One thing is certain about the Arizona football team: it’s entertaining, very entertaining.
And dare I say good, after debating the level of good last week. Proof positive was Saturday’s walk-in-the-park victory against West Virginia on the road. The 52-31 victory – something many didn’t expect – seemed close only because of the potential fire power of WVU. But close it wasn’t in the second half.
But Arizona stifled that – in a big way to make it a big victory on move it to 5-1 overall. The start is the program’s best since 2014. Arizona has now gone 10-2 over its last 12 games.
Will the Wildcats continue to be a secret to the pollsters come Sunday/Monday and to the locals who have seemed to have waited – as usual – to see if they are legit or not.
I’m not sure how much more proof is needed after Saturday’s impressive win against UA’s former coach Rich Rodriguez (it does help that Rich Rod’s teams do contribute to the fun watch given the games are always high scoring).
Saturday was no exception. And that makes for six consecutive game. Heck, you’d have to admit, even in UA loss to Brigham Young last month it was close enough to keep it entertaining, giving some hope of an upset.
Last week’s one-sided win over Cincinnati and now Saturday’s big game over WVU helps give some credence to what could be another eight, nine-win season.
So, right now, coach Brent Brennan’s biggest concerns – not the right word but go with it are getting healthy during this week’s bye week and, well, getting the locals to buy into his team.
“(It’s about) how do we pack Casino del Sol Stadium?” he said on his postgame radio show. “The city of Tucson, University of Arizona, everybody, students, faculty, everybody (has to go). We got a bunch of awesome kids (players) here that love the U of A and keep showing up for this university, this institution, and we need people to show up and show out. We need Casino del Sol (Stadium) to be rocking and (to) make it impossible for our next opponent.”
He seconded it again in his postgame interviews from West Virginia. It’s that important to get fans in the seats. Saturday’s performance may have been the thing to do it, given the effort and performance.
What they’ll see is one of the best quarterbacks in the country in the “unflappable” Noah Fifita, who threw for 341 yards on jus 16 of 23 completions. He’s now in the top 100 in FBS history in career passing with 10,939 yards (thanks UA for the stat). He had three touchdown passes, two going to Isaiah Mizell, who caught six passes for 193 yards.
“We stopped up,” Mizell said in West Virginia.
Throw in Arizona’s three running backs Quincy Craig, Antwan Roberts and Kendrick Reescano each had rushing touchdowns and the rout doesn’t come easier to explain as U blew the game open in the second half after leading 24-17 at the half.
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