Grading Arizona football’s performance in win at West Virginia

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The RichRod Bowl felt like a true Rich Rodriguez type of game, and fortunately for Brent Brennan’s squad it caught a case of the explosive offensive plays. Arizona handled West Virginia 52-31 to head into its bye week on a four game winning streak.

The Wildcats (5-1, 2-1 Big 12), are off to their best start since Rodriguez was the head man in Tucson in 2014. Here are the grades for the offense, defense, special teams, and coaching from the win over the Mountaineers:

Offense: A

For the second consecutive week, Arizona was able to drive the length of the field and score on the opening drive. Noah Fifita connected with Brandon Phelps for 24 yards, then connected twice with Isaiah Mizell for 17 yards and then 14 yards which ended in the end zone.

Working inside its own ten, the Wildcats’ offense was bailed out by a pass interference penalty that looked to get Arizona back on track. Then a Fifita deep shot was tipped in the air and picked off by the Mountaineers.

Following the interception, the Wildcats were able to march into field goal range and points onto the board. A three and out was the result of the next drive as West Virginia’s defense forced the first punt of the game.

The next drive featured two explosive plays to take the lead back. Fifita went to his go-to guy in Mizell for 23 yards and two plays later Quincy Craig took his first carry of the game to the house for his first touchdown of the season from 40 yards out.

Coming out of the locker room, Arizona got the ball to start the second half and wasted no time. Fifita found Mizell again for 48 yards and Kedrick Reescano finished it off with an eight yard touchdown run.

The Mizell legacy game continued when he exploded for a 72 yard catch and run touchdown to put the Wildcats back up by 14. The explosive offense did not stop, Fifita connected with Shane King for 33 yards then a play later connected with Phelps for a 42 yard trick-play touchdown.

On another two play drive, Antwan Roberts Jr. ran for 22 yards and then broke the game open for Arizona with a 30 yard touchdown run. After breaking the 50 point threshold, the Wildcats’ offense finally cooled down but the game was in Arizona’s hands at that point.

Fifita finished 16-23 with 341 passing yards for three touchdowns. It was an all-around performance for the running back rooms but it was Roberts Jr. who led the day with 63 rushing yards on seven carries for one touchdown.

This game will always be remembered for Mizell’s breakout performance as he finished with six catches for 183 yards and two touchdowns. As a whole, Arizona finished with 487 total yards with 341 through the air and 146 on the ground.

Defense: B

The West Virginia offense was able to move with ease on the first drive but in typical Danny Gonzales fashion, his defense was able to bend and not break. Arizona forced a field goal attempt, Malcolm Hartzog Jr. and Kevin Moorer Jr. both had tackles for loss on the drive.

On the second play of the second drive, West Virginia dropped an option play and Lee Molette III was able to scoop the ball up and score for the Wildcats second score of the game. 

Once again, the Mountaineers drove down inside the ten but Quinn Olson had back to back nice plays to force a fourth down stop. However, after the offense threw an interception, the defense was forced to make a stop from three yards out and surrendered their first points to West Virginia.

Arizona’s penalty issues showed up on the following and West Virginia took advantage of it with a 30 yard touchdown to tie the game at 17. The Wildcats got their first three and out of the day with tackles for loss from Tre Smith and Chase Kennedy.

Right when West Virginia was about to score before halftime, Jay’Vion Cole forced a fumble at the two yard line and Taye Brown recovered to keep the Mountaineers out of the end zone.

Helped out by a holding penalty, the Arizona defense got its third turnover of the game on an “arm-punt” where Brown took it out of the air for the interception. However, after review it was overturned but Arizona still got the turnover on downs.

The next drive was not as successful, West Virginia drove 92 yards to bring the game back to a one score lead. Same story on the following drive, the Mountaineers moved with ease and got another score to keep themselves in reach.

Arizona finally got a three and out thanks to a Julian Savaiinaea sack, and then got another turnover on downs to destroy any West Virginia hope. Three more turnover on downs sealed the day for the Wildcats defense which struggled at points but got the job done.

The Wildcats’ defense gave up 522 total yards with 219 coming through the air and 303 on the ground. Where it made up ground was the two forced fumbles and recoveries (one for a touchdown), ten tackles for loss, and one sack that it had.

Special teams: B-

On his first attempt of the game, Michael Salgado-Medina hit a no-doubter from 44 yards out to give Arizona a seven point lead early in the second quarter. His second attempt from 49 yards was no good but the game was well in hand at that point.

The only other significant contributions from the special teams unit came from Chase Ridley and Caleb “Jet” Smith. Ridley had three punts that averaged 36.5 yards and Smith had a 15 yard punt return.

Ian French also had a kick that went out of bounds to start the game but almost every other kick went through the back of the end zone.

Coaching: A-

Seth Doege might have called his best game since coming to Tucson against West Virginia. It never felt like Arizona was not in control on offense. With Arizona’s starting wide receivers out, the Wildcats that came in did not flinch.

Mizell and Phelps stepped up when their opportunities were presented to them. It’s even better that Fifita showed total and complete trust in them. The added bonus was the running back room getting the job done by committee.

Reescano ran tough and got Arizona ahead of the chains. Craig and Roberts Jr. brought explosiveness and in turn it all ended up being too much for the Mountaineers to handle.

Now the defense will have stuff to clean up during the bye week. A lot of missed tackles and the secondary will need to work on its man coverage defense. However, if it can continue to tackle behind the line of scrimmage and create turnovers then it will be fine.

When Arizona lost to BYU, both this season and last season, the talk was that the Cougars never flinched, never panicked, and never waivered. It seems like the Wildcats have adopted that same mindset and attitude.

Whether they get down early, or struggle on either side of the ball, they have full confidence that they can put themselves in a position to win every game. A lot of credit needs to be given to Brennan, Gonzales, Doege, and the coaching staff as a whole. This is an Arizona team that is as confident as any Arizona team has ever been.

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