5 takeaways from Arizona football’s 41-17 victory over Baylor | Michael Lev

Was it the bare-chested, shirt-waving dudes in Sections 201 and 202?

Was it the depth and culture Arizona spent the offseason building?

Was it the Wildcats’ unwavering force of will?

All of the above?

Whatever the source, whatever the cause, Arizona kept ascending on a gray, glorious Saturday at the newly christened Casino Del Sol Stadium.

Down three points at halftime, Arizona shut out Baylor after intermission, pulling away for a resounding 41-17 victory. It was the Wildcats’ fourth win in a row. They take an 8-3 record into Friday’s Territorial Cup matchup at ASU.

How about that?

Much of what transpired Saturday was familiar. Some of it was new. Here are my top five takeaways from Arizona’s home finale:

1. Depth charge

One of the main objectives for Brent Brennan and the UA front office during the offseason was to improve Arizona’s depth. The Wildcats lost some big-time talent to the NFL Draft and the transfer portal. They wouldn’t have the same star power in 2025. But they could have better second-line players.

Those players were forced into action Saturday, and they came through.

Arizona was down a running back (Quincy Craig), an offensive tackle (Tristan Bounds), two defensive linemen (Tre Smith, Tiaoalii Savea), a linebacker (Myron Robinson) and two cornerbacks (Jay’Vion Cole, Marquis Groves-Killebrew) entering the game. The Wildcats lost another offensive lineman (Alexander Doost) and another linebacker (Max Harris) during the game. At one point, they were missing three starting offensive linemen.

None of it mattered. Arizona was the better team in the second half. The Wildcats dominated the fourth quarter.

Ismail Mahdi and Kedrick Reescano handled all of the running back duties. Matthew Lado, Michael Wooten, Ise Matautia and Isaac Perez stepped up on the offensive line. Jabari Mann and Dominic Hanger filled in at linebacker. Johno Price served as the third wheel at corner.

Hanger was perhaps the most unlikely contributor from that group. The redshirt sophomore is a walk-on from Chandler High School. He didn’t play a down his first two seasons. He had played 20 defensive snaps this season before Saturday.

Credit to Brennan’s staff for coaching those guys up. Credit to Gaizka Crowley (general manager) and Fletcher Kelly (director of scouting) for finding the right guys.

“To me, that's how we build a sustainable, successful, winning program at the University of Arizona,” Brennan said. “Doing a great job of recruiting. Developing high school players that are in your program for two, three, four years. And then also finding players that want to be here, that are tough and love football, that fit our culture and fit ‘redline.’”

2. Defense rises ... again

Confession time: I could have waited until after the season to write a retrospective on Danny Gonzales’ defense, but I was worried that the Baylor game would blow up the narrative and skew the numbers. So the ode-to-the-defense edition of “Cats Stats” ran this past week.

Forgive me for doubting you, Danny.

Gonzales’ defense did it again. Shaky early, unimpeachable late, adjustments along the way. Simply incredible.

In each of the past three games, Arizona allowed 14 or more points in the first half and not much else thereafter.

Kansas scored 17 points in the first half, three in the second. Cincinnati scored 14 points in the first half (all in the first quarter), 10 in the second. Baylor scored 17 points in the first half, none in the second.

The latter is undoubtedly the most impressive. The Bears entered Saturday fourth in the Big 12 in scoring, third in total offense and first in passing offense. Sawyer Robertson led the nation in passing yards per game, at 321.0.

Arizona held him to 162, his second-lowest total of the season. It’s the ninth time the Wildcats have held an opponent to under 200 passing yards.

How, exactly, are they doing this?

Gonzales is masterful at making minor but meaningful tweaks during the course of a game. Critically, he has smart, veteran players who are capable of carrying out his orders.

You won’t find a headier pair of defensive backs than Dalton Johnson and Treydan Stukes, both of whom balled out on Senior Day. Johnson recorded a career-high 18 tackles while also having primary coverage responsibilities against NFL-bound tight end Michael Trigg. Stukes made the game-turning play — an interception in the end zone early in the fourth quarter.

The other aspect of Gonzales’ defense that makes it so effective is that it’s just plain weird. The fronts are unconventional. Two defensive tackles right next to each other over the center? No down linemen in certain situations? Who does that?

And then whatever you think you’re seeing before the snap is liable to change right after. It’s truly, brilliantly confounding.

3. The new No. 4

It took a while to get here, but No. 4 is Noah Fifita’s No. 1 receiver again.

Wearing Tetairoa McMillan’s jersey number, Kris Hutson has emerged as Arizona’s clear-cut go-to guy.

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Hutson posted his second consecutive 100-yard receiving game Saturday — a very T-Mac thing to do. (McMillan had five consecutive 100-plus-yard games across the 2023 and '24 seasons, including 266- and 304-yard outings.)

Hutson even made a McMillan-like catch — a leaping 36-yard snag over Baylor cornerback LeVar Thornton Jr. early in the fourth quarter.

Hutson isn’t a McMillan-like receiver. The transfer from Washington State, who began his career at Oregon, is smaller, quicker and shiftier.

But Hutson is just as adept at making contested catches. He went 5 for 6 Saturday, per Pro Football Focus. He has a 76.5% contested-catch rate for the season — fourth best among FBS wide receivers with at least 63 targets.

Like McMillan — Fifita’s best friend since middle school and teammate until this season — Hutson has become the guy the quarterback looks for in stressful situations. Fourteen of Hutson’s 17 receptions the past two weeks have gone for first downs.

You could see the chemistry building between Fifita and Hutson during the Colorado game on Nov. 1. It’s gone to another level the past two weeks.

Hutson had a massive target share vs. Baylor at 58.3%. Is that any cause for concern?

McMillan’s mammoth target share last year (33.6%) was a frequent talking point. Fifita definitely locked onto him at times, to the offense’s detriment.

That could happen again down the stretch. But Arizona has more viable receiving options this season. That was one of the staff’s goals, too. This isn’t a one-man band.

4. Atmospheric conditions

Home attendance, or lack thereof, has been a frequent talking point this season. Arizona didn’t come close to selling out a game this year.

Saturday’s announced attendance of 40,199 was the third lowest of the season. But I thought the atmosphere was the second best behind the BYU game, which had the highest attendance at 47,960 (boosted by thousands of Cougars fans).

We can barely hear anything that’s happening in the stadium from the press box, which is enclosed. We could hear the crowd at key moments in the second half Saturday.

The shirtless guys in the upper deck did their part. The nationwide trend, which started at Oklahoma State, has made its way to Tucson. A decent number of dudes did it vs. Kansas on Nov. 8. This time, they spilled over two sections of seats. Good job, men.

The lack of butts in seats has been a disappointing development during an otherwise uplifting season. The reasons are multifold. We won’t go over them all again here.

There were legitimate reasons to temper expectations Saturday. The early kickoff time was kind of a killer, especially with El Tour de Tucson taking place in the morning. An 11 a.m. kick also isn’t optimal for families who have children in youth sports.

One of my followers on social media, JT, made an excellent point on this topic:

“It’s usually the year after you have a good year that you see an uptick in attendance. ASU is experiencing that now. But you can’t follow up a good year with a stinker or you set yourself back at least two years.”

That was unquestionably a big part of the problem for Arizona this year: The Wildcats flopped last season, stunting the momentum that had been built in 2023.

This season has brought renewed hope. The '26 season opener is scheduled for Sept. 5 vs. NAU. Clear your calendars.

5. Belief and results

During his postgame address, a loud thunder clap interrupted Brennan in the middle of an answer.

Who says lightning can’t strike twice?

Arizona keeps winning, keeps exceeding expectations, keeps redlining its way to bigger and better things.

The possibility of a second 10-win season in three years remains on the table heading into the Territorial Cup. Such a feat would be unprecedented in UA football annals.

Arizona has won 10 or more games four times. The gap between the first two was five years, 1993 to '98. It didn’t happen again until 2014 (16 years). Then, a nine-year lull until 2023.

Unfathomable might be a better word. This team isn’t as talented as the '23 squad. It didn’t enter this past offseason with any positive vibes.

But every step taken since then has had a positive impact. Desireé Reed-Francois reiterated her support for Brennan. Brennan made critical staff changes. Key players such as Johnson, Stukes and safety Genesis Smith decided to stay.

The players believed in Brennan despite last season’s results. Brennan never stopped believing in himself — although it would have been easy for him to question himself. Everyone else was.

“Did last year affect me? Of course it did,” he said. “It affected all of us. But I also think it motivated us to make the decisions and the moves we had to make to give us a chance to build this team, and that's what I'm excited about.

“I'm so proud of this team, the players, the coaches, our strength staff, our recruiting staff, everybody that touches this program. It speaks to the alignment that we have at Arizona right now. That is really special. And I promise you, that does not happen everywhere. But it's happening here right now.”

Photos: Arizona closes its home Big 12 season with a bang, dropping Baylor 41-17