TUCSON – Arizona’s five-game skid is officially over! A cold night in Tucson ended with some heat, as the Arizona Wildcats defeated Houston 27-3, winning their first game since late September to keep their bowl game hopes alive. It was a historic night at Arizona Stadium that included a program-record 62-yard field goal by Tyler Loop, and the Pride of Arizona Marching Band receiving the 2024 Sudler Trophy. Here’s what Arizona head coach Brent Brennan, along with kicker Tyler Loop, running back Quali Conley, and defensive back Genesis Smith had to say postgame following the 27-3 win over Houston.
Brent Brennan on building off tonight’s win with two regular season games remaining after losing the last five:
“Anytime you go through a hard time like that – how quickly can you get to the next opportunity to have a chance to prove yourself. I thought our players responded great tonight after the challenge of how frustrated we were coming out of the UCF game. And, just the way the team responded in practice. I think that just gets lost. Everybody says we have to practice hard, blah, blah, blah, and you guys get sick of me saying that, and I get that, but the reality is the only way to get better is by practicing hard and doing the things that matter in the practice environment. Bringing the right energy and the intention to the practice environment, and that’s what they did all, the last two weeks. We’re fired up.”
Brent Brennan on defensive back Genesis Smith’s performance in the win over Houston:
“It’s awesome, and I think we all just see Genesis continue to grow and develop as a really good player. Obviously, some of that is he’s kind of thrust in some action by some of the injuries that we had early on, and all the sudden he’s playing more, and more, and more, and more. But, he continues to find the football, he continues to make plays behind the line of scrimmage. He’s a guy that we absolutely depend on, and hopefully you guys get to talk to him this week, because he is one of the most engaging and energetic people I’ve ever been around on the football field. Just watching him at practice, or watching him on game day, his energy is contagious, it’s awesome.”
Brent Brennan on Quali Conley’s 100-yard, two-touchdown performance after fumbling in back-to-back games:
“It’s great. Like I said before, Quali’s a player that we’ve handed the ball to a lot of times in the last two years, and he had never fumbled before the first one. And then he fumbled in the next game. So, for him to be detailed about his ball security, and obviously that’s something that we hammered, a lot of the fundamental work we did during the bye-week, but it was great to see it pay off tonight, and it was great to see that counter play pop and him house it, was really exciting, because we hadn’t gotten out in the run game like that. So, I’m really happy for Quali.”
Brent Brennan on Arizona loading the box defensively against Houston:
“That was part of the game plan just because of all the quarterback run. That’s one of the things you have to stop with them is the quarterback run. He’s obviously a good player, and any time people run the quarterback, they’re always trying to get the numbers deep or they’re trying to get plus-one in the run game. And so, how do you slow that down, you’ve got to add people to the core. Now, in order to do that, you’ve got to be able to cover the outside, so a lot of credit goes to those guys in the secondary who had to cover down, whether that’s Tacario, or MGK, or Owen, or Jack, or sometimes the linebackers, Dalton. As you put more people into the core, those people outside have got to hold up.”
Brent Brennan on the Pride of Arizona Marching Band being awarded the 2024 Sudler Trophy:
“It’s so special, and we spoke about it last week, but the funny thing about the band is they practice crazy. We have so much respect for them. The amount of time and effort they put into all of those things, we have so much respect for those students, and for their coaches. I mean, those guys are awesome. Desireé and I went and spoke to them at the beginning of the season – you want to talk about energy, that room had crazy juice! They were so much fun, and that shows up. I think when you attack whatever you’re doing, whether it’s being a member of the band, or being a member of the football team, with that kind of enthusiasm, the results are going to be good.”
Brent Brennan on Tyler Loop’s 62-yard program-record field goal:
“Well, none of it’s surprising to anybody that’s ever around Tyler. He’s an incredibly hard working young man…multiple times you’ve told me, you don’t have to be a great kicker, you have to be a great adjuster. What a cool thing to think about. For him, it’s like a golf swing. Right, it’s like constant adjustment as he’s taking these shots in pregame and practice and all these things. I think when you have that kind of attention to detail, and you have that mindset, like no, I can fix this if I’m making the proper adjustments as I’m going, then you end up with an incredibly high-caliber player like him.”
Brent Brennan on the locker room after Arizona’s 27-3 victory over Houston:
“It was fantastic. It was awesome. For me, this thing is never about me. It’s about those kids, and it’s about seeing them smile, and hug each other, and dance, and jump around, and throw water. I’m just happy for them. To see that excitement on their faces, that hope on their faces, is just really special.”
Tyler Loop on how making adjustments to his kicking technique helped him connect on his 62-yard program-record field goal:
“That’s been something through this past week that I’ve just been working on. Just wanting to hit it straighter, more clean, rotating ball that cuts the wind well. That’s something I’ve been working on for years. I’ve talked about it a lot, kicking’s not about being a perfect kicker, but a perfect adjuster. Being a good adjuster. I don’t think my confidence changed going into the game, but still felt good, was hitting a good ball. It’s pretty much the same ball, just doesn’t draw as much. It was fun this week, we drilled a lot, just with our operation. Had some good team reps. And funny enough, the last field goal I hit before game day was a 62-yarder in practice, so going out, I was like heck yeah, I just did this two days ago, which was a bunch of fun.”
Tyler Loop on Arizona snapping its losing streak and using tonight’s win as a momentum builder:
“I was here through the 2020 and 2021 season. Obviously, it’s a different situation, but when you’re going on that, it’s very easy to let outside noise and let doubt creep in. Something this team has harped on and been really hammering down on for the past couple of weeks, even through the losses, was we talk about our Brotherhood. That’s something that’s really special about this team, and how the guys love each other, play for each other, care for each other. So to come out and see the fruits of that, especially coming off a bye-week where we worked really hard. We got after it in the weight room, got after it on the practice field, and spent a lot of time together. Like, seeing the fruits of that’s really special, and it helps readjust your target to go after the next game. And we talked about it, it’s one game at a time. We have our first opponent’s Houston, now it’s on to TCU. It’s a really cool thing to come out with a win this week.”
Tyler Loop on the Pride of Arizona Marching Band being awarded the 2024 Sudler Trophy:
“That’s a fun one. Through high school, I was involved with orchestra, not band, but one thing that being around those fine arts people, they put a lot of work into their craft. We see them on our field marching all the time. You know, they’re always right outside the stadium here, drumline’s going when we’re walking out to practice. So that’s really cool hearing that that’s paid off for them. It’s fun for us because they’re consistent, like they show up, and they’ve got a lot of energy, and they have fun. They create a good atmosphere and they’re super supportive. For them to receive that, that’s super cool.”
Quali Conley on his bounce back performance after fumbling in Arizona’s last two games:
“Fumbles is part of the game. Although I had two, back-to-back games, I just felt like ball security was the main focus in this game, and getting my confidence back.”
Quali Conley on how being patient with the running game helped him break loose in the second half:
“That’s just part of playing running back. It’s never clear – the hole’s never open, you’ve got to make holes open. I just felt like the o-line just worked their butts off, and just making small holes for me and Kedrick to get through. We went into halftime talking about needing to run the ball, like keep our defense off the field. I feel like we took that personal, and we started running the ball more, and being more physical.”
Genesis Smith on Arizona’s defensive front standing up and creating confusion for Houston:
“I felt like it was just something new that we added in. It was a new look that we added this, so they hadn’t seen it before, and I feel like it was a good change up for us.”
Genesis Smith on the impact of Tyler Loop’s 62-yard field goal heading into halftime:
“Oh yeah, I definitely feel like it changed momentum. I was running out there with him. I was super lit, I was jumping, jumping on him. We came into the locker, we was excited, so definitely feel like it carried over to the second half.”