Coordinators Explain Arizona’s Game Plan, Urgent Adjustments
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The Arizona Wildcats are fresh off the bye week and have made all the necessary adjustments to get back to winning and hopefully avoid another losing streak after dropping two consecutive games to No. 10 BYU and No. 24 Houston in heartbreaking single-possession losses.
In those two losses, the defense gave up 490 combined rushing yards and could not seem to contain the quarterback on power run plays. On the offensive side, Noah Fifita played phenomenally, but red zone difficulties and failing to convert on third down are what made the unit fall short.
Seth Doege and Danny Gonzales were well aware of what they needed to fix and attacked that for their respective squads to have the best chance at success, as much as possible. Here are five interesting quotes they said in their latest press conferences.
Doege on Noah Fifita's evolution through the season
"I think just get more comfortable the relationship that we have, to me is unmatched. I don't think that happens very often in college football, the quarterback-to-playcaller relationship. I do think he trusts me, but I think he's just starting to trust the scheme more and more and more and knowing that if he just follows his reads, his footwork, his progression, it's going to look like it did.
"I do think he's just progressed through the offense. He's starting to trust it. the receiver, the timing, everything. It's a process and it's a new scheme and as much as all of us, including myself, want it just to overnight happen, it just takes some time and I think he's starting to really feel it and play well."
Gonzales on Arizona stopping Colorado's quarterbacks
"I would put in quarterback power if I was uh Pat Shurmer. See if they can execute it and see if they can out-block us...See if Kaidon will hit it up in there. I think the challenge of which one is it going to be and then are we going to choose violence or are we not going to choose violence because they're they're bigger than Iowa State up front."
Doege on challenging Colorado's run defense
"These guys are extremely aggressive. They're athletic. They're long, they're fast, they're going to challenge you every play and they're always going to have a plus one somewhere."
"So, it's one of those things like, you can see it on paper and you can see there's cutups where it's like, let's go attack these guys on the ground, but also there's times where it's like, man, they'll choke you out, too, because they always got somebody around the ball."
"And so we got to be obviously strategic on how we attack it. I do think my philosophy of let's go do what we do well and you go into a game with a plan and as you go to attack that plan, what are you getting? And then you adjust off of that and try to go try to score as many points as you can."
Gonzales on how safeties and line backers play the run
"The best success we have is when the running backs are cutting in the backfield because of the different things we're doing up front. We want it to appear like they've got that window. And then all of a sudden that window's gone because a D lineman's coming down that window because a linebacker stunting through that window.
Or at times a safety is stunting through that window and then the bear shows up. He is going to be, you said, five (yards). Most of the time he's at seven. And if they read it right with the direction of it, we expect those guys to make tackles for one or two-yard gains."
Doege on the importance of getting healthy during the bye week
"Up until this point, we've played extremely hard. And I think you've heard you've heard all the coaches and anybody that's gotten up in front say, 'Our kids play extremely hard.' And they have. And that's that's that's not PR. That's the truth."
"If you go watch the tape, there's a lot of things you can say, but one thing you can't say is these kids don't play freaking hard. They play really hard. So, I think this was aright time for our guys to uh to go through a a bye."
"Now, we went through the bye-week and we attacked it, but we also took care of them and cut down a little bit on practice and how many times we were banging, but now we're going to ramp it back up."
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Nathaniel Martinez and a set of shoulder pads at 7 years old. He later graduated from Pima Community College in 2023, where he began writing for the Pima Post. He is working to achieve a Bachelor’s in Mass Communication and Media Studies.