If Arizona found lightning in a bottle with a great season a year ago, this year’s message in a different bottle is … SOS.
And it’s not even close.
Saturday’s 41-19 loss to Brigham Young makes it very apparent – not like you didn’t know this after last week’s performance vs. Texas Tech – that Arizona is lacking on offense, and it’s either coming from the players or the coaching. Maybe – likely – both.
“One fails, all fail,” Arizona coach Brent Brennan said on his postgame radio interview. “Today, there was a lot of that.”
True. And now Arizona is 3-3, not something anyone thought possible when the season was getting ready for what was thought to be a great year.
Then Arizona struggled in beating New Mexico. And then struggled in beating Northern Arizona. Then lost big to Kansas State … But you figured Arizona would find its footing – and its football.
It’s found neither.
People can point to a team still trying to get used to a new coaching staff and new players filling in for long-gone NFL players, but now they are six games in and hitting .500. Had it not been for two gimmees – UNM & NAU – it could be worse.
I’ve said this for a few days on Eye on the Ball: Something is missing from this team.
Isn’t it obvious?
Is it the coaching? Is this team not playing hard or aggressively for a coaching staff that pretty much didn’t recruit them?
Is it a lack of talent in a new conference?
The plethora of injuries hitting the team?
The curse of the 10-win season (Arizona has always failed in doing well the season after)?
Is it a quarterback (Noah Fifita) who looks nothing like he did last year when he was named Pac-12 Freshman of the Year?
“Not even close to where I want to be individually, and we’re not even close to where we want to be offensively and that’s because of me.,” said Fifita at the press conference via the Arizona Daily Star’s Justin Spears.
Do they need Jacory Croskey-Merritt that much to make a difference in the running game?
So many questions and not many answers.
But here’s a cold, hard fact: Arizona isn’t any good right now. And it’s not clear if it will be good this season. Even its win over Utah two weeks ago looks a little suspect given Arizona State beat the Utes (although ASU is better than expected which makes for a pretty interesting UA-ASU game in November).
But that’s down the road. In the present, Saturday’s road was a disaster, outside of its first drive when it took a 7-0 lead in the first quarter. But no sooner could you say “Just like the Kansas State game” did the wheels fall off, because everything (well, passing game and running game) fell apart.
A lot had to do with Fifita failing to be the quarterback everyone thought he would be this year. He had three interceptions – while Arizona had four turnovers total – which led to 24 BYU points.
Multiple Arizona mistakes resulted in a blowout loss today at No. 14 BYU for the Wildcats, who are now 3-3 overall and 1-2 in the Big 12 with a Homecoming game against Colorado next week:https://t.co/3bd5amZ5J3 pic.twitter.com/hnFEgE0IAd
— Javier Morales (@JavierJMorales) October 13, 2024
“Coming out of half to have those two quick turnovers like that was really, really hard,” Brennan said. “That’s something we got to look at as a staff and see (to) not put ourselves in situations where that happens.”
Easier said than done in part because, well, those are unpredictable but still shouldn’t happen. What’s clear – crystal – is to everyone is: UA needs to improve … and fast.
”We need to play better than we did today and that starts with me,” Brennan said.
He’s said that plenty the last two games, during Arizona’s two game slide.
“We’ve got to get back to work,” he added.
Arizona has no other choice. But will it really matter? It had to get back to work after last week’s disappointing loss to the Red Raiders … and Saturday’s effort was what resulted from it.
Can next week get better? Not without better coaching and better execution from the players. So, good luck with that.
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