Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter weren’t the only one-two punch from last year hitting on all cylinders in Week 1. Arizona’s first year head coach Brent Brennan, who took over for Jedd Fisch, who took over for Kalen DeBoer at Washington, who took over for retiring Nick Saban at Alabama—whew—was the beneficiary of the return of last year’s Wildcats’ QB Noah Fifita and WR Tetairoa McMillan.
6’ 5” tall Junior WR McMillan, projected to be scooped up in Round 1 of the 2025 NFL Draft, was on the receiving end of 304 of Fifita’s 422 yard passing day—including all four of his TD’s on just 10 receptions for an average of—well, that’s an easy one to figure out. That said, the TD receptions were something else again with three of them averaging over 60 yards. Helping to set the table for a fairly stress free day for his returning signal caller and McMillan’s single game school receiving record was RB Quali Conley who, along with fellow Sr RB Jacory Croskey-Merritt, combined for 196 of the Wildcats 205 yards on the ground as well as four rushing TD’s of three and one respectively.
For the Lobos, Sophomore QB Devon Dampier connected on 57% of his passes for 260 yards, 3 TD’s and 2 picks—both leading to points on the board for the Wildcats—while also rushing 15 times for 130 yards and both rushing TD’s. Jr WR Luke Wysong was the recipient of most of those passes on 8 catches for 129 yards and 1 TD with fellow Jr WR’s Caleb Medford and Naquari Rogers picking up one score each on their only receptions. Most all of the remaining yards were spread out fairly evenly on multiple catches by another WR, a RB, and two TE’s.
It was a very close game the first half with the score tied at 14 a piece after the first quarter and Arizona in front by just three points at the break, 27-to-24. But in the 2nd half the Wildcat defense was able to hold the Lobos to a single TD in each of the remaining quarters while the offense put up 34 more points accounting for the 61-39 final score. Although New Mexico led in 1st downs and had a slight edge in rushing yards along with 10 more minutes of possession, it was the stalled drives, two interceptions, and a fumble that got in their way of being more productive on the score board.
In spite of the impressive offensive production and 61 point total the new Wildcat head coach, along with Defensive Coordinator Duane Akina, might just be in a bit of panic mode after giving up 39 points to New Mexico. After all, last year—with Akina serving as Senior defensive Assistant—Arizona finished 29th nationally in points allowed per game at just over 21 while the year before they were 125th in the nation while allowing less than what the Lobos just hung on them. Although I will say that after four years under head coach Danny Gonzales and a record of 11-32 New Mexico hired a great new head coach in Bronco Mendenhall who previously led the reigns at both Virginia more recently after 11 years at BYU–bowl eligible in 16 of his 17 years. Having placed more than 60 players into the NFL out of the ranks of those he has coached, could it be that the Lobos have improved that much already under his guidance. We’ll just have to see how Arizona fairs come Weeks 3 and 4 when they face back-to-back games on the road against No. 18 Kansas State and No. 12 Utah. Next week should be an easy one as they stay home to host Northern Arizona.