In Noah Fifita’s last four games he is averaging over 300 yards passing per game at a 75% completion clip and has thrown 11 TD’s against just 3 interceptions and all of a sudden Arizona, who was a 5-7 team last year is sitting at 6-3 and have beaten three Top-20 ranked teams in a row. Quite a turn around following seven consecutive losing seasons, and, the way they’re playing stand a great chance of winning their last two-of-three games. In their game at home against the Bruins this past Saturday, Fifita connected on 25-of-32 for 300 yards, 3 TD’s, and 1 pick that led to a missed UCLA field goal attempt. The Wildcats led this game from start-to-finish—ahead 7-0 at the end of the 1st Qtr, 14-to-7 at the break, 17-10 after three, and after holding UCLA scoreless in the 4th, 27-to-10 by the end. Against a tough UCLA defense that has only been giving up an average of 70 yards per game on the ground, the Wildcats more than held their own rushing for almost twice that with RB Jonah Coleman picking up the lion’s share and averaging 4.5 yards per carry.
The game turned into a hot mess for the Bruins and was probably best summed up by LA Times Sportswriter Ben Bosch who wrote; “It was the sort of loss that left UCLA longing for something else, like basketball season. Two quarterbacks were lost to injury. Two field goals went astray, including one that was blocked [and] three chances in the red zone came up empty.” It was certainly a tough break for Ethan Garbers who seemed to really be coming into his own as the Bruin starting signal caller. Garbers is a SoCal homeboy who grew up in Newport Beach and attended Corona Del Mar High School where he threw for well over 9,000 yards and 128 TD’s against just 3 picks while also rushing for almost 800 yards and another 18 TD’s. He got picked up by Washington but after not playing in a single game his first year entered the transfer portal and landed at UCLA in 2021 behind Dorian Thompson-Robinson. Garbers got his first start in their 10th game of the year and performed well but still lost to a Utah team that went on to win the PAC-12 Conference Championship. With Thompson-Robinson starting all 13 games for UCLA in 2022 Garbers had little chance to play until this season and as the starting QB the last two games has throw for over 500 yards and 4 TD’s with just one interception. But after Garbers left early in the 4th Qtr of this one the Bruins, who were only just one score down, were held scoreless the rest of the way. Two series after Garbers left, his back-up—Freshman Dante Moore—hit his head on the turf and also had to leave the game leaving just the back-up to the back-up, Junior QB Collin Schlee. Fittingly, in this hot mess of a game, the only drive Schlee led consisted of three Schlee runs and three pass incompletions. Strange ending to a strange game for UCLA.
But that said you have to really admire the job Jedd Fisch has done at Arizona. In addition to winning their last three games over Top-20 opponents they lost against two more by just a single possession which is why they deservedly made it into the Top-25 in both the Associated Press as well as the College Football Playoff Rankings released this week—polls UCLA has dropped out of. In addition to the score, by the end of this one the Wildcats led in every statistical category: 1st Downs, 23-to-17; Passing, 300-to-157; Rushing, 129-to-114; converted almost 70% of their third down attempts compared to just over 40% for the Bruins; were penalized less, just three for 25 yards and; led in time-of-possession by over ten minutes. Having previously lost to No. 11 Utah and No. 15 Oregon State, UCLA is also sitting with a 6-3 record with three games left starting at home in the Rose Bowl this next Saturday against that other Arizona team, the Sun Devils. The Wildcats will continue their comeback season on the road this Saturday against Coach Prime and the Colorado Buffaloes.