SAN DIEGO – On Friday, Jan. 2, the No. 17 University of Arizona football team (9-4, 6-3 in Big 12) fell to Southern Methodist University (9-4, 6-2 in ACC) 24-19 in the Trust & Will Holiday Bowl at Snapdragon Stadium. Despite a miraculous second-half comeback, the shorthanded Wildcats failed to secure their 10th win of the season.
News broke less than an hour before kickoff that AP All-American third team cornerback Treydan Stukes, junior safety Genesis Smith and redshirt junior safety Dalton Johnson opted out of the 46th Holiday Bowl, leaving the Arizona secondary extremely thin for Friday night’s duel.
“Three weeks ago, we had some of our players tell us that they were not going to play in this football game. Those are family decisions, and we respect that. We love those guys. Those guys have made an incredible impact on our program this season and for all the years they’ve been here at the University of Arizona. I want to be respectful of that for them and their families. It also gave some of our younger players a chance to get high-level, meaningful reps against a very good opponent,” Arizona head coach Brent Brennan said after the loss.
Offense
AP First team All-Big 12 quarterback Noah Fifita threw for 265 yards, slinging 3 touchdowns and one interception that was tipped at the line, all while going 28-for-43 and running for a game-high 73 yards on 13 carries. The redshirt junior achieved 3,000 total passing yards this season and broke the program record for most passing touchdowns in a single season.
“We didn’t finish how we wanted to, but I love this team. This is probably the most fun I’ve had playing football,” Fifita said postgame.
The season-long explosive Arizona offense was shut down all throughout the first half, only entering into SMU territory twice. Early in the first quarter, offensive lineman and team captain Ty Buchanan suffered an injury and did not return to the game, a big loss for the Wildcats, already facing a steep climb to victory while shorthanded.
“I love Ty, and I think I can speak for the entire offensive line group and their selflessness […] he’s continuing to choose to play for us, everything he does, fighting through injuries, barely practicing, just trying to get to games to play for us and protect me. I owe my life to my offensive line and Ty Buchanan,” Fifita said about his fellow team captain.
Late in the second quarter, the Wildcats kept their offense on the field on 4th and two from the SMU 35-yard line. Fifita dropped back but was unable to connect to freshman receiver Gio Richardson and turned the ball over on downs.
However, on the second drive of the second half, Arizona took control from their own 4-yard line and capped off the 15-play, 96-yard drive with a 28-yard touchdown pass from Fifita to Javin ‘Nunu’ Whatley to put the Wildcats on the board late in the third quarter.
The ensuing drive, Arizona would turn the ball over again on downs; however, the Wildcats would respond with a 10-play 66-yard drive after Fifita found a wide open Tre Spivey in the endzone to cut the deficit in half.
Brennan decided to go for two following the two touchdowns but failed to convert, leaving points up on the board that would haunt the Wildcats the rest of the game.
“Yes, I would have done the same thing. At the time that I went for two, we were down a lot, right? I was like, ‘If we can go for two, we can reduce the possession we need to be to tie it.’ Part of that was a conversation we were having on the headset, how I felt about it at the moment and then also some of the analytics conversation,” Brennan said on whether he would go for two again on both possessions.
Arizona refused to go down without a fight and closed out a 12-play 75-yard drive in just over 2 minutes after Fifita launched a rocket to tight end Cameron Barmore for a 15-yard touchdown to cut the Mustangs’ lead to a one-possession game.
Defense
On the second play of the game, SMU quarterback Kevin Jennings rifled one to receiver Jordan Hudson off a flea-flicker, catching the Wildcat defense off guard for an 80-yard completion and putting the Mustangs down on the Arizona one-yard line. Running back T.J. Harden punched in the first score of the game off the longest passing play in Holiday Bowl history.
Towards the end of the first quarter, the Mustangs constantly attacked the weakened Arizona secondary, completing multiple passes for at least 20-yards on the drive. Harden would punch in another rushing touchdown to go up 14-0 after a pass interference call on Arizona redshirt junior defensive back Devin Dunn on 3rd and nine, slotting SMU at the 3-yard line and a fresh set of downs.
SMU would keep their foot on the gas, pushing the lead to 21-0 after a 16-play, 94-yard drive that lasted almost 7 minutes to open the second quarter. On the next drive, SMU were threatening in the red zone once again, but redshirt sophomore defensive back Gavin Hunter nearly picked off Jennings in the end zone, forcing the Mustangs to settle for a field goal to go up 24-0 at the halftime break.
In the last eight games, Arizona did not allow 200 passing yards, yet by the end of the first half, the Wildcats allowed 248.
Following a rough first half, the Wildcat defense came out of the locker room with a different sense of energy. On the first SMU drive of the half, defensive back Michael Dansby picked off Jennings on the Arizona 4-yard line, snatching the lob pass from Hudson.
The number one defense in turnover margin in the nation came to fruition yet again on the very next Mustangs drive. Jennings rolled right, escaping pressure, then backpeddled and threw the ball up in the air with five Wildcats swarming and bobbling the ball until outside linebacker Riley Wilson came down with the interception.
Halfway through the final quarter, Jennings dropped back, looked right and fired a missile right at Wilson yet again, marking the redshirt senior’s second interception of the night and Jennings’ third turnover of the game, giving the Wildcats a sense of hope.
“Schematically, nothing changed. It was just more of our mentality and sticking to our fundamentals. [Defensive Coordinator] Coach Gonzales, just really emphasized better tackling and obviously us forcing turnovers to get our offense an opportunity to put some points up,” Wilson said about the adjustments the defense made at halftime.
Arizona shut out SMU in the second half and held the Mustangs to just 64 yards of total offense, securing its third consecutive shutout after halftime. The Wildcat defense, led by Gonzales, allowed 19.3 points per game this season, which is the lowest since 1998.
“Red line — that’s what this program is built on, and Coach Brennan and this whole staff have done a great job of establishing that foundation. For us, that is what we rely on. Coming into halftime, this staff is just implementing that ‘red line, red line, red line.’ Obviously, it didn’t end the way we wanted, but you got to see this part, and the foundation of this team is just amazing,” Wilson said on the importance of playing hard and finishing the game out strong.
Looking Ahead
As the season comes to an end for the Wildcats, Brennan and the coaching staff will look to rebuild the roster for ‘Team 123’. Whether that is through the January transfer window, which opened on Friday, welcoming the new freshman recruits joining the team early or developing the returnees to take that next step.
“Now we have work to do. How do we build on this season? We’re going to dive into the transfer portal. We’re going to attack recruiting. We’re going to attack developing the next group, Team 123, with the great players coming back, the young players we’re in the process of developing, and the exciting players we’re going to add over the next month,” Brennan said post-game.
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