Brent Brennan and the Arizona Wildcats marched down the field on the first drive of the game, taking a 7-0 lead that they would never relinquish in a 34-7 home win over the Cincinnati Bearcats on Saturday evening.
The win is Arizona’s first in the Big 12, and sent a message to the rest of the league with a dominant performance on both sides of the ball against a previously undefeated Bearcats team. To do that with three starting receivers going out in the first quarter with injury is a testament to the depth, and strength, of this team as they head into the meat of conference play.
Coach Brennan spoke to the media after the game, discussing the energy of the crowd, play of the defensive line, the run game, and of course another great performance from Noah Fifita:
On the crowd bringing the energy
“It was awesome tonight. That was a big time college football atmosphere. We had an undefeated team come in here and I just thought everybody, the fans, everybody showed out and it was an awesome environment to be part of and to see. I thought our players felt it and responded to it.”
On the run game
“We had come into this game knowing we needed to run the football and have had some ups and downs trying to do that the last month of the season. I thought coach Oglesby put together a great plan for running the football and I thought coach Doege called a great game. And the combination of the physicality of our offensive line and the running backs running with some real violence, made that a lot of fun to watch.”
On how the receivers stepped up after injuries
“I thought they did a great job. That’s one of those things that you can’t plan for, I feel for these young men that got banged up tonight because they’re such big parts of our team. But all season we’ve been talking about the depth of the receiver room and that’s going to be super critical now as we move forward.”
On the performance of the defense
“I thought our defense was awesome. The way we flew around, the physicality that we play with, the plays people made, our tackling population to the football, that showed up and that’s something that we needed to show up against a team that has been so effective running the football. It was outstanding.”
On the journey of wide receiver Brandon Phelps
“Brandon Phelps is an awesome young man. He’s a great kid and he’s just a hard worker and to be honest with you, early in his career he’s had some unfortunate injury stuff. And you were always excited about him in the offseason because of how hard he trains and his numbers and the athlete that he is physically. Numbers wise he had one of the best offseason of our entire team this past year. It’s great to see him start to make plays because he’s tough and because he’s smart, he’s also a guy you can line up in any of the spots and he can play them all at a high level.”
On Noah Fifita’s performance
“That’s one of his superpowers is his ability to throw accurately on the move. It really is, and you saw that show up a bunch tonight. I think we’ve seen it show up before too. I tell you guys every day, twice a day if you want to hear it, I’m so glad Noah Fifita plays for Arizona.”
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