Arizona Wildcats Boss Talks About ‘Damaging’ Trend Entering Bye Week

The No. 20 Arizona Wildcats are coming off a 31-7 loss to the No. 14 Kansas State Wildcats on Friday, and they are smarting about a lot of things entering their bye week.

Perhaps no single statistic is rankling coach Brent Brennan more than the self-inflicted penalties that Arizona is creating on their own.

Through three games, the Wildcats (2-1) have 28 penalties for 269 yards. Through two games Arizona was already tied for No. 118 in FBS with 19 total penalties. That put the Wildcats at No. 121 in penalties per game (9.50).

So the nine penalties for 74 yards the Wildcats gave up against Kansas State will certainly keep them in the lower echelon of that list until Big 12 action kicks off in two weeks.

Frustration doesn’t begin to cover where Brennan is at with that particular area of the game.

Fixing it is on his to-do list once the team gets back to Tucson.

“The biggest thing we learned as a football team is we have to be more disciplined,” Brennan said to reporters after the game. “The penalty game, especially tonight and in Week 1 (against New Mexico) has been damaging.”

With no game until Sept. 28 for the Wildcats, this will give Brennan and staff time to work with players to try and correct the issues.

But some of that will come down to his players, too.

“That’s something where, as coaches, I think we can be more demanding of players in the small, technical pieces that can hopefully help you avoid some of those penalties. Every player has to do look at that and say, ‘What am I doing with my technique? My footwork?’ That gives them a chance to block someone correctly or cover a receiver correctly. I think that’s a big part of it. The good news is we have two weeks and we can go to work.”

Penalties certainly made a difference on Friday night, but so did Arizona’s inability to consistently run the ball.

The Wildcats had Quali Conley, but he gained 48 yards and scored a touchdown. Arizona was without Jacory Croskey-Merritt, who sat out due to an eligibility issue related to his 2019 redshirt season.

Wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan had a great bounce-back game on the edge, as he caught 11 passes for 138 yards but was unable to score a touchdown. His quarterback, Noah Fifita, threw for 268 yards but did not find the end zone and threw an interception.

When Arizona returns to the field, they will go to Utah to open Big 12 action on Sept. 28.