5 takeaways from Arizona football’s 24-20 victory over Kansas | Michael Lev

After Brent Brennan concluded his postgame news conference, Arizona’s general manager, Gaizka Crowley, placed a placard in front of the podium where Brennan had just spoke.

“Cats Going Bowling,” it read.

That same image would be displayed on both Arizona Stadium video boards as afternoon turned to night.

It’s an accomplishment worth celebrating for a program that hasn’t been in this position very often.

How the Wildcats got there Saturday wasn’t exactly artistic, especially on offense. Arizona needed a lot of things to go its way to edge Kansas 24-20.

But whatever they lacked in execution, the Wildcats made it up for it with determination, grit and fortitude.

Here are my top five takeaways from Arizona’s bowl-clinching win over Kansas:

1. Better to be lucky ...

Arizona caught a ton of breaks Saturday — none bigger than what happened late in the fourth quarter.

Kansas had a chance to put the game away, facing fourth-and-2 at the UA 11-yard line with 2:39 remaining. The Jayhawks were 2 for 2 on fourth down, including a successful quarterback sneak on fourth-and-1 earlier in the possession.

It seemed certain that Lance Leipold would put the ball in Jalon Daniels’ hands again. But the officials determined that Daniels had to come out of the game because of injury. Without his star QB, Leipold opted for a 30-yard field goal, which Laith Marjan missed. It was Marjan’s first missed field goal of the season in 15 tries.

Without the context of Daniels’ injury — he took a huge hit earlier in the possession, then was part of a pileup recovering his own fumble on the play before the field goal try — Leipold’s decision made little sense. Even if Marjan had made the field goal, Kansas would have been up six — and Arizona could have won with a touchdown.

Daniels not being available for that one play opened the door for the Wildcats to rally. They were in that position because of their defense — more on that unit later — and several other plays that could have gone against them.

Noah Fifita could have had three interceptions on his ledger. Instead, he had none. A pick-six was called back because of a penalty. A ball that Kris Hutson dropped, which was initially ruled an interception, was overturned by replay. And another would-be pick was flat-out dropped by Kansas’ Syeed Gibbs.

If you want to call Arizona lucky on Saturday, that’s fair. But you could argue they were just as unlucky in one-score losses to BYU and Houston.

The important thing is to put yourself in a position where the outcomes of those plays matter. The Wildcats have had a chance to win eight of the nine games they’ve played this season.

2. Heart and soul

It would have been so fitting if Dalton Johnson had come down with that interception on the third-to-last play of the game. He and fellow defensive back Treydan Stukes are the heart and soul of Arizona’s plucky defense.

Alas, the ball slipped from Johnson’s grasp as he fell to the turf. The play went in the books as a pass breakup. Johnson had a pair of those and was in on nine tackles. Stukes had three pass breakups, a career high.

Those two have seen some things.

Johnson was part of Kevin Sumlin’s last recruiting class, endured a period of limbo between coaches, stuck around, played an integral role in one of the greatest plays in program history and will leave here as a two-time bowl-game participant.

Stukes came to Arizona as a walk-on, became a scholarship starter, suffered a season-ending knee injury last year, returned for a sixth season and is thriving while catching the attention of NFL scouts.

They were part of a defense that held Kansas without a touchdown in the second half — while getting little help from the UA offense.

The Jayhawks ran more plays, possessed the ball more and had a 7-yard advantage in average starting field position. They had six possessions in the second half. This is how they ended: punt, field goal, punt, punt, missed field goal, end of game.

Daniels’ final-play Hail Mary sailed about a yard beyond the end zone. But just to be sure nothing strange happened, two UA defenders were back there to swat the ball away.

One was Genesis Smith. The other was Dalton Johnson.

3. Putting it on the line

If you were watching the game and wondering why Arizona wasn’t running the ball more, you weren’t alone. It was a game-long topic of conversation in the press box, as well.

Before Arizona’s last two offensive plays — 18- and 24-yard runs by Quincy Craig, the latter accounting for the winning touchdown — UA running backs had carried the ball only 13 times.

Considering how much the offensive line was struggling to protect Fifita, that was not nearly enough.

Kansas had five sacks, the second most by an opposing defense this season. On several other occasions, Fifita had to get rid of the ball a split second before a free rusher was about to hit him.

Sometimes, the Jayhawks got to Fifita with four rushers. Oftentimes, they designed tricky blitzes that would make Danny Gonzales proud.

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Arizona also played much of the game without starting left tackle Ty Buchanan.

All of those factors scream, “Run the damn ball!”

And on their last drive, the Wildcats finally did.

The possession consisted of eight plays. Five were rushes. Two were quarterback draws that gained a total of 20 yards. The last two were Craig's runs — a pair of quick-hitters up the middle that caught Kansas by surprise and were exceptionally well-blocked.

Center Ka’ena Decambra and guards Chubba Maae and Alexander Doost were the biggest contributors to the holes that opened up. Matthew Lado, Buchanan’s replacement, also played a key role in the 24-yard touchdown.

UA running backs finished with 139 yards on 15 rushes. They should have gotten more work.

4. Fearless Fifita

You wouldn’t know it by the final stats, but Fifita might have been Arizona’s most effective runner.

Fifita finished with 25 net rushing yards. But he suffered 46 yards in losses on those five sacks. On his eight other attempts — some designed runs, some scrambles — he gained 71 yards.

This was not, by any stretch, Fifita’s best performance as a passer. But it might have been his gutsiest performance as a Wildcat.

Fifita ran the ball fearlessly and at times powerfully — all 5-foot-10, 195 pounds of him. (Fifita is listed at 5-10. He’s not 5-10. But we’ll go with it for now.) He also took a bunch of hits in the pocket.

Kansas did a great job of closing off Fifita’s escape routes. Sometimes he rolled right into defenders.

But when he was able to get north-south, Fifita gained big chunks.

He and his receivers were off-kilter for much of the afternoon — a surprising development given how well the passing game had operated the previous two games.

Fifita and Hutson had great chemistry at Colorado but couldn’t get on the same wavelength against Kansas. Hutson was targeted a team-high nine times but caught only four of those passes.

Fifita’s 158 passing yards were his third fewest as a starter. His 51.6% completion rate was his fourth worst.

But he and his teammates found a way to win, and that’s all that really matters.

5. Positive vibes, changes

Brennan brought postgame-locker-room energy to the podium. I’ve never seen him so fired up.

He knew his team could have played better. But those were conversations for another time. This was a time to celebrate.

Last year was difficult for Brennan, his players and the program. Expectations were sky-high, and the Wildcats failed to deliver. Most fans blamed Brennan. Such is life for a head coach in major college football.

He and his staff set about making changes. The program’s transformation began in December. New coordinators, new assistants, new players, new approach.

You never know how it’ll all come together, especially when you turn over more than half the roster. Some of the portal pickups haven’t panned out. But everyone Arizona brought in had to have a high level of football character. It showed Saturday.

“This team is really, really special,” Brennan said. “It's an awesome group of people.”

Brennan talked about players choosing to come here and to stay here. He talked about players within position groups pulling for one another.

This was a culture-driven win. The Wildcats didn’t have their best fastball. They didn’t have their A-game. They won anyway.

Their reward is a bowl game to be determined — just the third for the program in the past nine seasons. But neither Brennan nor his players seemed satisfied with just that. It was refreshing to hear.

Craig mentioned the possibility of winning out. That’s what happened in 2023. It’s a tall task with two of the final three games on the road against teams — Cincinnati and ASU — that are in the upper half of the Big 12.

The Cincinnati game this upcoming Saturday is the type I’ve seen Arizona lose time and again. Long trip, chilly weather, bowl berth already clinched, Senior Day the following week.

Then again, the Wildcats haven’t won a lot of games like the one that clinched that bowl berth.

Change is afoot in Tucson. For the better.

Photos: Arizona squeaks by Kansas 24-20, Big 12 football