Where better to get very lucky – fortunate, opportunistic? – other than Casino del Sol … Stadium?
Arizona came up big – B-I-G – on Friday night and Saturday morning. Heck, when was the last time Arizona won the night and morning in a game? Saturday morning’s 29-28 improbable win was a game of the ages – or at least the final few minutes were.
Some went to bed Friday night having no hope then woke up and wondered if the score was a typo. Wouldn’t you?
How was it all possible?
But in a season of opportunity – and a team with seven wins now – the Wildcats saved a season and propelled it with its crazier-than-reality win.
Consider UA was down by eight with two minutes left then proceeded to score nine in the final 1:45.
Houdini would have been proud.
Does anyone know the percentages of a win at the two-minute mark?
After recovering a fumble on its own drive – with TCU having a legitimate chance to recover it – Noah Fifita found Quincy Craig in the endzone to make it 28-26. UA needed to go for two to tie it – or it has little to no hope to win it.
It doesn’t make it.
Then TCU played for an onside kick but instead got a pooch kick and couldn’t handle the ball. Watson sprints down and lands on it. Arizona’s hopes turn from no hope to real hope.
A few plays later, Arizona’s kicker Michael Salgado-Medina – up and down such that he is – lined up and hit it. NAILED IT – you know you were skeptical. Don’t lie.
Then Tyrese Boss followed with a game-saving interception in TCU’s last-ditch effort to pull out the win.
“I think about the battle of belief, and we talked about that all week,” UA coach Brent Brennan said. “We talked about it last night. We talked about it today, and that never wavered. It never folded. The players kept believing … Even in the tough moments of the game, everybody kept finding ways to support each other, to love each other, to pour into each other, and it was just magic the way that thing finished.”
The magic moved them to 7-2 overall, giving UA seven consecutive home victories for the first time since 1993-94.
Wildcats made plays. Big plays – again.
There were so many. From Isaiah Mizell’s leaping touchdown catch to start the game to Salgado-Medina’s game-winning field goal. What’s clear – crystal – is the importance o Salgado-Medina hitting that kick.
“Being a kicker is the hardest, one of the hardest positions to play in sport,” Brennan said. “Because you don’t know when you’re going to get an opportunity, and then everyone expects you to make it. And if you don’t, they just dog cuss you for weeks. It’s just such a hard job, right? But we’ve seen his consistency in the practice environment. We’ve seen how strong his leg is. We’ve seen how mentally tough he is, and so running him out there, I had full confidence he was going to nail it. And sure enough, he did.”
Sure enough. Salgado-Medina said he doesn’t read the social media on him. That said, it’s likely he knows what’s been said – he’s inconsistent.
“We go out there with a routine as specialists, and I follow my routine and trust the process, and I trust my routine that I’ve been having,” he said. “So just follow it and execute it. It’s a great feeling, being able to execute on it and work so hard for a moment like that, being able to do it and doing it on stage like this is an amazing feeling.”
Next week comes another chance at another great feeling. Utah, which disposed of Brigham Young, will come to Casino Del Sol undefeated and in the top five.
“If there was ever a time for the city of Tucson to show up for the U of A and for this football team, and for Noah Fifita, and these awesome kids, Saturday is the day,” Brennan said. “Saturday is the day that we need to pack The Sol. I’m serious. This thing needs to be on fire because all of us have gone up to Utah plenty of times and had to deal with that one, and it’s a tough place to play. Let’s make our place a nightmare for Utah.”
