- Slug: Sports–Arizona Wildcats Football Struggles, 740 words.
- 4 photos available.
By Tom Forbes
Cronkite News
TUCSON – The University of Arizona was eyeing a chance to take down Shedeur Sanders and the Colorado Buffaloes during a sold-out homecoming weekend in Tucson Saturday.
Instead, the Wildcats might be watching their season slip away.
Arizona fell 34-7, their third straight loss, tumbling to 10th place in the Big 12 standings and putting coach Brent Brennan’s team in a fight just to reach six wins and bowl eligibility.
More than halfway through the season, the Wildcats (3-4 overall, 1-2 Big 12) slid from being a team ranked among the top 25 nationally into a team tied with five others in second-to-last place in their new conference.
More importantly, the Wildcats find themselves unexpectedly asking what has gone wrong with an offense that ranked 18th nationally in scoring, eighth in passing yards and 20th in total offense last season for a team that finished 10-3 and pounded Oklahoma in the Alamo Bowl.
Against the Buffaloes, Arizona mustered just one touchdown, which came in the first quarter. Colorado shut the Wildcats out the rest of the way, despite Arizona quarterback Noah Fifita’s most accurate passing performance in the last three games. He connected on just over 61% (16-26), but was sacked seven times.
“We have a standard, and we’re not living up to it,” Fifita said. “And obviously losing makes it even worse.”
The Buffaloes also limited Wildcats wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan to 38 yards on five receptions and star kicker Tyler Loop, who is the two-time Lou Groza Award Star of the Week recipient, to only one field-goal attempt – a miss from 52 yards.
“The biggest part is I just need to do a better job coaching this team,” Brennan said.
Arizona’s defense wasn’t any more successful than the offense as Arizona’s defensive line failed to put enough pressure on Sanders, who enjoyed plenty of time in the pocket to make plays.
Sanders passed for 250 yards, completing 23 of 33 and throwing for two touchdowns.
“When you’re playing that good of a quarterback, you have got to try and get him off rhythm,” Arizona defensive back Dalton Johnson said of Sanders. “We just got to execute the game plan.”
Arizona fans entered the season with high expectations for the Wildcats, despite former coach Jedd Fisch’s departure for Washington. Their hopes were bolstered when Fifita and McMillan decided to remain in Tucson after Brennan was hired.
Even former President Barack Obama had high expectations for the Wildcats and wasn’t afraid to make his prediction known while speaking at a presidential campaign rally for Vice President Kamala Harris near Arizona Stadium the day before the game.
“I know Colorado got a couple good players, I also know you guys have beaten them twice in a row,” Obama told the crowd on Friday. “Don’t bet against the Wildcats.”
Colorado coach Deion Sanders playfully clapped back at the former president after the Colorado win.
“President Obama is everything to me,” Sanders said. “I love him, I admire him, I respect him tremendously, but I heard what you said.
“Come on, man.”
Injuries Saturday only amplified the noise around the Arizona program.
Linebacker Jacob Manu and offensive lineman Rhino Tapa’atoutai left Saturday’s contest before halftime with leg injuries and are out for the season, Brennan said Monday.
Wildcats defensive lineman Isaiah Johnson didn’t even get that far. He suffered what azcentral.com described as a leg injury during a pregame practice drill, which caught Brennan by surprise and led to speculation about Arizona’s strength and conditioning program.
Brennan said everyone “is super concerned with where that’s at.”
Across the sideline on Colorado’s side, wide receiver Travis Hunter left the game at halftime as a precaution to rest his previously injured shoulder, according to the team. Hunter had two receptions for 17 yards before being taken out.
The Wildcats have lost three straight and four of their last five games. With only five games left in the season, the team is searching for answers. It didn’t help that the Wildcats also piled up more than 90 yards in penalties against Colorado.
Despite the struggles, Arizona is a slight favorite when it hosts West Virginia, which lost its homecoming game to No. 16 Kansas State, 45-18. Arizona fell to K-State 31-7 earlier this season.
“My message to (the team) is that the only way forward is together,” Brennan said. “I know this: When you lose games, the outside world wants to pull you apart and that’s the one thing we can’t have happen.”
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