Arizona left West Virginia with a 52-31 win on Saturday afternoon, and Wildcats coach Brent Brennan spent plenty of time after the game praising both the opponent and his own team’s response when the moment got tight.
“I got a lot of respect for West Virginia. That coaching staff, that team...
Those guys fought their tails off against us all afternoon. That quarterback is a total stud, and we knew that coming in, and he gave us problems all day.
But I thought when we had to, our defense answered. Five fourth down stops and two turnovers.”
Brennan pointed to a handful of defensive swings that helped Arizona tilt the game, including a massive stop at the goal line after West Virginia coughed up the ball.
“It was such a huge play. I thought our defensive line just totally dug out the offensive line of West Virginia and re-established, and we were able to come in there and rip that thing. And what a huge play in that moment in the game.”
He also highlighted how Arizona handled West Virginia’s pressure looks, especially in a key third-quarter sequence when the Wildcats hit Isaiah Mizell on a slant against zero pressure and turned it into a big play.
“They brought a zero pressure in the third quarter there, and we hit Isaiah [Mizell] on a slant and it split and he was gone. They're bringing more than you can block, your quarterback has to find a throwing lane to get the ball through, and Isaiah has to catch and finish it.”
Mizell was a major problem for the Mountaineer defense all day, and Brennan said West Virginia never really found a clean answer for him.
“They had no answer for him. And there were at least three pass interference plays against him, and those are explosive plays in my book as well.”
Looking ahead to how Arizona planned for the matchup, Brennan said the Wildcats knew West Virginia could be difficult to sort out because of how many different things it shows on defense. Arizona believed the speed on the outside could matter, but the bigger task was figuring out how to deal with pressure and win matchups at receiver.
“We thought that they'd have a hard time with the speed of Mizell and Jet, but the truth is that a lot of people have problems with that. The challenging thing coming in was how multiple they've been.
Could we find a run game and take advantage of pressure situations where you have to beat man coverage? They're bringing more than you can block, so you have to win at the receiver position outside.
And we played complementary football and that's how we got the dub.”
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For a team still trying to keep its season on track, those projection changes matter because FPI is now being used as part of the conversation about six wins and possible College Football Playoff paths. West Virginias decline does not end the season by any means, but it does make the margin for error thinner, and the rest of the schedule carries a little more weight after each week the rankings are updated. [Read more 🡒]