Beatdown in Boulder: Arizona Wildcats end 5-game road skid after thrashing Colorado
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BOULDER, Colorado — A lot can change in a year.
Last season, Colorado spoiled Arizona’s homecoming with a 27-point beatdown in Tucson. A year later, the Wildcats returned the favor with a 52-17 thumping at Folsom Field for the largest margin of victory in Big 12 play.
Arizona’s triumph puts the Wildcats at five wins, besting the season total from last season. Arizona also matched last season’s win total in Big 12 play. The Wildcats are one win away from becoming bowl eligible under second-year head coach Brent Brennan.
The Wildcats snapped their five-game losing skid on the road dating back to last season. Arizona has won two straight contests against CU in Boulder.
Colorado (3-6) has lost four of its last five games and is one loss away from failing to make the postseason for the second time under third-year head coach Deion Sanders.
Before Saturday, Arizona hadn’t scored more than 30 points on the road under Brennan. Saturday marked the most points scored by Arizona in a Big 12 game. The last time Arizona scored over 30 points in a non-bowl road game was the 2023 Territorial Cup.
Turning point
Arizona jumped out to a lead in the first quarter, which was kick-started by wide receiver Tre Spivey’s 57-yard touchdown. Spivey caught a bubble screen and had wide receivers Javin Whatley and Kris Hutson as perimeter blockers and then broke five tackles for a touchdown.
Spivey has seven touchdowns on 12 offensive touches this season. Arizona kicker Michael Salgado-Medina kicked a 49-yard field goal in the first quarter. Salgado-Medina made five straight field goals dating back to the Oklahoma State game, before he missed a 30-yarder in the third quarter.
The Wildcats caught momentum after Arizona linebacker Chase Kennedy sacked Colorado quarterback Kaidon Salter for a strip-sack that was recovered by defensive tackle Leroy Palu, who started over Tiaoalii Savea.
Arizona quarterback Noah Fifita threw an over-the-shoulder 12-yard touchdown to Hutson to take a 17-0 lead.
Colorado answered with a 17-play scoring drive that was punctuated by Buffs receiver Omarion Miller high-pointing a touchdown pass over cornerback Jay’Vion Cole, who intercepted backup quarterback Ryan Staub to begin the second half.
After Colorado’s scoring drive, the Buffaloes punted twice and threw two interceptions. Arizona scored 21 unanswered points to take a 38-7 lead at halftime.
The Buffaloes had plenty of opportunities to strike back, but penalties plagued Colorado, especially in the first half. An ineligible receiver penalty nixed a 75-yard touchdown pass from Salter to wide receiver Sincere Brown in the second quarter; Colorado also had an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for “brandishing a weapon.”
Fifita threw what would’ve been his fifth interception of the season — first since the double-overtime loss to BYU — but a roughing-the-passer penalty on CU defensive end Arden Walker gave the Wildcats another life, but Arizona ended up punting. Colorado had 10 penalties for 70 yards on Saturday.
Offensive MVP
After the most efficient performance of Fifita’s career, he completed 11 of 19 passes for 213 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions.
All of Fifita’s touchdown passes were in the first half — and they were all to different receivers: Spivey, Hutson, Javin Whatley and Gio Richardson, who scored his first-career touchdown.
Fifita found Richardson in stride over the middle and the Chandler native raced for a 60-yard touchdown. Even though Richardson dislocated his finger in the first half, he caught another potential touchdown, but it was nullified from a holding penalty committed by backup left tackle Michael Wooten.
Nine different receivers have caught touchdown passes this season, which is two more than Arizona had all of last season.
Fifita now has 65 career touchdowns. He’s three touchdowns away from passing Nick Foles and Willie Tuitama for the most career touchdowns by an Arizona quarterback.
Defensive MVP
Cole had one of his top performances as a Wildcat and finished with five tackles, a stop for loss, an interception and a forced fumble.
Cole was one of three Wildcats to record an interception on Saturday — the first since the Oklahoma State game last month. The Wildcats committed their first of two turnovers after Cole’s interception, when Hutson fumbled on the CU 35-yard line. Freshman running back Cornelius Warren III lost a fumble in the fourth quarter.
Arizona safety Dalton Johnson recorded his second interception of the season in the first half and returned it to the CU 8-yard line. Arizona cornerback Ayden Garnes intercepted Staub and was tackled at the Colorado 17-yard line.
Arizona running back Ismail Mahdi scored a 7-yard touchdown to give Arizona a 45-7 lead in the third quarter. The Wildcats scored 21 points off turnovers.
With just under four minutes left in the third quarter, Cole forced Brown to fumble, which was scooped up by free safety Genesis Smith and returned 44 yards to the Colorado 4-yard line.
Arizona had seven drives start inside Colorado territory, with four of them starting inside the red zone.
Unsung hero
Whatley’s only reception on Saturday resulted in a 34-yard touchdown. Fifita stepped up in the pocket near midfield and fired a missile over the middle to Whatley, who was able to keep one foot inbounds for the Wildcats’ final touchdown of the first half.
Arizona had 38 points in 31 plays — an average of 1.2 points per play.
Whatley also had a 13-yard jet-sweep touchdown. The veteran receiver has five all-purpose touchdowns this season.
Injury report
Arizona only had two players out on its availability report this week: left guard Jordan Brown and cornerback Marquis Groves-Killebrew, who has played 148 snaps in six games.
What’s next
Arizona (5-4) now turns its attention to the Kansas Jayhawks (5-4) for homecoming on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. on ESPN2.
It will be Arizona’s seventh straight game with a kickoff time at 6 p.m. or earlier.
Arizona’s contest with Kansas will mark the seventh all-time matchup between the Wildcats and Jayhawks — the first since the UA joined the Big 12 last year.
The Wildcats last faced Kansas in Tucson in 1966. In the first matchup in 1936, the Wildcats and Jayhawks tied, 10-10. Arizona is 2-3-1 in the all-time series against KU.
For now, YouTube TV users will be unable to watch the game on Saturday after Disney failed to reach a renewal agreement with YouTube TV this week. Disney pulled all of its ESPN and ABC inventory from the platform, including recordings from previous events and games.
The winner of Arizona-Kansas will officially become bowl eligible.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona Wildcats end 5-game road skid after thrashing Colorado
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