Just after Arizona snapped a 20-game losing streak after beating Cal in Jedd Fisch’s first season, the Wildcats turned their attention to Utah, a team the UA head coach admired from afar and used as a standard to rebuild his program in Tucson.
Fisch described the Utes as “tough” and “physical.”
“They know exactly what they want to look like. Their defense looks a certain way. They recruit to that,” Fisch said. “They (get) the same type of players that they just fill in. Offensively, they know exactly what they want to be. They play to that. Their consistency and the way they’ve been able to really keep their coaches together, keep their program together, is something that we (respect).”
Besides winning two straight Pac-12 championships, not much has changed with Utah and its consistency under 19-year head coach Kyle Whittingham. The Utes still have under-the-radar recruiting classes that aren’t turning heads of recruiting websites. As both teams prepare to jump to the Big 12 in 2024, 247Sports.com rated Arizona with the fourth-best ‘24 recruiting class in the conference, meanwhile Utah at No. 14.
However, including this season, the Utes have a 27-11 record in the last two-plus seasons. Utah hasn’t posted a losing season since 2013; in that time frame the Wildcats have had six.
Nowadays, the Wildcats are 7-3 and bowl eligible for the first time in six years and are one win away from the most victories in a season since they won the Pac-12 South championship in 2014. Arizona has more wins this season than the previous two seasons combined.
Even the three setbacks this season are by a combined 16 points, including two overtime games, so it’s conceivable 17th-ranked Arizona could have been 9-1 entering its home finale against No. 22 Utah on Saturday.
The game spread for Saturday has alternated between Arizona and Utah as one-point favorites, so it’s essentially a coin-flip game. The Wildcats were 24- and 18-point underdogs in their first two games against Utah under Fisch.
Considering the aforementioned information, the job is finished for Fisch and Arizona, right? Have the Wildcats officially arrived? While Arizona is in territory the program hasn’t reached recently, “We’re still a lot of years behind them in regards to the consistency of their program,” Fisch said.
“The formula for winning consistently has never changed in Salt Lake (City), from Urban Meyer to Kyle Whittingham,” Fisch said. “They’ve been able to consistently go out there every week and have a brand that everybody nationally recognizes at this point in time. We’re at the very infant stages of that. We’re very new in that world.”
Whittingham said the rebuild for Fisch at Arizona "started from scratch and rebuilt it his way."
"They're playing really good football right now," Whittingham said of Arizona. "As far as similarities, I'd have to be closer to the program to give you a better idea of that. But I just know that they're winning and playing sound football. They play hard. And they've recruited well, that's always the biggest factor — they've done a really nice job in the last three years of infusing talent into the program."
Besides Whittingham, Utah offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig has coached the Utes offensive for five seasons, while their defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley is in his eighth season at the helm; he’s been with the Utes for 16 seasons. The Wildcats have had five defensive coordinators since Scalley became Utah’s defensive play-caller.
“They’re champs. They’ve been together for a long time,” said Arizona defensive coordinator Johnny Nansen, who was recently nominated for the Broyles Award for college football’s top assistant coach. “They’re well-coached up front.
“It’s a program you measure your program to, if you ever want to build one,” he said. “They do it the right way and they’re well-disciplined in everything they do, and we gotta do a great job executing our calls.”
Arizona offensive coordinator Brennan Carroll said Utah is a “fantastic program.”
“They’ve been to the Pac-12 championship two years in a row, won them both. They are the reigning champ and it shows on film,” he said.
Since the 2010 season, Utah has sold out 82 straight home games at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City. Arizona Stadium has held two sellout crowds since the hiring of Fisch.
Arizona coach Jedd Fisch, front center, looks on in the first half against Colorado. The Wildcats weren’t at their best at times Saturday but still won to improve to 7-3.
“We’re trying to establish that brand. We’re trying to establish a culture that can continue on,” Fisch said. “They sellout every one of their games.
“That, to me, is what we aspire to do. We’re proud of the fact that we’re matching up head-to-head. This is a team we have the utmost respect for, but in the end, it’s ‘Can you consistently do what they’ve done over the course of time.’”
Consistently beating Utah is another task the Wildcats haven’t thrived in. Since 2016, Arizona has lost six straight to its future Big 12 counterpart. The Wildcats will have that chance on Saturday and extend their winning streak to five games — four of them against ranked opponents.
“That is an awesome challenge, to bring in the Pac-12 champions into our place and see how well we can play against them,” Fisch said. “It’s certainly a championship opportunity.
“It’s a championship game in so many different ways and we’ve gotta take advantage of this moment as a program.”
Extra points:
Fisch said the UA has sold around 48,700 tickets for Saturday. Saturday is expected to be the second sellout of the season.
Redshirt senior running back and walk-on Nazar Bombata received a full-ride scholarship for the fall semester, Fisch revealed on Thursday. The 6-1, 220-pound Bombata, a Los Angeles native, began playing with the Wildcats in 2018 under former head coach Kevin Sumlin.
Fisch said Arizona redshirt freshman wide receiver Kevin Green Jr. “wasn’t available last week,” which is why second-year receiver AJ Jones replaced the injured Jacob Cowing in the fourth quarter of the Wildcats’ win over Colorado last week. Cowing, who will play in his final home game on Saturday, is expected to return.
Fisch, on which Wildcats will participate in the pregame Senior Day ceremony: “Some will walk. Some will walk and return. Some will walk and graduate. Some have graduated and will re-walk. Some have walked and won’t walk. Some haven’t walked and won’t walk. So don’t ask me who’s walking because I don’t know. I know we have a lot of people who are and some that aren’t, but we’re working through that right now.”
