Jacob Manu, who had a team-high 14 tackles, tackled running back Darvon Hubbard for a safety.

"You just gotta keep your poise, for sure. Everyone knows you're licking your lips when you see them that backed up, but you gotta keep doing your job, stay in your gap and that's what we did. Eventually, it worked out for us. We got some penetration and were able to get him in the end zone," Stukes said.

Ole Miss transfer running back Kedrick Reescano, in his first collegiate offensive snaps, raced for a 56-yard touchdown to extend the Wildcats' lead 22-10. Forbes' punt, Ma'ae's safety and Reescano's touchdown was "some good team football in that sequence there," Brennan said.

San Jose State transfer edge rusher Tre Smith, who had six quarterback pressures and no sacks last week, sacked NAU quarterback Ty Pennington and caused a fumble to secure the win for the Wildcats. 

Arizona's (2-0) sets up a battle between undefeated Top 20 teams for the Wildcats' road opener on Friday against No. 17 Kansas State (2-0), which pulled off a 34-27 win over Tulane in New Orleans, in Manhattan for the final nonconference game of the season.

"We gotta go back to work," Brennan said. "I'm happy as hell we're 2-0 and we've got a big game on Friday night in a short week. We've got a lot of stuff to figure out in a short window." 

Photos: Arizona 22-10 over NAU, NCAA football