Arizona dug its own hole. An unbeaten, ranked BYU team playing at home overpowered the Wildcats, pushed them into the hole and buried them.
The 14th-ranked Cougars used two turnovers by Arizona quarterback Noah Fifita deep in Wildcat territory early in the third quarter to seize momentum in a 41-19 victory Saturday in a Big 12 game at Provo, Utah.
Arizona’s first play of the second half resulted in an interception by Jakob Robinson, who leaped and grabbed a short-pass attempt by Fifita.
Arizona quarterback Noah Fifita, after committing four turnovers (three interceptions) in the loss to BYU:
“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.” pic.twitter.com/gbR3xU3e5K
— Justin Spears (@JustinESports) October 13, 2024
BYU (6-0, 3-0 Big 12) scored on the next play from the Arizona 9 on Jake Retzlaff’s pass to Chase Roberts to increase the lead to 21-7.
Two plays into Arizona’s next possession, Fifita fumbled the ball while sacked by Isaiah Glasker. Harrison Taggart recovered the ball at the Arizona 15.
The turnover resulted in a 33-yard field goal by Will Ferrin with 13:11 left in the third quarter, putting BYU ahead 24-7.
“Coming in here, we knew the turnover thing was going to be a big deal,” Arizona coach Brent Brennan said. “You’re not gonna come in and beat a time like that when you don’t play clean and don’t protect the football.”
Some are tweeting that Brent Brennan should be fired. That's way over the top, in my opinion, considering the win at Utah and Arizona playing one of the most difficult stretches in the Big 12 to date (Texas Tech and BYU are unbeaten in conference play). …
Criticism of Brennan…— Javier Morales (@JavierJMorales) October 13, 2024
Arizona (3-3, 1-2) cut the lead to 34-19 on Quali Conley’s 2-yard touchdown run with 2:58 left.
An onside kick was unsuccessful, but the Wildcats gained possession after Hinckley Ropati fumbled the ball away on BYU’s first play from scrimmage at the Arizona 32 with 2:49 left.
Arizona then turned the ball over on downs following four plays.
Given another opportunity after Arizona burned its three timeouts to force a punt, Fifita threw an interception that was returned 21 yards for a touchdown by Glasker with 1:02 left.
Fifita has four touchdown passes and eight interceptions over his last five games.
“It’s another week, reiterating the same thing; it’s getting old,” Fifita said. “I have to fix a lot of things. I have to get better individually. 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.”
Brent Brennan on Arizona’s four turnovers in the 41-19 loss to BYU:
“Coming in here, we knew the turnover thing was going to be a big deal. … You’re not gonna come in and beat a time like that when you don’t play clean and don’t protect the football.” pic.twitter.com/ayxwJ2oDPu
— Justin Spears (@JustinESports) October 13, 2024
Fifita completed 26 of 52 passes for 275 yards with a touchdown and three interceptions.
Retzlaff passed for 218 yards while completing 18 of 32 pass attempts with two touchdowns and no interceptions.
Arizona’s defensive captain Jacob Manu was ejected for targeting less than two minutes into the game.
Defensive leaders Treydan Stukes and Gunner Maldonado, both senior safeties, were already out with injuries.
That left the Wildcats void of starting experience, with safety Dalton Johnson one of the veterans available against BYU.
The Cougars drove to the Arizona 5 in the possession in which Manu was ejected but was stopped on fourth-and-4 on Retzlaff’s incomplete pass.
The Wildcats drove 95 yards for a touchdown, highlighted by a 39-yard pass from Fifita to McMillan on a third-and-9 play at the Arizona 45.
Fifita connected with Montana Lemonious-Craig for a 14-yard touchdown to give Arizona a 7-0 lead with 3:27 left in the first quarter.
BYU answered after converting on a fourth-and-3 play at the Arizona 35 on LJ Martin’s 15 yard run.
On the next play, Retzlaff completed a 20-yard touchdown pass to Parker Kingston with 13:30 left in the second quarter.
The drive included cornerback Tacario Davis dropping what should have been an interception, allowing a ball to bounce off his fingers.
Arizona drove to the BYU 28 before Fifita threw an interception that was caught by Will Tanner at the Cougar 1.
BYU drove 99 yards on seven plays for a touchdown. Retzlaff had a 16-yard run and completed passes of 16 yards to Darius Lassiter and Keanu Hill in the possession.
Kingston took a lateral throw from Retzlaff and connected with Martin for a touchdown on the trick play with 6:30 left in the second quarter, putting BYU ahead 14-7.
Arizona’s last possession of the first half ended with a turnover on downs at BYU 24 when Conley was stopped just short of the line to gain. The refs originally ruled the run a first down after a measurement, but BYU challenged and a review indicated Conley was short.
Two field goals by Tyler Loop of 47 and 21 yards kept the deficit manageable for Arizona at 27-13 with 9:02 remaining.
The teams than traded touchdown drives with Arizona scoring on Conley’s 2-yard run.
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ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He is a former Arizona Daily Star beat reporter for the Arizona basketball team, including when the Wildcats won the 1996-97 NCAA title. He has also written articles for CollegeAD.com, Bleacher Report, Lindy’s Sports, TucsonCitizen.com, The Arizona Republic, Sporting News and Baseball America, among many other publications. He has also authored the book “The Highest Form of Living”, which is available at Amazon. He became an educator in 2016 and is presently a special education teacher at Sunnyside High School in the Sunnyside Unified School District.
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