What Brent Brennan said at his press conference to open Baylor week
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It was a day off for Arizona’s players on Monday, the official pause between reflecting on the big win at Cincinnati and diving into preparations for Saturday’s home finale against Baylor. But many were at the football facility to celebrate the announcement of Casino del Sol Stadium as the new name of the Wildcats’ home field.
The last game played there as Arizona Stadium was the comeback victory over Kansas, part of what’s now a 3-game win streak. The Wildcats’ current run has to feel good for everyone involved, particularly since it came after back-to-back one-score losses to BYU and Houston last month.
“Our team, when we lost those close games, never doubted,” UA coach Brent Brennan said. “They believed in each other, they believed in our staff, they believed in our program. That never wavered. They were steadfast in their belief in what we were doing and where we were going. And for us, it’s always a 1-week season, that’s it. And so right now, we’re locked into Baylor, because it’s the most important game of the year, and that’s where our headspace is. We’re not spending any time living backwards or forwards. We’re about right now.”
It will be Senior Day on Saturday, and though the game is kicking off before noon Brennan is hoping for the biggest crowd of the season.
“I know it’s an early kick, but someone told me long ago you can’t drink all day if you don’t start in the morning,” Brennan joked. “And let’s get ready to go. It’s a big time day, man. Let’s go. I’m gonna get in trouble for that one.”
Below is what else Brennan said at his Monday presser to open game week:
On Baylor: “We know that we have an outstanding football team coming in here. Just watching them play, I think our whole team watched that game, their game against Utah, on the flight home Saturday night, just how explosive they are offensively. Quarterback, the receivers, their tight end (Michael) Trigg is just such an awesome player. And then Dave Aranda is one of the best defensive coaches in the country, and so we know that we are going to have a big-time battle, like every week in the Big 12. Like that is just what this conference is.”
On what the naming rights deal means for Arizona: “I think it starts with consistency of leadership. I think that is so important when you’re building something, consistency of leadership. And right now, I think we have great alignment. And I’ve said that before with President Garimella, with Desiree, and with our coaching staff, and the other head coaches that are here.I think when you shuffle that deck, or when you’re swapping out coaches and leadership or athletic directors and presidents all the time, it’s hard to build any real, solid foundation to have something that is sustainable and consistently successful.
On how it will impact the football program: “To me I always think in terms of our player experience, and to me that’s one of the things that we have to be the best in the country at. Are our players having a great experience being a part of our program? And obviously this partnership with Casino del Sol is so impactful in that because it’s going to impact how we feed them, how we house them, how we clothe them, all those parts of their experience, how we support them. How do we support them in the weight room? How do we support them academically, how do we support the mental health? All those things are part of it. So I think this is an incredibly impactful thing, and I think it’s going to have a great impact on our football program and our athletic department.”
On Arizona’s defensive adjustments at Cincinnati: “I give a ton of credit to Coach Gonzales and our defensive staff, and I think they did a great job of making adjustments and settling down. And obviously, it was a big moment. It was a big game. We’re on the road, ranked opponent, we’re all the way across the country. And when you do what we do defensively, there’s always a little bit of learning curve of how people are going to attack us early in the game. And I thought our staff did a great job of adjusting to what it was, and then our players did an even better job of responding. There was a chunk of eight or nine runs, like 130 (yards) in there. And then after that, we were able to really, really reduce what that was per carry for the last two and a half quarters of the game. So I think that speaks to just how good our defensive staff is, those coaches. And I think it also speaks to our players choosing to respond in the moment and trusting the coaches in that moment.”
On his input into the defense: “I stay out of their way a little bit. On game day, those adjustments and those decisions that they’re making in real time, like the only thing that I would I am talking to them about is if I see anything that looks like we’re not in the right place. Like, hey, talk to me about what happened here, or whatever. But is so good at seeing it, and he’s been calling it on the field for so long, that he’s able to make real-time adjustments. And normally, before I even get to him, he’s like, hey, did you see so and so? Yeah, he’s supposed to be in the B gap, and he wasn’t there. That’s why that thing split. So I think the defensive staff does a great job of problem solving in game.”
On seniors Dalton Johnson and Treydan Stukes: “Those players are just everything that’s right about college football. They work their tails off, they get good grades, they do the right thing. They’re leaders on the football team. That part of it is really what we want a University of Arizona football player to be all about. I’ve told you guys before, when we started building this team at the end of last season, or right after last season, at the start of January, those were conversations that I had with them, with both those guys and others on this team. But it was how are we going to build this? And we said, we’re going to build it with tough guys that love football and want to be here at the U of A. And I can’t use the exact words that Dalton and Stukes said in that moment, but it was a little more, a little more enthusiastic than that.”
On Senior Day: “We have a lot of players that are going to be walking out there with their parents and kind of having that moment of their last game in Casino Del Sol Stadium. And I think it’s important that people support that and show up for that, because when I think about those guys that are walking out there, they’re either players that chose to stay when things were really hard here, or they’re players that chose to come when things really hard here. And that speaks to the quality University of Arizona, our athletics department, our coaching staff, and the people that are here on our football team.
“Tucson, University of Arizona, Zona Zoo, we need you this weekend. You guys had a big time impact on our win over Kansas at Homecoming. That was awesome. It was hard on them late in the game, and then you guys gave us incredible energy when we had our clock drive to win it at the end of the game. Zona Zoo, you guys set the tone for the energy of the football game.”
On Arizona’s depth showing up following recent injuries: “Gaizka Crowley and Fletcher Kelly and our recruiting staff, and then also the assistant coaches and their evaluations. I think people did a really good job of aggressively attacking that window of the portal last year, and also the high school kids that contribute, because we have a bunch of freshmen contributing this year in really, really meaningful ways. I think that evaluation process is so important and it’s unique because it happens really fast and the window is really tight, and so you have to make good decisions in a really short time frame. Normally, you recruit a high school kid, you recruited him for 18 months, 24 months, sometimes it’s a 3-year deal. But with the portal players, you know, sometimes that is a 48-hour window. Shorter than that, maybe 15-hour window. And so you’re trying to make sure that you’re making the best decision possible for the program. And I think those guys did a great job of that, and gave us a chance to have some more depth on this team. And I think it’s showing up, because we’re playing meaningful games in November, and new players are stepping up and doing great things in on game day.”
On kicker/holder Ian Wagner: “He has been such a great player. Because I think sometimes like that gets lost, that gets lost in the shuffle of whoever it is, of Noah or Dalton or whoever’s playing grea. His impact on the game is tremendous, because of the success he has kicking the ball off and hopefully eliminating potential for a return from our opponent, and then also how great he’s been as a holder. I think he’s absolutely one of those unsung heroes. But that is not lost on our football team. Everybody on our team knows how important Ian Wagner is, and we love him.”
On Noah Fifita’s school career passing TD record: “It’s really special whenever a player breaks a record like that, just because it speaks to his loyalty, because he’s chosen to stay. In order to do that, you have to play a lot of football in one place. And I talked about on Saturday after the game, and I talk about all the time, just how special Noah Fifita is as a human being, as a player, as a leader, and the loyalty part of him, it’s how he was raised. He’s got incredible parents. That part of it just makes him really, really special. And at the end of the day, though, he’s a grown man, or a young grown man, and he continues to make the right decisions about how he’s going to carry himself, and how he’s going to go about this process. And because he’s like that, I think that’s why you see him performing at a high level on game day. You know? That consistency of performance, and I think his relationship with Coach Doege has been really impactful. But I also think that unless Noah really leans into that and attacks that you don’t get that kind of consistency.”
On the 99-yard drive: “Obviously, that was a huge, huge moment that game. They down that thing on the one. Luke (Wysong), he’s got coverage on top of him. He’s thinking about backstopping it, but he doesn’t. We trust his decision right there. The result is what it is, but you trust the decision because he’s a smart player and (has a )super high care factor. Not making a hasty decision there, and not putting the ball at risk, or putting the possession at risk, because the possession is so important. When it started I think about the physicality of Ked, in that drive, Reescano. Just like oming off the goal line, the plays were chunks right there. It was really, really, really impactful, you know, and then obviously a big play by (Chris) Hunter right on the sideline, just incredible. To me, maybe that’s the story of this team is when we get stuff done, we get it done as a team. We get it done collectively, because so many people contributed on that drive to put points on the board.”
On the importance of having a good home atmosphere: “I think that’s so important for us, because in this conference, you play in so many venues that are really challenging to play in. The one we were in last Saturday, really, really challenging to play in, because of how people show up and how much they care. And you know that is here in the city of Tucson, and how it feels about the University of Arizona. And I think naturally it comes when we play better football people are more excited to come to the games. I understand that. What we’re trying to get our fan base into the headspace of, like, we need you there no matter what, because they have a direct impact on the outcome of the game. Otherwise, home field advantage would be nothing. No one would care. The NFL wouldn’t play for it. It wouldn’t matter. But home field advantage means something, because that crowd can have a direct impact on your opponent, and that’s what we want them to do this Saturday vs. Baylor.”
On his reaction to Michael Salgado-Medina’s second missed field goal: “That was the one that was blocked. And so I saw where it came from. And so I was trying to figure out why that happened. Now, that being said, that kid from Cincinnati made a hell of a football play. He cut the corner, extended. It was really well done, really well done.”
On his approach to Salgado-Medina: “I’m always positive with him, because I’m a really crappy golfer. I don’t really play either, but I suck. But I know that, when I’m playing and I’m playing poorly, if someone is telling me how poorly I’m playing, it’s hard to be better.It doesn’t really work that way. And I think all football players are confidence players, and so I’m going to choose to believe in that kid in that moment. I’m going to choose to believe in him. Now, what the outside world does? Whatever. I’m not worried about that. I’m worried about my relationship with Michael. So I’m going to choose to believe in him in that moment. And let’s be honest: the heat on that last kick, after you’ve missed one and had one blocked, and now you’re out there, you’re up three, there’s 1:40 to go, and you have to hit a 51-yarder on the road in that stadium, and that place was rocking, and he drills it. That’s what I’m excited about. I mean, that was, that was a big time kick. And he’s still a young player. He’s still a young player. I think the difference is, is when a field goal kicker misses a kick, it’s such a big result or such a negative result, that people have such a crazy reaction to it. Where if we drop a pass, or we miss a tackle or whatever, like, okay. But the hard part about the field goal kicker is that … you don’t get to go out there right away and play the next play. I was really proud of Michael, how he responded. We’ve talked all season about responding with this football team, and in that moment, he responded so big time. And up six from the minus-25 with 1:34 (left) is a lot different than up three from the (34) with 1:34 is a very, very different situations in terms of playing defense.”
On his top Fifita moments: “Instantly I went to the moment he told he was going to stay. That was two years ago, or maybe not quite two years ago, but I’d been on the job for 48 hours, and him and T-Mac shut the door to my office and said they were going to stay. Now, there’s been lots of other great moments and hard moments in there. I think that speaks more to the journey of being a major college quarterback. It’s not always easy. It’s not always, fun times out there, it’s hard. I mean, the demands on him, the pressure, the public scrutiny, all that stuff, and all that young man does is work his tail off, show up every single day, lead the team, get up in front of the media, take the bullets when it doesn’t go right. He is everything that’s right about it. But there’s been so many great moments with him, like in game, or even after the game, like we had a great moment in the locker room after the game Saturday at Cincinnati. It was chaos in there, and it’s a super tight locker room, just like a lot of big people in a really small space. But we had a big hug, and just like the joy of that moment was really, really special.”
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