Arizona coach Brent Brennan mentioned during the 1290-AM postgame show that the Wildcats’ 56-12 loss Saturday at UCF, extending their losing streak to five games, is “unacceptable” and “It starts with me and the coaches.”
“We’re going into a bye week, and hopefully that bye week will give us a chance to regroup and evaluate every aspect of this program and find a way to move forward,” said Brennan, whose team does not play again until hosting Houston on Friday, Nov. 15.
UCF, in a rut of its own on a five-game losing streak entering the game, scored touchdowns on seven consecutive offensive possessions and tallied 602 yards in total offense in the “Space Game” at Orlando, Fla.
It is a game that UCF is now 8-0 with an average winning margin of close to 30 points. The game recognizes the UCF’s roots, founded as Florida Tech in 1963 with the mission of providing personnel to support the growing U.S. space program at nearby Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
“It’s totally unacceptable. … We need to play better. It’s that simple.” — Brent Brennan, after Arizona’s 56-12 loss to UCF pic.twitter.com/9Xiq0SXzdQ
— Justin Spears (@JustinESports) November 2, 2024
The Knights (4-5, 2-4 Big 12) rushed for 308 yards on 44 carries against Arizona, led by 184 yards on 22 rushes with three touchdowns by the Big 12’s leading rusher, RJ Harvey.
The Wildcats (3-6, 1-5) mustered only 5 yards rushing on 25 attempts largely because of four sacks of Noah Fifita.
“Their running back is obviously a real good player and they do a good job of scheming that up,” Brennan said of UCF.
The Knights played their first game since coach Gus Malzahn fired defensive coordinator Ted Roof and replaced him with Addison Williams, who has coached primarily defensive backs.
Malzahn also relinquished play-calling duties to offensive coordinator Tim Harris heading into the game with Arizona.
Those moves were made early in the week as well as the decision to start redshirt sophomore Dylan Rizk for the first time in his career. He completed 20 of 25 attempts for 294 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions and rushed for 55 yards on nine carries.
Jacoby Jones finished with 106 yards on five receptions with a touchdown and Randy Pittman Jr. had five catches for 80 yards with two touchdowns.
“They have a real nice balance,” Brennan said of UCF. “Their quarterback’s legs played a major role in his effectiveness tonight. He also threw the ball well.”
Arizona and UCF never met before and the Wildcats made their first trip for a game in the Eastern time zone since losing 41-7 at Penn State in 1999, a season after the program was 12-1 with a win over Nebraska in the Holiday Bowl.
Defensive coordinator Duane Akina and offensive coordinator Dino Babers were around for that game at State College, Pa. Akina coached the defensive backs and Babers was the offensive coordinator.
Arizona’s Tetairoa McMillan had six catches for 84 yards with a touchdown. He became the first Arizona receiver to have two 1,000-yard seasons in a career.
He had 1,402 yards last season and is at 1,066 this year.
“Those two guys are warriors and I think we all know that,” Brennan said of McMillan and Fifita. “They care so much and they work so hard. I am so disappointed that we can’t push that into the win column because they are awesome football players and awesome people.
“They show up every day working their tails off trying to make us better.”
Chris Hunter, a redshirt sophomore, had career-high numbers in receptions (seven) and yards (102). He and McMillan were each targeted eight times by Fifita, who completed 24 of 33 pass attempts for 256 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions.
Rizk’s 48-yard Hail Mary pass to Pittman as time expired in the first half, giving UCF a 35-6 lead, compounded Arizona’s misery.
That occurred 46 seconds after Arizona scored its first touchdown of the game, a 24-yard pass from Fifita to Sam Olson.
Arizona cut the lead to 42-12 with 8:08 left in the third quarter on a 2-yard pass from Fifita to McMillan, who made a spectacular one-handed grab in the end zone.
The Knights struck back fast again less than two minutes later on a 40-yard touchdown pass from Rizk to Jones.
UCF went on its run of scoring a touchdown on seven straight possessions after a missed field goal that concluded its first drive.
The streak ended with a punt with 13:32 remaining.
Arizona is now on a five-game losing streak, failing to win since upsetting then-No. 10 Utah 23-10 in Salt Lake City on Sept. 28.
Arizona snapped the nation’s longest losing streak of 20 games in 2021. Two years later, under former coach Jedd Fisch, the Wildcats finished 10-3 and beat Oklahoma in the Alamo Bowl.
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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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