After a week – heck, an offseason – of anticipation for the latest installment Arizona vs. BYU rivalry, the Wildcats were unable to break the Cougars’ five-game win streak. The UA looked poised to start the game, but the experience, size, and coaching of BYU were too much for the Cats. Here’s what Arizona head coach Brent Brennan, quarterback Noah Fifita, and defensive lineman Tre Smith had to say postgame following the 28-17 loss at No. 15 BYU.
Brent Brennan:
Brennan on the loss:
“Congratulations to Coach Sitake and BYU. They played a good football game, and I thought going into that thing it was going to be one of those battles where it was going to be incredibly physical. I felt like field position was going to dictate a lot of the outcome, and when I look at how that thing went for us late in that game, to me, we just have to finish. That comes down to execution. That is Redline for us, and we didn’t finish in the fourth quarter, on offense or defense. We had opportunities to do that and so, as frustrated as we are, I was proud about how hard we played.
I thought we played physical. I thought we ran the ball effectively against a really good defense, and I was proud of our kids. Now I’m disappointed we didn’t get the win. Everybody is, but the reality is this, we got to look at the film, we got to fix it. That’s part of Redline, own it, fix it, and we got to get back to work. We got to get back to work. We got a lot of football left to play in this season, and we’ll assess the tape and attack what we need to attack, and then we’ll go to work preparing for Northern Illinois next week.”
Brennan on Giovanni Richardson’s injury and the impact of losing him:
“I don’t. I think he was pretty hot, so I think the impact was significant.”
Brennan on not getting the fourth down conversion in the fourth quarter:
“That’s football. They made a good play, there right at the sticks, and I think that’s disappointing, but really, in that moment, what choice do you have, right? Like the only choice you have in that moment is to get back to fighting, because there’s still plenty of time left in the football game, and that’s in my opinion, when we did not execute at the level we need to.”
Brennan on the decision to punt on the plus side of the field:
“So our defense had just pinned them back there, like inside the five – so we’ve done a great job and we just had good field position. I was disappointed that we didn’t do more with that possession because we did get the ball in plus territory, and so my thought was let’s do that again. Now I’m playing the field position game, right? How many possessions are left in this for us, and we just didn’t execute, right? Like we were one yard into the end zone on that kick. Then we came out and they started from the 25, but they went three and out again. Our defense stopped them again, so I was hoping to create another short field for Noah and our offense.”
Brennan on the atmosphere and BYU using a quote from earlier in the week
“It’s a great environment. They do a great job here with that and you all took that out of context. That was a crazy quote.”
Brennan on if there was nay consideration to kick a field goal instead of the fourth down conversion attempt:
“I felt like because we were chasing it a little bit there, and time was short in the game. I just have a lot of faith in Noah, and he delivered a strike, but like I said, BYU made a great play, a great tackle in space, and stopped us short of the sticks.”
Brennan on what Arizona can learn from the loss:
“I think the biggest thing is that we went on the road, we played a top 15 team, and we battled for four quarters. We played physical, we played tough, we didn’t back down, and we’re disappointed with the outcome. That part of it is not fun, right? But we have so much football left to play. And what’s more important is not looking back at this. It’s what we do next with our next opportunity to improve and get better, and the next game we get to play, and that’s where we need to be focused.”
Brennan on the tight end room’s performance:
“The tight ends are making progress, and it’s a good group. It’s a really good group. Coach Miller does a great job with those guys. The tight ends are an important position in our offense, and it’s good to see those guys starting to get more and more involved. I think you’re going to see more from them as the season goes.”
Brennan on Max Harris and Ismail Mahdi being active for BYU:
“It’s great. Like I’ve said a lot since all this started with all that stuff, Max and Izzy are two incredible human beings, and they’re also good football players. That part of it, just how much our team loves and cares about them, having them with us for one final ride is really exciting.”
Noah Fifita:
Fifita on the message Arizona sent with Saturday’s performance:
“We’re not worried about a message sending anybody except ourselves. I think we showed that we have glimpses, and I think we’re a really good team, but you got to be able to play a complete game, and we haven’t done that offensively, so I take the blame for that. I got to be able to be more consistent in the second half to give us opportunities to score points.”
Fifita on his emotions and mindset after the loss:
“There’s a lot of plays I wish I could have back, some decisions, some throws. So yeah, I thought we’re going to come out victorious, but God doesn’t make mistakes, and I’m gonna learn. I’m gonna take the blame for this one, especially offensively.”
Fifita on the touchdown to Shane King:
“It was a great play designed by Coach Doege. We kind of knew that was a soft spot of that zone. They played a lot of two shells in the high red zone, so we had a couple plays that kind of attacked that part of the field, and it worked perfectly. So that goes to Coach Doege and the coaching staff for the hours they put in, as well as Coach Miller, and then Sug made a great play.”
Fifita on King, Cole Rusk, and the tight end room:
“Yeah, they’re alphas. Every time a play needed to be made, you can see them making it, whether it’s in the run game, being able to block as hard as they can, but then also in the pass game, being threats. I think they’re both really good with the ball in their hands. So I’m super excited about that group, but like I said, this loss is on me. I got to get better.”
Fifita on what changed from the first half to the second half:
“I think execution on our part, kind of mental mistakes. I got to be a better communicator. We knew this environment was going to be great. We knew it was going to be loud, so I didn’t do a good enough job communicating, which caused some of the pre-snap penalties that we can’t have that threw us off rhythm, so that’s another part that we got to be better.”
Fifita on the loss of Giovanni Richardson early in the game:
“Yeah, I think Rod stepped up in a big way. He has a lot of game experience. He’s a dude. He’s been a dude for a long time, so I don’t think we missed too much of a beat. Obviously, Gio brings some explosiveness to our offense that we’re gonna need when we get him back, but I think Rod, as well as Jet – they’ re both really good players, running routes and also with the ball in their hands. So I got to take it upon myself to get my guys the ball. Tre Spivey and Chris Hunter didn’t touch the ball enough today, and that’s my fault.”
Fifita on Arizona’s aspirations for the remainder of the season:
“100 percent, and that’s a really good football team at the end of the day. So you give them props, but we know in our locker room that there’s plays that could be made and that we didn’t make personally that would have changed the tide of that game. We’re 0-1 in Big 12 play, but we got eight more opportunities, 10 more to go in total. So it’s back to the drawing board for us. It’s gonna hurt today, but I’m looking forward to getting back to Tucson and getting to work.”
Fifita on having Ismail Mahdi back:
“It’s big time. He’s another explosive running back that we get in that room. So it’s always nice to get that.”
Fifita on approaching Arizona’s all-time passing yards record:
“I don’t focus on the team records. There’s a lot of team goals that I wanna accomplish, and to be completely honest, I hope I don’t have to talk to media for the rest of the year, because that means we’re doing something right.”
Tre Smith:
Smith on the defense’s performance against BYU:
“Similar to what Noah said, actually, I think we started well and didn’t do a good enough job of finishing. Looking at it from a leadership perspective, I got to start with myself, right? I wasn’t out there executing perfectly either. So I think it’s just a battle of execution, and we lost that one today.”
Smith on what Arizona can learn from the loss:
“It’s a learning lesson, like everything else, man. You go into battle, you come out with knowledge. So, I would say the biggest thing for us is to keep on working hard, like we have been, step it up a little bit, and put a premium on execution.”
Smith on the biggest difference between the first and second half:
“Just executing, just having that extra edge of violence. And in terms of energy that feels tangible, it didn’t seem like we lost that, but our execution is where did.”
Smith on defending the run against Bear Bachmeier:
“I feel like we started off pretty hot, but credit to them. They’re a great team, so they got the best of us.”
Smith on having Max Harris back:
“Max is a great guy for our team, and just as an individual, he’s a great human, great player. So it’s been great to have him.”