Needless to say the Arizona Wildcats weren’t even an after-thought at PAC-12 Media Day early this year. But as I’ve mentioned in the past, banking on their predictions is no more accurate than calling a coin toss at mid-field to start the game. Much like Jonathan Smith at Oregon State Jedd Fisch, head coach of Arizona, has taken a team that was 1-11 in 2021—his first year—improved to 5-7 last year, and sits third in the PAC-12 conference standings as of this last Saturday with an overall record of 8-3 and conference record of 6-2, behind only Washington and Oregon. Frankly, even as much as they have improved this year I certainly didn’t expect them to beat Utah, but wow—by the time seven seconds were gone in the 2nd Qtr they were up 28-to-zip. After scoring a TD on their first possession they blocked Utah’s punt after holding them to a three-and-out, recovered the ball and ran it in for their 2nd TD. They scored their 3rd and 4th TD after forcing the Utes to punt on back-to-back possessions—one another three-and-out. They had a chance for another before the half after intercepting Utah at the Arizona 15 yard line and returning it back to the 46 but Utah finally dug in defensively and held the Wildcats to a three-and-out of their own. After the punt the Utes took the ball 92 yards in 10 plays, finally scoring on a 20 yard Bryson Barnes pass to Devaugh Vele which, after a missed Arizona field goal with time running out, made it a 28-to-7 game at the break.
Utah made it all the way down to the Arizona 18 yard line on their first possession of the 2nd half but between a penalty and an incomplete pass had to settle for a field goal to make it 28-10 where, between a missed field goal by Arizona and an interception of Utah’s Bryson Barnes, the score stayed until half-way through the fourth quarter when Arizona scored again to make it 35-10. Utah would close the gap some with a Bryson Barnes TD pass and run for a two-point conversion to make it 35-18 with less than a minute left. But the game was already won well before the break and to put an unexpected exclamation point on the win—one that I imagine Utah Head Coach Kyle Whittingham will remind his team when they host Arizona in Salt Lake next year as part of the Big-12—instead of taking a knee Jaydn de Laura completed a 51 yard TD pass to Sophomore WR Tetairoa McMillan to make it 42-18. It was de Laura’s first time under center since he injured himself in Utah’s Rose Bowl appearance in January. He was 2-for-2 for 51 yards and the one TD. His backup who has been starting, Freshman QB Noah Fafita, connected on 22-of-30 for 253 yards, 2 TD’s and no interceptions. In addition to catching that de Laura TD, McMillan also lead the way in the air with 8 receptions for 118 yards with Senior RB Michael Wiley collecting five for 68 yards and both of Fifita’s TD passes. All toll, the Wildcats threw for 325 total yards and 4 TD’s with Sophomore RB Jonah Coleman leading the way on the ground, rushing 14 times for 90 of their 118 yard total and their only TD on the ground.
For Utah, Junior QB Bryson Barnes connected on 31-of-53 for 320 yards, 2 TD’s and 2 interceptions with Junior WR’s Devaughn Vele and Munir McClain combining for 15 receptions and over half of those yards as well as a TD each with two other WR’s, a RB, and a TE combining for another 130 yards in the air. On the ground, Sophomore RB Ja’Quinden Jackson and QB Bryson Barnes combined for 91 of the teams 118 yards rushing but never made it into the end zone. This was one of those games where if you didn’t see the game and just looked at the stats you would think Utah either won the game or if they did lose, it would have been by very little—certainly not by 24 points. They had five more 1st downs, 26-21; just five yards less passing, 320-325; exactly the same amount of yards rushing, 118; and had the ball for eleven more minutes than Arizona.
What a great way for the Wildcats to wind up their last PAC-12 home game. Arizona should be able to improve to 9-3 overall and 7-2 in conference as they end their regular season on the road against their in-state rival Arizona State this next Saturday in what’s known as the Duel in the Desert—a rivalry game that dates back to November 30th, 1899. Utah ends their regular season at home against Colorado and unbelievably will need the win to have a winning conference record this year—now sitting at 7-4 overall and 4-4 in conference.